America's favorite food, no contest.
This is a step-by-step guide to making YOUR best pizza.
Having the best quality ingredients at your disposal is the best tip I can give you. Regardless of what the ingredient it is, make sure it is of good quality. The best cheese, the best tomatoes, the best flour, the best pepperoni, these are what make the best pizzas.
I personally buy my pizza dough from an individual that has tamed yeast a lot better than I ever could. Will is a wizard with dough so I like to support.
@here4_thepizza
If you'd like to make your own dough, I will be posting a recipe for that too, but this is for making the actual pizza itself.
The dough you ultimately use will determine the pan variety, size, oven temperature, along with topping quantities. Size and shape of toppings will also affect how your dough bakes. This is definitely a trial-and-error process that you will have to repeat until you get it just right.
This is how I do it.
Ingredients:
For the Dough:
- - 1 Fermented Dough Ball (pizza dough is its own recipe)
- - 1oz Sesame Seeds
- - .5oz Olive Oil
- - 2oz AP Flour, Cornmeal, or Semolina
For the Sauce:
- - 1 Can Cento Organic San Marzano Tomatoes
- or
- - 2lbs Roma Tomatoes – Concassed (blanched, peeled, and cored)
- - 2oz Olive Oil
- - Sea Salt and Black Pepper
- -.25oz Red Pepper Flakes
- - .25oz Dried Oregano
- - 1 handful Fresh Basil
- - 1oz Honey - Chili Honey if you like it spicy
Toppings:
- - .5lb Fresh Mozzarella
- - .5lb Shredded Whole Milk Mozzarella
- - 2oz Parmesan Cheese
- - .5lb Spicy Small Cut Pepperoni
Equipment:
- - Mixing Bowl x 1
- - Standard or Immersion Blender x 1
- - Chef Knife x 1
- - Cutting Board x 1
- - Baking Stone, Steal or Tray x 1
- - Wooden Spoon or Ladle
- - Microplane zester
- - Scissors or Standard Pizza Cutter
- - Clean Towel (paper or cotton)
- - Oven - Conventional (475F), Propane (550F), Wood Fired (600F)
- - Can opener for Cento Tomatoes
- - Pizza Paddle
Method:
- Preheat oven. If you are using a pizza stone/steal, keep in oven for duration of cooking.
The Sauce:
- Combine tomatoes, seasonings, and olive oil in a bowl or blender. Puree.
- If you are using fresh tomatoes, you must concasse them first. Cut a shallow X on the tip of the tomato. Place into salted boiling water, turn off the heat and cover for 2 minutes. Remove tomatoes and place them in a water bath. Once they are cooled to the touch, you should be able to easily peal and remove the skin from the tomatoes. Slice them in half and scoop out the seeds.
- Chiffonade the basil. Puree most of the basil into the sauce and save the rest for garnish.
The Dough:
- Allow dough to come up to 60F covered with a towel, or a loosely covered plastic container.
- Sprinkle some loose flour onto whatever surface you will be building your pizza. You can make the pizza directly on the paddle, a countertop, or the preheated stone itself after it is stretched.
- Stretch your pizza dough by hand, keeping the outer rim slightly thicker than the rest of the dough.
- Brush off any excess flour, transfer to paddle or stone.
- Drizzle olive oil along the outer rim of the dough then onto the center.
- Rub the oil into the dough.
- Sprinkle sesame seeds along the edge of the dough in a ½ inch strip. Season entire dough with salt.
Pizza Assembly:
- Add sauce to the center of the dough, using the bottom of the spoon to spread it evenly in circular motions. Bring the sauce all the way to the sesame seeds.
- Grate fresh parmesan cheese onto the sauce.
- Add shredded mozzarella evenly across the sauced dough. You should be able to see the sauce behind the cheese, you do not want a solid layer.
- Place pepperoni or other toppings evenly onto the cheese, leaving small spaces between pieces
- Tear small pieces of fresh mozzarella and place them in between the toppings, not on top. As the cheese melts it will go around the toppings, blending into the shredded mozzarella.
- Season the toppings and of your pizza with a little salt and dried oregano.
Baking:
- Place assembled pizza into the center of your oven.
- Baking time will depend on your oven style, temperature, and baking vessel. If you are baking directly on a stone, allow the dough to cook enough to become semi firm. This will keep you from tearing the dough or disturbing the toppings.
- Rotate your pizza as often as necessary to ensure even cooking and browning of toppings and crust.
- If you are baking on a tray, you can rotate it any time. Opening your oven will decrease the temperature in a conventional oven.
- Allow adequate time for your toppings to completely cook and take on a little color. Most vegetables will render some moisture, so smaller pieces distributed evenly will keep the dough crisp. Precooking is also a great way to expedite this process.
- When your pizza is finished baking, remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. The wire rack will allow steam to escape from the bottom and top, allowing your pizza to cool faster and retain its crispness.
Serving:
- Grate fresh parmesan onto the entire pizza.
- Additional toppings such as honey, olive oil, fresh basil or arugula, can be added to the rested pizza before slicing.
- When the cheese has congealed enough to cut, move finished pie onto a cutting board. Cut into desired shapes and quantities.
CONSUME
