I love pizza. I believe it is a staple for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It can be served as a snack, cold or hot. If it is one day old, sometimes it is even better straight from the refrigerator. Therefore, I imagine that the community of pizza lovers is enormous. That could be my naivety about worldly things, or, I could be right.
Pizza is generally believed and agreed to have originated in Naples. Not Florida, but Italy. Maybe there are older versions that go back in time, but I am talking about modern day pizza. I admit, I am a bit of a snob about my pizza too. I want it baked a certain way, and with a particular crust. Ok, that isn’t true, I will eat pizza out of a cardboard box. If you ask my kids to tell you the pizza story, they will regale you with a true tale that goes something like this. In the early 1990’s their mother and I got some frozen pizzas from the market. They were thick which made me excited. I didn’t care at all that they were frozen, just that the cost was super low and they said “pizza” on the outside of the plastic wrap that surrounded them, trying its best to keep them from frostbite. I baked my pizza in my parent’s oven and started eating it. I finished about half of the pizza when I started to feel sick. I then took a much closer look and realized, the pizzas were not thick, it was actually two pizzas separated by a piece of cardboard. Yes, that is correct, I was eating cardboard, literally. It is a lot funnier now than it was then.
Today, where I live there is a small pizza place that makes Napoli style pizza. They even imported the bricks from Naples to build their wood oven for baking the pizza. That is hard core if you ask me. Without a question it is the best pizza on the island. What makes this pizza so great is that nicely fermented crust that bubbles up around the outside, the simple construction in the middle topped as I wish, usually with mushrooms, onions, a vegan cheese, and basil, and that smokey rich taste that comes from the wood burning pizza oven.
When I make pizza, I am fortunate enough to have access to doppio zero (00) flour which is traditionally used for classic Napoli pizza and pizza in general. I will start out with 500g of this flour. To that I will add 10 grams of salt, 3.5 grams of instant dry yeast or 7 grams of fresh yeast, one teaspoon of sugar to feed the yeast, and 355g of water. I know it seems like a high hydration but it works out nicely. If you are using a different flour, it could be possible you need to add a bit more flour. Doppio zero is excellent about taking advantage of all water it can get. If it makes you nervous to use so much water then cut it back to 325g, no one will call the pizza police.
500g 00 or bread flour
355g water
10g salt
7g fresh yeast or 3.5g active dry yeast
tsp sugar
Mixing the pizza dough, I do a little bit differently than I do other bread-based doughs. The pizza dough demands a different level of respect to produce the best results. Mix everything in the bowl with a dough scraper until everything is fully incorporated. No bits and bobs laying around for sure. Then, let the dough rest for about ten minutes. This is going to give the gluten time to become acquainted with you working it to make that beautiful perfect dough ball for pizza. After the time passes, dust your work surface plentifully and turn your dough out and start working it, that is to say, kneading the dough. Do not introduce more flour if necessary, please, but work the dough like you would any other bread dough and continue until you start to see a nice ball will form and it is not sticky to the touch.
Now that you have your dough, lets put it into the refrigerator overnight. It needs time to relax and develop flavor. If you are impatient you can make pizza the same day, but it is best you let it work its magic in the cold box.
The next day you will take out your dough and spread it on to a floured work surface. Here you need to but up your dough into equal portions. My advice would be to cut it up into 6 equal pieces. If you are feeling like you can work a pizza dough enough to get that crust thin, this amount will work very well for you. If you are a bit nervous, then cut it into four equal pieces of 175 grams each. Any pizza you will not be using that day you can wrap up nicely in zip lock bags and store in the refrigerator if you will eat in the next couple of days or put in the freezer for longer storage.
I do not have any recommendations for a pizza sauce. I suggest you find one you like, or make your own. I make my own sometimes and other times when I am lazy, I will use a store-bought pasta sauce. Yes, I admit it, I am not a purest. Pick what toppings you want for your pizza along with a cheese you want to use if at all. Sometimes I make pizza without cheese, especially when I am putting pasta on it, as you can see in the post photo. A simple suggestion is to get a few bowls and put each of the toppings in the respective bowls for ease of working them on to your pizza dough. At this time, you should already turn your oven on. Set it for inferno. You want that beautiful oven to be as hot as humanly possible. Also, if you have a pizza stone, now is a perfect time to make sure that is also in the oven, we want that as hot as possible too.
A very important note about toppings. If you have a friend who tells you that pineapple does not belong on pizza, I suggest you network yourself to find a new group of friends. I will put literally anything on a pizza providing it is plant based. Pineapple is one of my all-time favorite toppings. I know that once that pineapple is baked it sweetens up a lot, but who am I to turn my nose up and say no pineapple? Its silliness!! Pineapple Pizza for president? I like the sound of that.
We are ready for shaping the pizza. The moment you are waiting for, the pièce de résistance. Start by flatting out your pizza a little bit with your hand to make a round disc. Then generously flour both sides. Lay the pizza down on your work surface and start stretching it out until you get it about twenty-five centimeters. This will give you enough space to mimic the movies and work the dough with your fists and daringly toss it in the air and spin. What is important as you are stretching the dough is it does not get so thin that it rips a whole. As you work your dough it will widen more and more.
Do you have a peel? If no, maybe you can find a piece of cardboard that is the size of your pizza dough or a tiny bit more. We are going to use these to slide our pizza into the oven. Generously dust your peel or cardboard with semolina, this will all the dough to slide around with ease. In fact, once you have done this and transfer your dough to the peel, practice to see if you can make it move some. If no, just lift an edge and toss a little bit more in there. Also, if you are baking this on a thin metal pan, do not worry about the peel or cardboard and just lightly dust the pan and put your dough on that surface.
Building your pizza is the creative part. Take a small amount of sauce and spread it around your dough. Please be sure to leave about one inch on the outside of the dough untouched by the sauce. This will allow that to puff up nicely in the oven. After you have your toppings on the pizza, make sure your oven is as hot as possible and slide your pizza in the oven on to your pizza stone, or put the pan in the oven. When I bake my pizza in a conventional oven with top and bottom heat, I like my pizza to sit up higher in the oven so that top heat really toasts the pizza. Once your pie is in the oven, let it bake for a few minutes and without opening the oven look at it to see how it is coming along. It should not take more than eight minutes or so for that crust to bubble up and start to darken. When the dough is the color you want it to be, pull it out and you are done. You are an official pizza baker.
The key takeaways from my feelings about pizza are as follows:
- Eat pizza often, and any time of the day
- Enjoy the process of building your pizza dough
- Always have pineapple as an option
- Bake at the highest temperature possible
- Do not share too much of your pizza, or, do just the opposite of me and share with everyone.
PS - in case you are wondering, the pizza in the photo includes, day old pasta twirled up, green and black olives, shiitake mushrooms, basil, and a vegan parmasean I made which is comprise of cashews, garlic salt, onion powder, and nutritional yeast.
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