Pizza

Base recipe for a spectacular pizza

Makes 4 pizzas (30 cm)

The long rest time makes this pizza dough wonderfully aromatic. In this recipe I use the fine wheat flour type 00, as it is usual for Napolitan pizza.

Schedule

  • Dough: 40 minutes preparation, 60 minutes proofing, 12h maturation, 6–48h refrigeration
  • Tomato sauce: 30 minutes preparation
  • Baking: Preheat oven for 1 hour, 5 minutes preparation, 5 minutes baking

Ingredients pizza dough

  • 500g wheat flour type 00 (Pizza flour)
  • 350g water (35°C)
  • 0.4g dry yeast
  • 10g fine sea salt
  • Olive oil

Prepare the dough

  • Dissolve the yeast in 2 tablespoons of the water; put in a small container and set aside
  • Mix the flour with the remaining water in a large, sealable bowl until all of the water has been absorbed; put the mixture aside for 20-30 minutes (autolyse)
  • Sprinkle the salt over the autolyse dough, pour the yeast mixture over the dough
  • Note: wetten your hand to process the dough; this step can be repeated 3 to 4 times while kneading
  • Mix with wet hand until all ingredients are completely absorbed; then knead the dough vigorously with your wet hand for 5–10 minutes, e.g., by stretching and folding
  • It doesn’t matter if the dough still has bubbles and knots in it; these dissolve through the long maturation time
  • Lightly coat the bottom of the bowl and the surface of the dough with olive oil to make the dough easier to remove from the bowl
  • Let ripen at room temperature (20–22 ° C) for about 12 hours

Prepare the dough pieces

  • Dust the work surface with pizza flour
  • Using floured hands, carefully lift the dough out of the bowl and onto the work surface, without exerting too much pressure
  • Use a pastry card to divide the dough into four equal pieces
  • Carefully shape the dough pieces into a ball; to do this, turn the dough on the underside inwards with your fingers; also work with caution here so that the surface does not tear and not too much air escapes from the dough
  • Place the dough pieces on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and lightly floured; leave some space between the dough pieces
  • Lightly flour the surface of the dough pieces, then cover with cling film
  • Refrigerate for at least 6 hours (6–8 °C, top shelf); continue processing within the next 2 days
  • Take the dough out of the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking

Ingredients tomato sauce

  • 1 can of peeled tomatoes (400g); e.g., from the brand “Mutti”
  • 1 small shallot
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 1 mild peperonchini
  • 1 table spoon olive oil
  • 1 tea spoon oregano
  • Salt, pepper
  • 1 table spoon sugar as needed
  • 50–100ml passata as needed

Prepare the tomato sauce

  • Heat the tomatoes in a small saucepan and chop them with a hand blender
  • Add olive oil
  • Peel and crush garlic cloves
  • Peel the shallot, cut into 3 large pieces
  • Cut the peperoncini into thin strips
  • Add garlic, shallot and peperoncini
  • Add oregano, season with salt and pepper
  • Let the sauce simmer for about 15 minutes
  • Remove the garlic and shallot pieces from the sauce with a fork
  • Season to taste
  • If the sauce is too hot or strong for you (or if you bought the wrong tomatoes), you can now add the sugar to the sauce
  • Let cool in the pot
  • If like your pizza with a lot of sauce, 50–100ml passata can be added before simmering

Bake the pizza

  • Approx. 1 hour before baking, put a baking sheet or a wire rack with a pizza stone on the lowest level and heat up the oven to 250 °C with the pizza setting (i.e. bottom heat + convection)
  • Dust the working surface with pizza flour
  • Carefully shape the dough pieces into a pizza form; the easiest way is to use your fingers to spread and push the dough from the center to the edge; leave the edge a little thicker; alternatively, the dough can also be stretched by pulling and turning
  • Work carefully so that the dough does not tear in the middle
  • Place the dough on baking paper; Brush with tomato sauce, then spread the grated mozzarella on top of the pizza
  • If you really want to, you can of course add other ingredients to the pizza
  • Put the pizza on the baking paper on the hot baking sheet
  • Bake for 5–6 minutes

Note: The recipe for the dough is based on the “Overnight Straight Pizza Dough” from the book “Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast” by Ken Forkish (pp. 220–221; see books) but has been adjusted compared to the original.