A while ago I arrived home to discover a pizza oven on my front doorstep. While I was delighted, I couldn’t recall buying one. Given my history of late night online ordering, my husband gently suggested that perhaps senility was starting to set in. I admitted that I am beginning to become a bit forgetful, but I don’t think I would let a pizza oven slip from my memory. I take pizza very seriously.
Turns out, it was a gift from my husband’s sister. Her husband saw it and decided that we must have it. We immediately put it to use. Over the past year, that baby has cranked out over 48 pizzas. I have learned a thing or two about pizza making that I’d like to share with you.
Let’s start with the foundation, the crust. You could, of course start with a store bought pizza crust. But, what if I told you that, in less than 5 minutes, you could make your own dough, that is infinitely better than any store bought. The catch is, that once you mix the flour, water, salt and yeast together in a bowl, you need to wait at least 18 hours before you can use it. You will look at this wet gloppy mess and wonder how this will ever turn into dough. Take a leap of faith and be patient. The slow fermentation results in the most gorgeous stretchy, bubbly dough.
To shape the dough, never use a rolling pin. Stretching by hand will create a crunchy, chewy, light and bubbly crust. King Arthur Flour made a great video that I highly recommend watching a few times before you start. Remember, you are not aiming for a perfect circle. Pizza should be rustically beautiful.
Next, consider the sauce. Most store bought pizza sauces contain sugar, which makes them cloyingly sweet. Instead, buy a can of San Marzano crushed Italian plum tomatoes. Mix with garlic, salt and olive oil and let sit for about an hour. No cooking needed. The sauce is bright and flavourful. You only need a few tablespoons of sauce on each pizza. Too much makes the dough too wet.
For toppings, keep it simple. Too many toppings make it too heavy and you will have problems sliding it into the oven. After the sauce, I like to add 2 kinds of mozzarella. The first is low moisture mozzarella. I’m talking about the inexpensive, pale yellow stuff sold in blocks at the supermarket. That’s what gives you the stretchy pizza pull. Then, get a small piece of fresh mozzarella, to dot judiciously on the pizza. Too much fresh mozzarella will leave wet puddles on your pizza. A third more flavourful cheese, like provolone or fontina could be added, but not too much. Fresh halved grape tomatoes or some olives could be added. A drizzle of olive oil and a shaving of Parmesan would be welcome. If you want to add fresh basil, wait until it is cooked or it will wilt in the oven.
Whether you cook this in a BBQ top pizza oven, or on a pizza stone in your oven, wait until it is thoroughly preheated before you top your pizza. A pizza peel is very helpful to slide the pizza into the oven. I like to put my pizza crust on a piece of parchment paper, slightly larger than the diameter of the dough, and build the pizza there. It will easily slide into the oven. Once it has been baking for about 2-3 minutes, use the pizza peel to slide pizza out and pull away and discard parchment. It will burn if left in too long. You just want to let the crust start firming up a bit before pulling it out.
Your first few pizzas may look a bit rustic but they will taste amazing and the shaping gets easier with practice.
