appendix d The pizza recipe

 

One pizza consists of several ingredients. Each of those ingredients has a specific place in your pizza timeline. The pizza ingredients can be separated into three categories:

  • Dough ingredients
  • Topping ingredients
  • Spices/Sauce ingredients

Pizza dough ingredients seem very simple—isn’t dough just flour and water? But don’t be fooled; the pizza dough is the most important and the most difficult part. It has numerous variations based on the following:

  • Shape
  • Thickness
  • Color
  • Chewiness
  • Additional variations (such as border crust filled with melted cheese—a blasphemy for Italians)

For the dough of one pizza based on this recipe, you will need the following ingredients:

  • 2 cups of flour (250g)
  • 1 teaspoon of yeast (5g)
  • 1/2 cup of mildly warm water (120ml)
  • A pinch of salt
  • 1/2 tablespoon of sugar (6g)
  • 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil (7ml)

Mix half of the mildly warm water needed with yeast, sugar, and a spoon of flour. Mix it all thoroughly and let it rise at warm room temperature for about half an hour.

Add the salt, olive oil, and the water and yeast mixture, plus the rest of the water to the remaining flour. Mix it all up nicely. Knead it for about 10 minutes by hand. You can also use a machine if you have one.

Put a handful of flour in an empty clean pot. Spread the flour evenly and then put the mixture in the floured pot.

Put your oven heating to the max.