Making pizza dough couldn’t be easier and when you become familiar with the process, you can guess the quantities by eye. To make really good pizza, you will need a few basic items in the kitchen, the most important being your hands!
You should have a good selection of the usual suspects: mixing bowls, measuring spoons, measuring cups, weighing scales; a good sharp knife or pastry wheel for cutting dough; a large serrated knife for cutting focaccia.
My favourite gadget is a pastry scraper which can be used as a knife, scoop and board scraper or cleaner. Scrapers come in all guises but they usually comprise a rectangular metal ‘blade,’ one edge of which is covered by a wooden or plastic handle that fits into the palm of your hand.
If you are really serious about pizza-making and want to make dough in quantity, an electric food mixer will take the pain out of mixing and kneading large batches of dough, although there’s nothing quite as satisfying as hand-kneading a big, soft pillow of dough.
Clingfilm/plastic wrap is the modern alternative to a damp kitchen towel. This is used to cover a dough when it is rising to keep it moist and to stop the surface drying out and forming a crust, which can impair the rising. Clingfilm/plastic wrap on its own will stick to a dough, so either lightly rub the dough with a little olive oil or spray or brush the clingfilm/plastic wrap lightly with oil before covering the dough. Alternatively, you can cover the rising dough with a large, upturned mixing bowl.
Baking parchment is a revelation for making pizza. There is no need to dust the bottom of the pizza with masses of extra flour (which never cooks) to prevent it sticking. Dusting with cornmeal is in no way authentic and it sticks to the dough, ruining the texture.
A good, steady work surface at the right height is essential for energetic kneading. The surface should be able to cope with sticky dough, flour and olive oil and should be easy to clean.
A flour sifter or shaker is useful as it will limit the flour you sprinkle onto the dough and is always to hand. Alternatively, you can make do with a little bowl of extra flour on the side, for dusting.
An olive-oil pourer will allow you to drizzle small amounts of olive oil onto a pizza or into a dough. Some are cans with long spouts and some neatly fit into the olive-oil bottle itself.
A water spray mists a dough with just enough water to keep it moist.
Pastry brushes are always handy in a kitchen for brushing the tops of calzone with oil or water and the edges of dough with water before sealing.
Cookie cutters will cut dough into smaller shapes for stuffing or filling.
You will need one or two deep, heavy round metal pans/pizza pans/springform cake pans for deep-pan pizzas and focaccias; heavy rectangular pans and baking sheets with sides for larger pizzas; and good, heavy, rimless baking sheets (or turn them upside down) for baking pizzas and to act as pizza peels or paddles to shoot the pizza into the oven. Pans with a nonstick surface tend to ‘stew’ doughs – I prefer metal, iron or heavy aluminium. Never use the large pans with perforated bases to make fresh pizzas – these are specifically for reheating bought pizzas and do not work with fresh dough.
Pizza peels or paddles are a luxury, but lovely to have and very functional. Wooden peels can act as a serving dish. Metal peels are more practical, although they heat up when they are repeatedly going in and out of the oven can make the dough stick to them.
Pizza wheels slice efficiently through a hot pizza without dragging off all the topping.
A ‘testo’ or baking stone is an affordable luxury if you don’t have that outdoor, wood-fired pizza oven. Preheated in the oven for at least 30 minutes before starting to bake, the stone mimics the base of a real pizza oven and when the uncooked pizza comes into contact with the stone, the moisture is absorbed, the heat evenly distributed and the base will crisp up nicely. There are all types from round to rectangular on the market – some ovens have them as an optional extra. Thick, unglazed quarry/terracotta tiles are a good alternative – use them to line a shelf in the oven. They can be any size, as long as they fit together.
Having tested and cooked all sorts of doughs in all types of ovens, I have found that pizza cooks best in a standard electric oven which can reach temperatures of more than 200˚C (400˚F) Gas 6 and ideally, 220˚C (425˚F) Gas 7. This will cook the base quickly and be as close to the real thing as possible. Although convection ovens will work for pizza- and focaccia-baking, they tend to dry out the crust before it browns and the crust can be very pale.
A wood-burning oven is the ultimate for the truly serious pizza aficionado. One of these will heat to the right temperature and give that all-important smoky taste to the pizza, which comes from the burning wood. A pizza cooked in one of these will take just minutes as the temperature is more than 500˚C (930˚F). Domestic ovens are available (page 158) and could end up being your new best friend!
Yeast
Whatever yeast you use, it needs moisture and warmth to develop. Make sure the liquid is at the correct temperature – too cold and the dough will rise slowly; too hot and you risk killing the yeast. When a recipe states ‘hand-hot water,’ it should be between 40.5˚C (105˚F) and 46˚C (115˚F).
Flour
For pizza, using fine Italian ‘0’ grade flour or unbleached plain/all-purpose flour gives the best crust at home. For focaccia, Italian ‘00’ flour or cake flour gives the best domestic results. If you are making dough in a hurry, warm the flour in the microwave for 10 seconds before adding the other ingredients. Always have surplus flour on hand to dust your dough, hands, rolling pin and work surface.
Dough
When making the dough, remember: the wetter the dough, the better the dough. A stiff, firm dough is difficult to knead and even more difficult to shape. It will have a poor texture and will not rise properly. If kneaded well, the stickiness soon disappears. Always have surplus olive oil on hand for oiling clingfilm/plastic wrap, dough, bowls and baking pans, when required, to stop the dough from sticking.
Kneading
If the dough sticks to your hands when kneading, stop and quickly wash your hands then dip them in a little flour to dry them. You will find the dough doesn’t stick to clean hands. Kneading should stretch the dough and develop the elastic gluten in the flour – don’t be shy in pulling and stretching the dough.
Shaping
Starting with a perfect round ball makes it easy to stretch the dough into a circle. Shape each one into a smooth ball and place on a floured kitchen towel to rise. Dredge liberally all over with flour. When risen, flip the balls over onto a work surface (the flour will have stuck to the dough giving it a non-stick base) and roll out.
Topping
The cardinal sin in pizza-making is to overwhelm perfectly made dough with too much topping. This can make it difficult to shoot it into the oven and will prevent it rising. If any topping drips down the side of the pizza making it wet, it will not rise. Cheese that misses the target will glue the pizza to the baking stone or parchment.
Crust
If you like pizza with a good crisp crust and make them often, it is worth investing in a porous ‘testo’ or baking stone. Some ovens have them as an accessory, but they are cheap to buy. Otherwise a large, heavy baking sheet that will not warp will do.
Baking
The best way to get a pizza into the oven is to roll the dough directly onto baking parchment and slide this onto a rimless baking sheet or pizza peel. It will then slide onto the preheated ‘testo’ or baking sheet easily. For the best results, quickly slide out the baking parchment from under the pizza 5 minutes after the pizza has set to make sure that the crust crisps up.
Serving
Always serve open pizza as soon as it is cooked, slip it onto a wooden board and cut it using a pizza wheel, as knives can drag the topping. Leave filled pizzas to cool for 5 minutes before eating as they can burn the mouth!
Eating
Pizza is best eaten in the hand – the crust is there to act as a handle! In Naples, pizzas are folded in four and eaten like a huge sandwich in a paper napkin. Using a knife and fork just sends it skimming across the plate!
This will make the typical Neapolitan pizza – soft and chewy with a crisp crust or cornicione.
25 g/1 cake compressed yeast, 1 tablespoon/1 packet active dry yeast, or 2 teaspoons fast-action dried yeast
½ teaspoon sugar
250 ml/1 cup hand-hot water
500 g/4 cups Italian ‘0’ or ‘00’ flour or unbleached plain/all-purpose flour, plus extra to dust
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
Makes 2 medium-crust pizza bases (25–30 cm/10–12 inches)
In a medium bowl, cream the compressed yeast with the sugar and beat in the hand-hot water. Leave for 10 minutes until frothy. For other yeasts, follow the manufacturer’s instructions.
Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour in the yeast mixture, then the olive oil. Mix together with a round-bladed knife, then use your hands until the dough comes together. Tip out onto a lightly floured surface, wash and dry your hands, then knead briskly for 5–10 minutes until smooth, shiny and elastic. (5 minutes for warm hands, 10 minutes for cold hands!) Don’t add extra flour – a wetter dough is better. If you feel the dough is sticky, flour your hands, not the dough. The dough should be quite soft. If it is really too soft, knead in a little more flour.
To test if the dough is ready, roll it into a fat sausage, take each end in either hand, lift the dough up and stretch the dough outward, gently wiggling it up and down – it should stretch out quite easily. If it doesn’t, it needs more kneading. Shape the dough into a neat ball. Put in an oiled bowl, cover with clingfilm/plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and let rise in a warm, draught-free place until doubled in size – about 1½ hours.
Uncover the dough, punch out the air, then tip out onto a lightly floured work surface. Divide into 2 and shape into smooth balls. Place the balls well apart on baking parchment, cover loosely with clingfilm/plastic wrap and let rise for 1–1½ hours. Use as desired.
Basic sourdough pizza base
Sourdough starters need a lot of love and attention, so I felt that a quick, no-nonsense recipe was needed for a sourdough pizza. This follows the same lines as Basic Pizza Dough (page 12) and you do NOT require a starter the secret is in the sourdough breadcrumbs!
25 g/1 cake compressed yeast, 1 tablespoon/1 packet active dry yeast, or 2 teaspoons fast-action dried yeast
½ teaspoon sugar
250 ml/1 cup hand-hot water
400 g/3 cups unbleached white bread flour, 50 g/scant ½ cup rye flour, 50 g/1 cup fresh or stale sourdough breadcrumbs, plus extra flour to dust
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
Makes 2 medium-crust pizza bases (25–30 cm/10–12 inches)
In a medium bowl, cream the fresh yeast with the sugar and whisk in the hand-hot water. Leave for 10 minutes until frothy. For other yeasts, follow the manufacturer’s instructions.
Sift the flours and salt into a large bowl, stir in the breadcrumbs and make a well in the centre. Pour in the yeast mixture, then the olive oil. Mix together with a round-bladed knife, then use your hands until the dough comes together. Tip out onto a lightly floured surface, wash and dry your hands, then knead briskly for 5–10 minutes until smooth, shiny and elastic. (5 minutes for warm hands, 10 minutes for cold hands!) Don’t add extra flour at this stage – a wetter dough is better. If you feel the dough is sticky, flour your hands, not the dough. The dough should be quite soft. If it is really too soft, knead in a little more flour.
To test if the dough is ready, roll it into a fat sausage, take each end in either hand, lift the dough up and stretch the dough outwards, gently wiggling it up and down – it should stretch out quite easily. If it doesn’t, it needs more kneading.
Shape the dough into a neat ball. Put in an oiled bowl, cover with clingfilm/plastic wrap or a damp tea towel and leave to rise in a warm, draught-free place until doubled in size – about 1½ hours (or overnight in the fridge for a stronger flavour).
Uncover the dough, punch out the air, then tip out onto a lightly floured work surface. Divide into 2 and shape into smooth balls. Place the balls well apart on non-stick baking parchment, cover loosely with clingfilm/plastic wrap and leave to rise for 1–1½ hours. Use as desired.
Sicilian pizza dough
Sicilians tend to use the indigenous yellow farina di semola (hard wheat flour), which ensures a lighter crust, with lemon juice to add to the lightness and strengthen the dough.
10 g/½ cake compressed yeast, 1 teaspoon/½ packet active dry yeast, or ½ teaspoon fast-action dried yeast
a pinch of sugar
150 ml/⅔ cup hand-hot water
250 g/2 cups fine semolina flour (farina di semola) or durum wheat flour
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
Makes 2 thin-crust pizza bases (8–10 cm/3¼–4 inches)
In a medium bowl, cream the compressed yeast with the sugar and beat in the hand-hot water. Leave for 10 minutes until frothy. For other yeasts, follow the manufacturer’s instructions.
Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour in the yeast mixture, olive oil and lemon juice. Mix until the dough comes together. Add more water if necessary – the dough should be very soft. Tip out onto a lightly floured surface, wash and dry your hands, then knead briskly for at least 10 minutes until smooth, shiny and elastic. It takes longer to knead this type of dough. Don’t add extra flour – a wetter dough is better. If you feel the dough is sticky, flour your hands, not the dough. The dough should be quite soft. If it is really too soft, knead in a little more flour.
To test if the dough is ready, roll it into a fat sausage, take each end in either hand, lift the dough up and stretch the dough outward, gently wiggling it up and down – it should stretch out quite easily. If it doesn’t, it needs more kneading. Shape the dough into a neat ball. Put in an oiled bowl, cover with clingfilm/plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and leave to rise in a warm, draught-free place until doubled in size – about 1½ hours.
Uncover the dough, punch out the air, then tip out onto a lightly floured work surface. Divide into 2 and shape into smooth balls. Put the balls well apart on baking parchment, cover loosely with clingfilm/plastic wrap and let rise for 1–1½ hours. Use as desired.
Making focaccia
Focaccias are found in many different guises all over Italy and can be thin and crisp, thick and soft, round or square. I make this deep one in a round pan but it can be made in any shape you wish and cooked on a baking sheet. Although focaccia dough is softer and has a good deal of olive oil added to it, the mixing method is the same as pizza dough. Use the recipe for Deep-pan Focaccia on page 100, then follow the steps below to shape your bread.
Follow the recipe on page 100 so that the dough is at the stage where it has risen twice.
Uncover the dough. Push your fingertips into the dough right down to the base of the pan (don’t overdo it!), to make deep dimples all over the surface. The dough will deflate slightly. Drizzle very generously with olive oil (about 80 ml/⅓ cup) so that the dimples contain little pools of delicious oil.
Top with little sprigs of rosemary leaves and a generous sprinkling of salt.
Re-cover with clingfilm/plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and leave the dough to rise to the top of the pans – about 30 minutes.
Resume the recipe on page 100.
Pizzaiola sauce
This is a key ingredient of pizza and gives it its distinctive flavour. It is a specialty of Naples, but is quite common throughout Italy. To acquire its concentrated, almost caramelized flavour, the tomatoes must be fried over a lively heat.
8 tablespoons/½ cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 x 400-g/14-oz. cans chopped tomatoes (drained and juice reserved) or 900 g/2 lbs. fresh tomatoes, halved and cored
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Makes about 400 ml/1¾ cups
In a large shallow pan, heat the oil almost to smoking point (a wok is good for this).
Standing back to avoid the spluttering, add the garlic, oregano and tomatoes, then the reserved canned tomato juice (if using). Cook over a fierce heat for 5–8 minutes or until the sauce is thick and glossy. Season.
Pass the sauce through a food mill (mouli) set over a bowl, to remove seeds and skin. You can put the smooth sauce back in the pan to reduce further if you like. Ladle the sauce into the centre of the pizza crust and spread it out in a circular motion with the back of a ladle.
Classic pesto Genovese
Don’t stint on the fresh basil here – it is instrumental in making this the most wonderful sauce in the world! Adding a little softened butter at the end gives the pesto a creaminess that will help it coat hot pasta. The texture is ideal when the pesto is pounded by hand, so try it once and you’ll never make it in a food processor again! Pesto can be frozen successfully – some suggest leaving out the cheese and beating it in when the pesto has thawed, but I have never had any problems including it in the beginning.
2 garlic cloves
50 g/½ cup pine nuts
50 g/2 big handfuls fresh basil leaves
150 ml/⅔ cup extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to preserve
50 g/3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
4 tablespoons/¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Makes about 250 ml/1 cup
Peel the garlic and put it in a pestle and mortar with a little salt and the pine nuts. Pound until broken up. Add the basil leaves, a few at a time, pounding and mixing to a paste. Gradually beat in the olive oil, little by little, until the mixture is creamy and thick.
Alternatively, put everything in a food processor and process until just smooth.
Beat in the butter and season with pepper, then beat in the Parmesan. Spoon into a screw-top jar with a layer of olive oil on top to exclude the air, then refrigerate for up to 2 weeks, until needed.
Fiery red pesto
Years ago, long before it appeared on supermarket shelves, I devised this recipe to remind me of the flavours of southern Italy. Needless to say, this tastes really special and you can adjust the heat to your liking. Although not at all Italian, coriander/cilantro is a fantastic alternative to the basil.
1 large red (bell) pepper
50 g/2 big handfuls fresh basil leaves
1 garlic clove
30 g/⅓ cup toasted pine nuts
6 sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained
2 ripe tomatoes, skinned
3 tablespoons tomato purée/paste
½ teaspoon chilli/chili powder
50 g/½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
150 ml/⅔ cup olive oil, plus extra to preserve
Makes about 350 ml/1½ cups
Preheat the grill/broiler to high.
Place the (bell) pepper on the grill/broiler rack and grill/broil, turning occasionally, until blackened all over. Put the (bell) pepper in a covered bowl until cool enough to handle, then peel off the skin. Halve and remove the core and seeds.
Place the (bell) pepper and the remaining ingredients, except the oil, in a food processor. Process until smooth, then, with the machine running, slowly add the oil. Spoon into a screw-top jar with a layer of olive oil on top to exclude the air, then refrigerate for up to 2 weeks, until needed.
Black olive and tomato relish
This is a wonderfully useful relish to have sitting in the fridge to spread onto pizza dough or simply to serve with flatbreads as a dip. I always use the wrinkly, oven-dried black olives (sometimes known as Greek-style, but not Kalamata) as they have a good, rich flavour.
2 tablespoons sun-dried tomato oil
1 red onion, peeled and diced
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
5 sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained and diced
250 g/8 oz. pitted/stoned black (or oven-dried) olives
1 fresh bay leaf
15 fresh basil leaves, torn into pieces
freshly squeezed juice of 1 lemon
3–4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to preserve
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Makes about 350 ml/1½ cups
In a medium saucepan, heat the sun-dried tomato oil and gently sweat the onion and garlic for a few minutes. Add the sun-dried tomatoes, olives and bay leaf and continue to cook for a few minutes until the flavours have melded.
Season, remove from the heat and discard the bay leaf. Pour the mixture into a food processor with the basil and process until you have a coarse purée. (You may have to do this in 2 batches if there isn’t enough room in the food processor.) Add the lemon juice, oil and more seasoning, if necessary.
Spoon into a screw-top jar with a layer of olive oil on top to exclude the air, then refrigerate for up to 2 weeks, until needed.
