pizza

the recipe that can not miss in an italian website. it’s the easiest recipe for the tipical “pizza in teglia”: the tall pizza that is perfect for electric home ovens. it is soft on the inside and well crunchy below and doesn’t require kneading (neither with your hands nor with a machine) and doesn’t need too many hours of rising.

quantities for 4 portions

for the dough

ingredients

  • flour (we used 1/3 whole wheat, 2/3 normal): 500g
  • yeast: 7g
  • sugar: 2 teaspoons
  • warm water: 400ml
  • extra-virgin olive oil: 50ml
  • salt: 1 teaspoon

procedure

  1. mix flour, yeast and sugar in a small bowl.

  2. in a bigger bowl (or pot) mix the warm water (not hot!) and the olive oil.

  3. little by little, add the flour to the liquid ingredients, mix with a hand whisk.

  4. once you have added half of the flour, add the salt and the rest of the flour all at once.

  5. mix with a fork until all the ingredients are incorporated. the dough will be very soft, sticky and elastic.

  6. cover and let it raise for two hours in the turned-off oven (if you plan on lettin it raise for longer, reduce the quantity of yeast).

  7. cover a baking tray with parchment paper and pour some extra-virgin olive oil on it. this way the pizza won’t stick to the tray and the oil will make it crusty.

  8. after two hours, the dough will have doubled its volume. pour it on the tray and roll it out with you hands, previously greased with some oil to prevent the dough from sticking to your hands. it will be very elastic and easy to roll out.

  9. let it rest for some more time to let the air bubbles form again: at least 10 minutes and up to one hour. if you let it rest for more than 10 minutes cover it, or place it in the oven (turned off!) with a small pot of hot water that will keep the dough moist.

  10. we are ready for the topping! in the meanwhile, start the heating of the oven: 200° C, ventilated mode.

for the topping

we like our pizza with abundant tomato sauce, red onions and capers. this is our suggestion, but, of course, feel free to use the topping you prefer.

ingredients

  • tomato sauce: 480g
  • red onions: 3
  • capers: a handful

procedure

  1. mix the tomato sauce with two tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil and a teaspoon of salt.

  2. pour it little by little on the rolled-out dough. leave a small crust on the side and no white spaces in the middle.

  3. cook it in pre-heated oven at 220° C for 25 minutes.

  4. while the pizza cooks in the oven, prepare the onions: cut them in thin slices and cook them in a pan with extra-virgin olive oil and some salt. low heat.

  5. after 20 minutes, take the pizza out of the oven, spread the capers on the surface and cover with the onions.

  6. put it back in the oven for 5 more minutes.

  7. enjoy your pizza!

note: the best flour for pizza is “manitoba flour”, it has a higher protein content (15/100g, while normal flour only has 8-10/100g). preteins make the dough elastic and this will help it raise. if you find it, use half normal half manitoba. if you don’t find it, in supermarkets look at the nutritional values of different flours: you should find some brands that have around 12/100g.

note: if you store your pizza in the fridge for the next days, before consuming we suggest heating each slice in the microwave for a couple of minutes, and then put it in a pre-heated pan for a couple minutes more. the microwave will make the heating even, the pan will keep the botton crusty!