Pizza

Based on what I’ve learned from making pizza. Your result may vary. Mine do.

Pizza dough #04 (Standard)

Ingredients:
500 g Type ’00’ flour
2 teaspoons salt
325 ml warm water
7 g (1 sachet) dry yeast
1 tablespoons caster sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil

Method:
1. Mix yeast, sugar and oil in to warm water. Let it rest for 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, mix salt into flour and form a crater in the middle for the water mixture.
3. Pour water into the crater and start mixing from the middle until all the flour is pulled in and mixed into a dough.
4. Once thoroughly mixed, start kneading on a clean work surface. Knead for about 10-15 minutes until it’s velvety smooth and very stretchy.
5. Place in a bowl under a cloth in a warm place and let it rise for at least an hour or until doubled in size.
6. Knead until all the air is pushed out and let it rise once again.
7. When you’re ready to make your pizzas, knead the dough so it doesn’t contain any air and smooth.

I roll my pizzas to be very very thin, about a millimeter or so. This recipe is usually enough for 6 pizzas. Depending on your toppings, you’ll only need 5-6 minutes in the oven. Use your oven at the hottest setting which is normally around 275-300ºC.

Sauce

Ingredients:
1-2 onions, depending on size
2 tins (800 g) of good quality chopped tomatoes
clove of garlic
1/2 teaspoon of dry, crushed chili
1 tablespoon of caster sugar
salt
pepper
basil
oil for frying

(I’m using tinned tomatoes because the fresh ones in British supermarkets are of poor quality, watery and tasteless, most of the time. And expensive.)

Method:
1. Chop and fry the onion with garlic for about ten minutes or until golden brown.
2. Mix in the the tomatoes and basil. Let it simmer for 10-20 minutes or until water doesn’t form on the surface.
3. Blend until smooth.
4. Bring back to simmer and season to taste with salt, pepper, sugar and crushed chili. Start with just a little chili and add more slowly until a good level of spiciness is achieved.

This recipe is well enough for at least 6 pizzas.

Labs

A.k.a, recipes that aren’t yet ready for the limelight but are nice enough to share.

Pizza Dough #05 (with rye)

Use the above dough recipe but replace half of the flour with rye flour. This is a little trickier to knead and it wont rise as much as rye contains less gluten. The result is a nice darker flavour for your pizza. Well worth a go.