Frying pan pizza becomes the latest lockdown foodie trend to take over Instagram

How to make pizza in your frying pan: Waitrose Cooking School shares its simple recipe as home chefs post their mouth-watering attempts on social media

  • Latest Instagram foodie trend involves bakers using frying pans to make pizzas 
  • Restaurants including Pizza Pilgrims are selling kits to make the meal at home 
  • Waitrose has seen online searches for pizza ingredients rise 500% since last year
  • Waitrose Cooking School shared its recipe for you to try at home 

Since British people went into lockdown and cafes and restaurants closed their doors in March, people have been taking to Instagram to show off their burgeoning culinary skills.

Supermarket shelves were suddenly stripped of flour and eggs as cooks showed off their homemade banana breads. 

Since then bakers have gone on to try their hands at sourdough starters, pancake cereal and cookie fries – but the latest creation going viral is frying pan pizza.

Foodies have been busy sharing delicious-looking snaps of the Italian-inspired dish, which is put together by frying dough in a dry pan before adding passata sauce, basil, mozzarella and toppings and grilling it on a high heat for a few minutes to melt the cheese.  

UK-based Instagrammmer Kelly, of My Vegan Kitchen, shared a plant-based version of the dish – a twist with delicious-looking results

London food blogger CLERKENWELLBOY also shared a photo of his homemade attempt at the Pizza Pilgrims dish

London food blogger CLERKENWELLBOY also shared a photo of his homemade attempt at the Pizza Pilgrims dish

One Instagram user shared their dish after using London chain Pizza Pilgrims' 'Pizza in the Post' kits which re-imagines its pizza recipes using the frying pan and grill method at home

One Instagram user shared their dish after using London chain Pizza Pilgrims’ ‘Pizza in the Post’ kits which re-imagines its pizza recipes using the frying pan and grill method at home 

Pan-tastic! Waitrose Cooking School’s frying pan Margarita pizza

Recipe from Waitrose Cooking School. Serves 2-4 (2 x 30cm pizzas) | prep time: 20 minutes + proving | cook time: 15 minutes

INGREDIENTS  

For the dough 

  • 7g dried active yeast
  • ½ tbsp caster sugar
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 500g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
  • ½ tbsp fine sea salt

For the pizza

  • 1 x batch tomato sauce
  • ½ x 250g pack grated mozzarella
  • 150g pack essential Waitrose Italian mozzarella cherries, halved
  • ¼ x 25g pack basil, leaves only
  • ½ tbsp olive oil

 METHOD

  1. To make the dough, mix the yeast, sugar, and olive oil with 325ml of warm water and leave to stand for 2-3 minutes until the yeast is totally dissolved.
  2. Combine the flour and salt in a medium-sized bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour the yeast mixture into the well and mix to bring together.
  3. Tip the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for 8-10 minutes until you have a smooth elastic dough. Place in a large flour-dusted bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and leave in a warm place for 45-60 minutes until the dough has doubled in size.
  4. Preheat the oven to 250℃ fan and place a flat oven tray or pizza stone on the middle shelf.
  5. Place a non-stick pan on a high heat.
  6. Divide the dough into 3 and shape into a small ball. Dust the surface of the dough generously with semolina and press the dough, flattening using your hand until you have a round even shape.
  7. Pick the dough up and stretch it out, rotating as you go to maintain a round shape. Place the dough on the surface so it catches the semolina on the bottom then carefully place into the hot frying pan.
  8. Spread 3-4 tbsp of the tomato sauce evenly over the base. Sprinkle over the grated mozzarella, mozzarella balls and half of the basil leaves, then drizzle with the oil.
  9. Place in the oven and cook for 12-15 minutes until the base is golden and crisp and the toppings are melted. Scatter the remaining basil on top and serve.

Chef’s tip

Use this recipe as a base for creating your own pizza – try adding olives, anchovies, capers, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, cooked ham, spicy salami, gorgonzola, ricotta or any of your favourite toppings. Parma ham and rocket is delicious scattered over the pizza after it’s cooked.

Speaking to Femail, Waitrose revealed its online searches for the term ‘pizza dough’ are up 332 per cent year on year at Waitrose.com, with the term ‘pizza sauce’ also up by 531 per cent. 

Customer demand for bread flour is high, with sales up by 145 per cent compared to this time last year, and yeast sales also rising by 190 per cent. 

Chef’s tips for frying pan pizza 

  • A cast iron or non-stick oven-proof pan is best. If you don’t have one of these, start your pizza in your frying pan and move to a pre-heated baking sheet to finish cooking under the grill.
  • Get your pan really hot, then put the rolled out pizza dough into the pan to start cooking and assemble the toppings in the pan.
  • When the bottom of your pizza is crispy, transfer to the grill for 8-10 minutes to melt the cheese to the perfect stringy, crispy consistency.

According to Kendall Zaluski, chef tutor at the Waitrose Cookery School in Finchley Road, London, a frying pan is a great tool to make the perfect pizza.

She told FEMAIL: ‘I actually think that the best way to get a top notch pizza at home is in a frying pan – you get that initial heat to the bottom of the pizza, which gives a crispy base and better rise throughout the dough.

‘Pizza is such a fun, family-friendly dinner to make and the topping possibilities and pizza shapes are endless, so it’s not surprising that it has become a lockdown staple.’

London food chain Pizza Pilgrims has also got in on the action. It’s selling ‘Pizza in the Post’ kits, enabling you to recreate its pizza recipes using the frying pan and grill method at home. 

Pizza Pilgrims told FEMAIL that the frying pan recipe is great as most domestic ovens only reach levels up to 250C, while pizza is usually cooked in restaurants at 450C to 500C. 

A frying pan pizza by Suffolk Instagram foodie account FitFatFunFood

 A frying pan pizza by Suffolk Instagram foodie account FitFatFunFood

Food blogger withoutatable also shared a photo of their tasty-looking attempt at the dish

Food blogger withoutatable also shared a photo of their tasty-looking attempt at the dish

Suzey Walker revealed she'd attempted the frying pan pizza at home, after ordering a kit from Pizza Pilgrims

Suzey Walker revealed she’d attempted the frying pan pizza at home, after ordering a kit from Pizza Pilgrims

That's Amore Pizza, a restaurant in Kent, also sold frying pan pizza kits in the local area

That’s Amore Pizza, a restaurant in Kent, also sold frying pan pizza kits in the local area