No one loves local food quite as much as us, so we thought it’s about time we had our own special dinners. Named after our esteemed leisure section, we bring you the very first Vibe pizza and you can buy it or make it at home now.

Now, we don’t expect you to follow the advice of a bunch of hacks so we sought out some top pizza chefs to create our Vibe pizza. This led us to Pizza 1889 in Orpington.

Virtually hidden away in a chic, converted shipping container at Nugent Shopping Park, it was recently voted one of the top 20 pizzerias in the UK.

We asked their team, led by manager Alex Gega, to craft our bespoke food, which is available on the menu for a limited time only until the middle of December for £9 in grande size.

Pizza 1889 is names after the year Princess Margherita visited Naples and the margherita pizza was born, so fittingly that is the base of our creation. To top it off, we have traditional, Italian-sourced ingredients that are all available at the supermarket – grilled artichoke and Napoli Salami or roasted red pepper for veggies.

Buon appetito!

 

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RECIPE:

 

Ingredients:

 

For the base: 350g strong bread flour, 1tsp yeast, 1tsp salt, 1tsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling.

For the sauce: half a can of plum tomatoes, 1tsp dried oregano, a crushed garlic clove, salt, 1 tsp brown sugar.

Toppings: large ball of buffalo mozzarella sliced, chargrilled artichoke, 6 or 7 slices of Napoli Salami, Roasted red pepper.

To finish: handful of rocket leaves, a sprinkling of shaved parmesan

 

Method:

Preheat the oven to 240C. Place two baking trays in to warm.

For the base:

In a large bowl, stir together flour, yeast and salt. Make a hole in the centre and pour in 200ml warm water and olive oil and bring together using hands until you have a soft, fairly wet dough. Flour a worktop or flat surface and knead by pulling and stretching the mixture for 5 minutes until smooth.

Cover in a bowl with a tea towel and leave to stand.

For the sauce:

Blend the tomatoes, mix with garlic and oregano and add a pinch of salt and brown sugar to taste.

Wimbledon Times:

Making the pizza base

Roll the dough, giving it a little knead if it has risen slightly, then separate into two and roll into balls.

On a floured surface, roll out to around 25cm diameter or, if you’re feeling adventurous, go for the traditional method by opening the base in a circular motion using the palms of your hands (just like Alex is in the picture above – just bear in mind he’s made more than a quarter of a million pizzas in his time so he’s fairly practiced).

Put the bases onto greaseproof paper and set aside.

Topping

Spoon the tomato sauce over the base using the back of a spoon. Leave an inch base uncovered around the edge.   Add the topping by placing the sliced mozzarella evenly onto the base. Place the artichokes and Salami on top. (Vegetarians replace salami with the roasted red pepper)

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Cooking the pizza

Remove the two heated baking trays from the oven. Lift the pizzas on the parchment paper onto the baking tray and bake for around 10 minutes until crisp, swapping shelves half way through.

Finish by sprinkling with fresh Rocket and shaved parmesan. Drizzle with a little extra olive oil to serve.