The Basics of Pizza
Everybody loves pizza. Even if you’re used to the wood-fired pies that are increasingly popular at more and more restaurants, home-baked pizza will amaze you with how easy, fun, and versatile it is. And if you’re used to only delivery pizza, it’s a game-changer.
When you make your own pizza, of course, you have complete control over ingredients in terms of both quality and quantity. The toppings range from elemental—tomatoes, mozzarella, mushrooms, meat, vegetables—to more original or special: new kinds of cheese, eggs, salsa verde, and more. At home you have the option of using better ingredients than the ones they use at most pizzerias, and that makes a huge difference. Plus, you can combine them in any which way, and every pizza night is a new chance to experiment.
Pizza takes a bit of planning since the dough is yeasted, but the rise time isn’t too long and is mostly hands-off, so you can make it work around your schedule. Plus, you can freeze the dough, allowing for more flexible timing. Once you get the hang of the timing and shaping, you’ll be in love with the results—and eating a lot more pizza.
PREPARING PIZZA DOUGH
Pizza dough is a simple bread dough made with flour, yeast, salt, and water, usually with olive oil for extra texture and flavor. A food processor makes quick work of mixing it together—I’m talking one minute of activity. You can also use a standing mixer, and of course you can knead the dough by hand (first in a big bowl, then transferred to a floured board), which is no big deal since it doesn’t require much hands-on work to begin with. In any case, start to finish, you can have pizza dough ready in about an hour, but to develop more flavor—and make this a true do-ahead dish—let it rise and ferment for 6 to 8 hours, even overnight.
SHAPING THE DOUGH
You don’t have to toss and spin your dough into a perfect circle like you see at the old-school pizzerias. In terms of texture, you’ll get equally good results laying the dough on a countertop and using your fingertips to gently press and stretch it into shape. (This is how professionals make focaccia, which is just another form of pizza.) Equally easy is to flatten the dough a bit, then roll it out with a rolling pin.
In either case, patience is key; your goal is to coax the dough into shape, and this is easiest if you allow the dough to rest between steps as you shape it. If you’re short on time, you can plow right through from start to finish, but whenever you handle the dough, it becomes more elastic and difficult to stretch out (that’s the gluten doing its thing). The rest periods let it relax, which in turn makes it easier for you to shape.
With one recipe of pizza dough and the same basic techniques, you can make any size or thickness of pizza. The larger and thinner you stretch the dough, the harder it can be to handle, so I like to divide the dough into at least two pies; three or four if they’re going on the grill. Make more for “personal pizzas” or press the dough into a pan for Chicago-style deep-dish (page 548).
It’s important to let it rise—another thing that you really can fit to your own timeline. Just don’t let it puff up too much or your pizza will have big bubbles and sunken valleys. No matter how thinly you stretch or roll the crust, it will just about double in thickness as it bakes (the temperature of your kitchen and the amount of toppings will affect this), so don’t be conservative with the rolling before you add toppings.
THE TOPPINGS
Of all the things you can bake at home, pizza is one of the easiest and most fun things to customize. You can stick to classic combinations: tomatoes, basil, and Parmesan; tomato sauce and mozzarella; or a little mozzarella with some crumbled sausage or sliced pepperoni. But I have the most fun branching out—to different meats, vegetables, cheeses, nuts, sauces, and various combinations—since pizza is prime for experimentation. See The Cheese Lexicon and even more topping options (page 550) for inspiration.
Do be careful not to pile on too many ingredients. This does no favors to your crust, which really deserves equal billing with whatever you put on it. If you smother the dough with toppings, it will steam as it bakes, turning a potentially crisp and light crust into a soggy mess.
BAKING
Professional pizza ovens reach around 700°F, but don’t worry if you don’t happen to have a wood-fired oven in your backyard. The highest temperature your oven can go—525 or 550°F for most home ovens—does the job wonderfully. Your best bet is to bake the pizza directly on a pizza stone, which crisps up the bottom of the crust and dries it out perfectly; if you don’t have one of those, you’ll do just fine baking the pie on a flat baking sheet or one with a small lip. (And of course there’s always pizza on the grill;.)
The ideal pizza stone is a large rectangle; it should be unglazed, relatively thick, and made of a porous stone or clay that absorbs heat and transfers it evenly to your pizza. You can buy a pizza stone or use an unglazed quarry tile from the hardware store. And use it for more than just pizza: it makes excellent yeast breads, flatbreads, and crackers, and there’s no harm in leaving it on the lowest rack of the oven all the time. To use it, let it sit in the oven while it heats for at least a half hour—you want them both thoroughly heated. Once you’ve got the stone, you should also consider getting a peel—the board with a handle that looks like a large Ping-Pong paddle—to get the pizza onto the stone. You can sprinkle flour or cornmeal on it and shape and top the dough directly on the peel, then slide it right onto the preheated stone.
If you use a baking sheet to bake the pizza, wipe it with just a little olive oil to keep the dough from sticking, rather than dusting the surface with flour or cornmeal as you would with a peel. Once you do that, just press the dough right onto the pan to shape it.
CUTTING AND SERVING
Pizzas with little or no cheese are also good served at room temperature, as you would bread. You can cut pizza into wedges like pie or into smaller squares, which are good if you’re feeding a crowd or just prefer smaller pieces.
Shaping Dough for Pizza and Calzones
Step 1
Stretch the dough with your hands. If at any point the dough becomes very resistant, cover and let it rest for a few minutes.
Step 2
Press the dough out with your hands. Use a little flour or olive oil to keep it from sticking.
Step 3
Alternatively, roll it out with a pin; either method is effective.
Step 4
To make a calzone, add your filling, fold the dough over onto itself, and pinch the seams closed.