My ancient Panasonic bread machine makes a lovely "ciabatta loaf." All it takes is 500g organic strong white flour, a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of sugar, 3tbp extra virgin olive oil, a teaspoon of yeast and 350 ml water. Yeah, it feels like a loaf and looks like a loaf, but it tastes like ciabatta (and lets face it, have you ever bought even a half-decent shop ciabatta? All crust and big holes just where you don't want 'em...)

I've yet to make my own pizza dough. I'm not a lot of use with a rolling pin and I feel strangely inferior when I see those Italian chaps making a pizza base by swirling a piece of ever-thinning dough round their heads. One day, one day...