How to Make Pizza Dough

In Italy, pizza dough is taken so seriously that it is subject to government regulation. The official recipe is not complicated but takes 6-8 hours and lots of kneading to complete. This non-regulatory dough recipe is faster, easier and just as tasty.

Make Some Dough

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup bread flour
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 package dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water

In a measuring cup, mix the yeast and sugar well then add water and let sit for 10 minutes to activate the yeast, then add the olive oil.

Mix the flours and salt in a large bowl and pour in the yeast-oil mixture and knead the dough for 10 minutes. The dough should be tacky not sticky. Place well kneaded pizza dough into an oiled bowl being sure to coat all the surface of the dough. Cover and let rise for 45 minutes.

After rising turn out dough onto a floured surface and divide into 3 pieces for 3, 10 inch pizzas or 6 pieces for individual pizzas. Roll each piece into a ball and lightly coat with oil, cover and let rise for another 45 minutes. After this rise you can freeze any extra dough (if you double the recipe) then whenever you want pizza just defrost for a couple of hours (or overnight in the fridge). While they rise lets consider the perfect pizza.

The Perfect Pizza

The Margherita pizza, created to honor the 1889 visit to Naples by Queen Margherita, is the most basic pizza of all with only 3 toppings, coarsely chopped tomatoes (fresh Roma are best but canned will due), thinly sliced mozzarella cheese and fresh basil (red, white and green in honor of the Italian flag) and it has no sauce.

Building the Margherita

Take one of the pieces of dough and on a floured surface press into a round shape with your fingers, leaving the outer edge a bit thicker. Lay this round on a cookie sheet that is either greased or covered with a thin layer of cornmeal and scatter the tomatoes thickly over the dough then top with the mozzarella slices and drizzle with olive oil. Place sheet in oven pre-heated to 550 degrees and bake for 5-8 minutes. The cheese and raised edge will be starting to turn a golden brown. Remove from oven, top with basil, drizzle lightly with more olive oil and slice. Mange bene!

Spice It Up

Although the Margherita is the most delicious pizza, variety is the spice of life. You can spice up the dough by adding 2 teaspoons of coarse ground black pepper or crushed red pepper. Adding 2 tablespoons of minced garlic and/or 2 teaspoons of various herbs (or Italian seasoning) will make a savory dough while adding 1 tablespoon of toasted sesame seed or poppy seed will give it a tantalizing texture as well as extra flavor.

Sauce

A word about sauce. Almost any commercial pizza or spaghetti sauce will do fine, just remember to spread it thinly to keep the crust from getting soggy. Here is a quick sauce recipe you can make at home that requires no cooking, that happens while the pizza cooks.

Ingredients:
1 large can tomato sauce
1 small can tomato paste
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Optional ingredients
1/3 cup minced onion
1/4 teaspoon sugar

Mix all ingredients and spread thinly on dough. Thin with olive oil if necessary.

Toppings

On the question of toppings, anything that will tickle your taste buds, from anchovies to zucchini, will work on pizza.