PIZZA MARGHERITA
I'm sure this is probably a known fact by now, but I worked in a ny pizzeria, as well as some of the most popular pizza joints in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh has the distinction of being directly in between chicago and ny, so the pizza there is, in a word, amazing. So, this is basically a culmination of my pizza experience. This is a thin crust pizza, I'm going for ny style here. If you'd like a thicker crust, double this recipe and cut the dough into thirds.
This is a pizza margherita. A pizza margherita is simple. Good crust, smooth plain sauce, fresh basil, good cheese. It showcases the quality of the crust, the sweet interplay of the basil and simple tomato sauce, and the quality of the cheese. Why would you buy a great mozarella then bury that flavor with pepperoni and 23970987 vegetables? This is a pizza's pizza. There's power in simplicity. And for the record, a margherita does not have tomato slices on it. There are no mushrooms on a margherita. The sauce is not herbed except for the basil. There are no crushed red peppers on a margherita. Anyone who hands you a pizza margherita that isn't these 4 simple ingredients is wrong, according to italian law. Yes, italy actually has a law on record about what is a real pizza.
This is that pizza.
Equipment you'll need:
A pizza stone (Alton Brown suggests using unglazed ceramic tile, about an inch thick, that you can find at any home depot. The kind they use for walkways. The bright orange ones. I agree. That costs like a dollar)
Something to get the pizza into and out of the oven (a pizza peel is ideal. A nice stiff piece of aluminium, about 12" wide and 14-15 long, will work really well, if you're going to home depot anyway to pick up your pizza stone)
Makes 2 12" pizzas
THE DOUGH:
1 tsp (or package) instant yeast
3/4 cups warm water
2 cups flour
1 tblsp olive oil
1 tblsp sugar
1 tblsp light brown sugar
1 tblsp salt
If you have a mixer, it's better. Mix it real well on low speed, until it's a nice smooth ball and everything's mingled completely. Should take about maybe 2 minutes. After that, pop on your dough hook and mix for about another 2 minutes to activate the gluten. If you don't have a dough hook, the paddle attachment could work, but you might want to let it go an extra 30 seconds. How can you tell you're done? Take a little ball of the dough, roll it into a ball, flatten it, and stretch it out. Can you basically see through it? You're good. Can you not, or could you but it tore? Go a bit longer.
For non mixer people, we'll have to go traditional. Mound all of your dry ingredients (mix them well first) and poke a hole in the center, create a nice divot in the middle. Like a pizza volcano. Pour the wet ingredients into the middle and slowly fold the dry ingredients into them with a fork. When they're sorta combined, get in there with your hands and mix them up. After they're mixed and it's dough like, you'll want to knead it. Lightly flour a clean, flat surface. Plop your dough down, and lightly flour the top. You'll want to go a bit easy on the flour while you knead, only use the littlest amount possible to keep it from sticking. To knead it, for about 10 to 15 minutes or so (do that trick I showed above to tell when it's done) you'll want to fold it in half, push it flat, then rotate it 90 degrees and repeat. If it starts to stick, add a tiny bit of flour on both sides.
Next up, rounding. Rounding is what it sounds like, making the dough round. Grab your dough, roll it into a ball, and fold it inside of itself a bit to make sure it's nice and round and smooth, then swirl the bottom of it around on a flat surface a tiny bit, to smooth it into a perfect sphere. Pop it in a metal bowl you've LIGHTLY coated with oil (I avoid the sprays here, you can taste them on the pizza when you bake it. This is a rare instance that I'll suggest extra virgin olive oil for something you're going to cook. Coating it with extra virgin gives it that slightly more potent slightly fruity flavor, which will soak into the crust and give it more dimension. Cover the bowl lightly with plastic wrap, and put it into the fridge, leaving it there for about a day. Slow rise = more dense dough matrix = tastier crust.
If all of this is a bit daunting for you, you could get away with buying pre-made white bread dough. I recommend against it, it's not as good as making your own, but it is an alternative. Personally, I make a bunch of pizza dough and tie it up tightly in saran wrap to prevent further rising, and it'll keep for about a week. Or, freeze it for up to a month. For the record, avoid pre-made pizza crusts if possible. They're a crutch you don't want to get used to, if you can avoid it. It's always better to throw your own pizzas rather than use pre-formed ones, the texture is better, even if you do use pre-made dough.
THE SAUCE:
1 can whole stewed tomatoes
Cook them, sauce and all, in a medium saucepan until they break down, beat the hell out of them with a blender or cuisinart, then cook them again. Easy. Why stewed tomatoes? Time. The flavor will be the same, for the most part, but you won't have to worry about peeling the tomatoes or dealing with any of that other stupidity. Try to get tomatoes with lower sodium, if possible.
MAKING THE PIZZA:
1 ball of our dough
some of our sauce
fresh basil leaves (chop them if you like, I prefer them whole)
shredded or sliced mozzarella (sliced melts more evenly, but you'll want higher quality mozarella for that. Shredded will work in a pinch. Authentic is buffalo mozzarella)
Preheat your oven to "does it go that high?". Heat is EVERYTHING. In italy, they cook pizza at 800 degrees for about 2 minutes. We want to go for the closest to that possible. For the love of god, however, do not broil it unless your oven broils from all over. You'll have burnt cheese and a soggy unfinished crust that way. If you've got an oven with an all around broiler, by all means. I'll trade you. You want to start the pre-heat with the stone in the oven, and you want to heat the oven for about 20 minutes or so, at least, to get the stone to a nice hot temperature.
Cut the dough in half, flatten it, then re-round it. Why? It'll make your pizza look more smooth and even, and we made enough for 2. If you're just making one, store the other one as mentioned above. Flour your work surface, lightly, and roll the pizza out until it's flat and about 8 inches in diameter. pat down the middle with your fingertips and work the dough out a bit toward the edges, then stretch it to about 12 inches in diameter, to form a defined crust. Pick this monster up, and flop it on the pizza paddle. Flour your pizza paddle type aparatus WELL with a bit of cornmeal before you put the dough on it. Cornmeal is a traditional thing, it adds a nice texture to the bottom of the crust. You could use plain flour if you want, but wtf. Cornmeal is like 2 bucks and it's little touches like that that'll make your pizza something above amazing. After you plop the dough down, jiggle the delivery aparatus a bit. If the pizza doesn't move, take it off and add more flour.
Brush the pizza with some olive oil, enough to cover it but not too much, we don't want it to swim in oil. Then, add your sauce. Not too much, again we don't want it swimming. This bit is all personal taste, you're going to fiddle with this pizza for a while until you find the proportions you like. Next, the basil. FRESH IS EVERYTHING. Arrange the basil on the pizza, again to your own tastes. Personally, I aim for at least 2 basil leaves per slice. Finally, top it off with the mozarella. Cook time here is really vague. Since we're cooking on "freaking hot" you'll want to check it after about 4 minutes or so, to see if the edges are firming up and the cheese is starting to pool and look nice and gooey. Feel the crust for a second, it should be springy and firm, but not hard. Check out the bottom, is it a nice golden brown and firm? If so, your pizza is done. If not, give it another minute or 2.
I'll give you a secret. Pizza places are trained to tell you the pizza takes 20 minutes, no matter how long it actually takes. Why? Pizzas cook at different times, even with the same ingredients. It's a mystery to me, I'll never get why it works that way, but sometimes there's a full 2 minute fluctuation between cook times.
This is the traditional pizza you'd get if you went to italy. The margherita pizza is almost criminally tasty for how simple it is. I suggest if you want to get into making pizza, you make this pizza first, and try it at least once. It's really helpful, if you're going to experiment with pizza making, to see where pizza comes from. Master a simple pizza like a margherita and make it amazing, and any other pizza you make can't help but be awesome.
This is a pizza margherita. A pizza margherita is simple. Good crust, smooth plain sauce, fresh basil, good cheese. It showcases the quality of the crust, the sweet interplay of the basil and simple tomato sauce, and the quality of the cheese. Why would you buy a great mozarella then bury that flavor with pepperoni and 23970987 vegetables? This is a pizza's pizza. There's power in simplicity. And for the record, a margherita does not have tomato slices on it. There are no mushrooms on a margherita. The sauce is not herbed except for the basil. There are no crushed red peppers on a margherita. Anyone who hands you a pizza margherita that isn't these 4 simple ingredients is wrong, according to italian law. Yes, italy actually has a law on record about what is a real pizza.
This is that pizza.
Equipment you'll need:
A pizza stone (Alton Brown suggests using unglazed ceramic tile, about an inch thick, that you can find at any home depot. The kind they use for walkways. The bright orange ones. I agree. That costs like a dollar)
Something to get the pizza into and out of the oven (a pizza peel is ideal. A nice stiff piece of aluminium, about 12" wide and 14-15 long, will work really well, if you're going to home depot anyway to pick up your pizza stone)
Makes 2 12" pizzas
THE DOUGH:
1 tsp (or package) instant yeast
3/4 cups warm water
2 cups flour
1 tblsp olive oil
1 tblsp sugar
1 tblsp light brown sugar
1 tblsp salt
If you have a mixer, it's better. Mix it real well on low speed, until it's a nice smooth ball and everything's mingled completely. Should take about maybe 2 minutes. After that, pop on your dough hook and mix for about another 2 minutes to activate the gluten. If you don't have a dough hook, the paddle attachment could work, but you might want to let it go an extra 30 seconds. How can you tell you're done? Take a little ball of the dough, roll it into a ball, flatten it, and stretch it out. Can you basically see through it? You're good. Can you not, or could you but it tore? Go a bit longer.
For non mixer people, we'll have to go traditional. Mound all of your dry ingredients (mix them well first) and poke a hole in the center, create a nice divot in the middle. Like a pizza volcano. Pour the wet ingredients into the middle and slowly fold the dry ingredients into them with a fork. When they're sorta combined, get in there with your hands and mix them up. After they're mixed and it's dough like, you'll want to knead it. Lightly flour a clean, flat surface. Plop your dough down, and lightly flour the top. You'll want to go a bit easy on the flour while you knead, only use the littlest amount possible to keep it from sticking. To knead it, for about 10 to 15 minutes or so (do that trick I showed above to tell when it's done) you'll want to fold it in half, push it flat, then rotate it 90 degrees and repeat. If it starts to stick, add a tiny bit of flour on both sides.
Next up, rounding. Rounding is what it sounds like, making the dough round. Grab your dough, roll it into a ball, and fold it inside of itself a bit to make sure it's nice and round and smooth, then swirl the bottom of it around on a flat surface a tiny bit, to smooth it into a perfect sphere. Pop it in a metal bowl you've LIGHTLY coated with oil (I avoid the sprays here, you can taste them on the pizza when you bake it. This is a rare instance that I'll suggest extra virgin olive oil for something you're going to cook. Coating it with extra virgin gives it that slightly more potent slightly fruity flavor, which will soak into the crust and give it more dimension. Cover the bowl lightly with plastic wrap, and put it into the fridge, leaving it there for about a day. Slow rise = more dense dough matrix = tastier crust.
If all of this is a bit daunting for you, you could get away with buying pre-made white bread dough. I recommend against it, it's not as good as making your own, but it is an alternative. Personally, I make a bunch of pizza dough and tie it up tightly in saran wrap to prevent further rising, and it'll keep for about a week. Or, freeze it for up to a month. For the record, avoid pre-made pizza crusts if possible. They're a crutch you don't want to get used to, if you can avoid it. It's always better to throw your own pizzas rather than use pre-formed ones, the texture is better, even if you do use pre-made dough.
THE SAUCE:
1 can whole stewed tomatoes
Cook them, sauce and all, in a medium saucepan until they break down, beat the hell out of them with a blender or cuisinart, then cook them again. Easy. Why stewed tomatoes? Time. The flavor will be the same, for the most part, but you won't have to worry about peeling the tomatoes or dealing with any of that other stupidity. Try to get tomatoes with lower sodium, if possible.
MAKING THE PIZZA:
1 ball of our dough
some of our sauce
fresh basil leaves (chop them if you like, I prefer them whole)
shredded or sliced mozzarella (sliced melts more evenly, but you'll want higher quality mozarella for that. Shredded will work in a pinch. Authentic is buffalo mozzarella)
Preheat your oven to "does it go that high?". Heat is EVERYTHING. In italy, they cook pizza at 800 degrees for about 2 minutes. We want to go for the closest to that possible. For the love of god, however, do not broil it unless your oven broils from all over. You'll have burnt cheese and a soggy unfinished crust that way. If you've got an oven with an all around broiler, by all means. I'll trade you. You want to start the pre-heat with the stone in the oven, and you want to heat the oven for about 20 minutes or so, at least, to get the stone to a nice hot temperature.
Cut the dough in half, flatten it, then re-round it. Why? It'll make your pizza look more smooth and even, and we made enough for 2. If you're just making one, store the other one as mentioned above. Flour your work surface, lightly, and roll the pizza out until it's flat and about 8 inches in diameter. pat down the middle with your fingertips and work the dough out a bit toward the edges, then stretch it to about 12 inches in diameter, to form a defined crust. Pick this monster up, and flop it on the pizza paddle. Flour your pizza paddle type aparatus WELL with a bit of cornmeal before you put the dough on it. Cornmeal is a traditional thing, it adds a nice texture to the bottom of the crust. You could use plain flour if you want, but wtf. Cornmeal is like 2 bucks and it's little touches like that that'll make your pizza something above amazing. After you plop the dough down, jiggle the delivery aparatus a bit. If the pizza doesn't move, take it off and add more flour.
Brush the pizza with some olive oil, enough to cover it but not too much, we don't want it to swim in oil. Then, add your sauce. Not too much, again we don't want it swimming. This bit is all personal taste, you're going to fiddle with this pizza for a while until you find the proportions you like. Next, the basil. FRESH IS EVERYTHING. Arrange the basil on the pizza, again to your own tastes. Personally, I aim for at least 2 basil leaves per slice. Finally, top it off with the mozarella. Cook time here is really vague. Since we're cooking on "freaking hot" you'll want to check it after about 4 minutes or so, to see if the edges are firming up and the cheese is starting to pool and look nice and gooey. Feel the crust for a second, it should be springy and firm, but not hard. Check out the bottom, is it a nice golden brown and firm? If so, your pizza is done. If not, give it another minute or 2.
I'll give you a secret. Pizza places are trained to tell you the pizza takes 20 minutes, no matter how long it actually takes. Why? Pizzas cook at different times, even with the same ingredients. It's a mystery to me, I'll never get why it works that way, but sometimes there's a full 2 minute fluctuation between cook times.
This is the traditional pizza you'd get if you went to italy. The margherita pizza is almost criminally tasty for how simple it is. I suggest if you want to get into making pizza, you make this pizza first, and try it at least once. It's really helpful, if you're going to experiment with pizza making, to see where pizza comes from. Master a simple pizza like a margherita and make it amazing, and any other pizza you make can't help but be awesome.