Homemade pizza is a regular on the menu in our house. The children like to get involved in making it, especially kneading the dough and putting on the toppings. As you can imagine, it can turn into quite a messy affair!
This recipe for slow roast tomato and oregano pizza is a firm family favourite and the perfect way to put to good use all those gorgeous tomatoes and herbs coming into plentiful supply this time of year.
You do need to plan ahead a little with this one. The tomatoes are slow roasted in a low oven for four to five hours, giving them an incredibly intense, sweetly caramelised flavour and a gorgeously sticky, slightly chewy texture.
Trust me, it’s worth the effort. They taste sublime and are fantastic on pizza, as well as in salads, quiches or served with olives and cold meats as part of an antipasto.
Slow roasted tomato and oregano pizza
Makes four pizzas
For the slow roasted tomatoes:
8 cherry tomatoes
6 medium tomatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp sugar
salt and pepper
For the dough:
400g strong white bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 x 7g sachet fast action dried yeast
2 tbsp chopped fresh oregano
250ml luke warm water
1 tbsp olive oil
For the topping:
Passata, about half a jar
Mozzarella, 2 x 250g balls
Two handfuls fresh oregano, leaves picked
Firstly, prepare the tomatoes – I suggest the night before.
Preheat the oven to 140°C /Gas Mark 1 or use the bottom oven of an Aga.
Cut the tomatoes in half and place on a baking sheet. Drizzle over the olive oil, and sprinkle on the oregano and sugar, and season to taste. Place in the oven and roast for four to five hours, until the tomatoes are shrivelled but still sweet and juicy.
To make the pizza dough, put the flour, salt, dried yeast and oregano into a large mixing bowl and mix well.
Make a well in the middle and pour in the lukewarm water and oil. Gradually work the flour into the liquid, making a soft dough. If it’s too dry, add a drop more water. If it’s too sticky, add a little more flour.
Flour your surface before tipping the dough onto it. Knead the dough by stretching it away from you, then pulling back into a ball. Do this for five minutes or so, until the dough is smooth and elastic.
Return the dough to the mixing bowl, cover loosely with cling film and put in a warm place for about an hour, until the dough has doubled in size.
Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas Mark 6 or use the middle of the top oven of an Aga.
Uncover the risen dough and punch it back down. Flour the surface again and divide the dough into four balls. Stretch or roll out each ball until you have a thin circle about 22cm across. Place the pizzas onto slightly oiled baking sheets.
Pour a couple of tablespoons of passata onto each pizza, smoothing out with the back of the spoon. Next add the roast tomatoes and oregano leaves and finish with torn pieces of mozzarella.
Bake your pizzas for 15-20 minutes and leave to cool for a couple of minutes before devouring.
I’m entering this tasty pizza into the June Herbs on Saturday blog challenge over at Lavender & Lovage. Karen always receives heaps of delicious looking recipes for her blog challenges, so make sure you go and take a look at the other entries!
I’m also adding it to the One Ingredient blogging challenge, as the ingredient in question is the tomato. The challenge is run by Laura at howtocookgoodfood and Nazima at Londonworking mummy.
Bangers & Mash 
A STUNNING looking and sounding pizza thanks……and I LOVE tomatoes cooked this way, they become so sweet and full of tomato flavour! GREAT photos too…..the whole post is just so inspirational do those who love herbs, as well as good home-made pizza! Thanks for entering it into the Herbs on Saturday challenge. Karen
Thanks so much Karen. I used to work for Jekka McVicar many moons ago, writing her press releases. And so the oregano in our garden actually originated from her farm. My love of herbs was definitely ignited by Jekka…
This looks so delicious I could reach right into the computer screen and grab a piece! What a lovely twist on pizza. And I adore the use of oregano instead of basil. I think oregano is underappreciated. Great recipe Vanesther!
Thanks Karista! Oregano is one of my favourite herbs, partly because I have so much of it and end up using it quite a bit. And I’m lazy too – the leaves are nice and small so I don’t even need to chop them!
Great looking pizza, Vanesther. Nice and rustic – just how pizza should look. I adore oregano too 😀 We need to grow it!
Thank you Mr Frugal! You must grow oregano – it’s so easy. I’m not a naturally green-fingered type and it’s growing in abundance in our herb garden. So if I can grow it, anyone can!
Haha – we shall!
Delicious looking pizzas! I love oregano – I must look into growing it.
Thanks Nicki! You really must – it’s ever so easy to grow and has the most beautiful flowers too which I like to use in salads.
I’ll definitely look into it, thanks 🙂
Delicious! Ours is going to take even longer – we’re growing tumbling tom tomatoes and oregano in hanging baskets for exactly this reason! Yours looks very tasty indeed
I love the sound of your hanging baskets – I might try that next year. Although I’ve never had much luck growing tomatoes…
This post had me licking the computer screen! Looks sooooo delish and will definitely be making! The tomatoes look amazing and I too grow and love oregano. Funnily enough I’m also in the middle of blogging an oregano recipe… you beat me to it!
Thank you! The tomatoes are so easy and so incredibly easy. I imagine you end up with quite a glut of them in France, so perfect for you! And you can never have enough oregano recipes I reckon, so look forward to yours…
Oh my. This looks seriously good. We often make pizza at home but this beats mine hands down!
I don’t believe that for one minute! 😉
I love the sound of this…I’m going to make it when frineds come over next week!
Fantastic! Do come back and let me know what you think of it.
Oh My Goodness!! I’m about as close to a pizza-holic as they come but your photo’s sent tingles through my taste buds. I had to google Strong White Flour (fresh ground wheat flour is what I’m guessing) and Passata (tomato paste/heavy puree?) Am I close? Fresh Oregano is a little harder to come by but can be found for a price but if it’s out my range I will just have to substitute with dried. I am saving and trying this one soon. Shoot, I may even bump my menu for tomorrow and try it tomorrow. I have to run an errand tomorrow anyway and may swing by the produce market to see if they have fresh oregano. This looks like mouthwatering deliciousness that just can’t be put off another day!
You are too lovely – thanks for your kind words! Strong white flour is what I use for making white bread (what do you call bread flour in the US?) and passata is Italian crushed tomatoes – so a little more liquid than a paste or puree. Can you find fresh marjoram where you are? It’s the same family as oregano and, as I understand, it the names are often interchangable. I find it fascinating that we call the same things by different names – I must try and remember more that people from all over the world read food blogs. I had the same problem with a courgette recipe not so long ago – zucchini!
I am a massive pizza fan and it is also one of my favourite activities for the children to make their own pizza. It goes down well when we have friends over. They like to create their own pizzas and come up with some very interesting combinations. I have lots of varieties of oregano in my garden and like to use it regularly. It’s a fantastic herb that does work so well with tomatoes.
Your pizza looks so good and really authentic!
Thanks so much for entering into One Ingredient xxx
oooh this looks lovely. We love making pizza too. I do like the idea of slow roast tomato first though. yum!
Thank you! The slow roast tomatoes are sooo good and lovely to eat on their own too.