Pizza Dough for 500-degree oven: Yields 6 balls of dough for small Neapolitan Style Pizzas
· 700-800 G Tipo OO Flour You can substitute All Purpose Flour, but I recommend OO.
· 500 G Water
· 50 G Olive Oil/Lard/Bacon grease
· 20 G of Fine Sea Salt
· 15 G Sugar
· 12.5 G Fresh Instant Yeast You can substitute dry instant yeast
Take ¾ of the flour and combine it with the Salt, Sugar, Yeast and Salt. Combine. Then add the water and oil and start to form the dough. Then add the rest of the flour. Try to avoid lumps of dry flour. Mix until it starts to form a ball. Then move it to a flat floured surface where you can knead it. Knead it for 10 minutes. It should be smooth and satiny.
Then place it in a large bowl at least 2 X the size of the ball of dough and cover it with a tea towel and let it sit for 30 minutes. Then remove it. I weight it and then divide it into 6 equal balls. Form them in to round balls of dough but don’t work the dough too hard you want the air bubbles that have formed to stay. Let it rest for 1-2 hours.
From here you can use the dough but I tweak the recipe a little bit. I drop the amount of yeast to 3G. I make the dough and then retard it by placing it in the fridge for 48-72 hours. This allows the dough to form more flavorful gluten chains.
I really recommend getting OO pizza flour. It makes a huge difference in the elasticity of the dough. It is much easier to shape the dough into a thin pizza with this flour vs all purpose. I get it from Amazon. There are companies that repack it from 50-pound bags into 5 lb bags. It is worth buying.
To cook I place the oven rack as high as possible. I then place the pizza stone or pizza steel on the rack and heat the oven up to its highest setting which for most home ovens is 550. I let it get to temp and leave it at temp for at least 30 minutes.
When you form the dough you want flatten it and move it from the center out to the edges which will be your crust. This pushes the air bubbles in the dough to the edges to give you a better rise on the crust.
I often cut this recipe in half and I divide the dough into just 2 balls. This yields 2 “large” US style pizzas. When I have “make your own” Pizza parties I stick to the smaller Neapolitan size balls. To get the pizza in the oven I place the shaped dough onto parchment paper. I do the final dough forming and then the topping of the pizza on the parchment paper. I then use a pizza peel to slide it into the oven on the parchment. After 90 seconds I use the peel to lift the pizza off the parchment and remove it. I can throw the on just the peel with a little semolina but sometimes they stick. The parchment paper is cheating but it is foolproof.
My last piece of advice is to not over top the pizza. Don’t use too much cheese. If you are using toppings like mushroom which have a lot of water in them sauté them before putting them on the pizza. I cut and dry out things like olives and pepperoncini etc. Also do not use too much sauce. If you put too much moisture on the pizza you will end up with a soggy middle.
Sauce Recipe: 1 can of whole tomatoes makes enough sauce for 3 small Pizzas or 2 large.
· 1 14oz can of San Marzano tomato. You can use any type of plum tomato but if you can get real San Marzano they are better.
· 1 Small bunch of fresh Basil chopped or 1 TB of dry.
· 1 Pinch of salt
I take the tomatoes and drain the juice. I then place them into a Cuisinart with the other ingredients and pulse it until the whole tomatoes are broken up but not all chunks are removed. 4 or 5 usually does it. If you want a smoother sauce you can blend it smooth.
