oh god. that pizza….

-linda

1 cup of warm water (between hot and warm, actually), in which you dissolve 1 teaspoon dried yeast.

When the yeast is beginning to foam in the water (don’t add sugar to make it go faster), throw the water into the flour and start to mix it up. You may well need more water, depending on how thirsty your flour is, what the ambient humidity is, whether Venus is trine Capricorn…

Once you have a cohesive, non-sticky dough, turn it out on a floured surface and knead until it gets smooth. As my guru told me “You know it’s kneaded enough when you can smack it and it’s like a baby’s bottom.” Put it in an oiled bowl, making sure to oil the dough all over so it doesn’t stick. Let it rise, covered with a plastic bag, in a warm place for 45 minutes to an hour.

When the dough has doubled its size, punch it down. At this point, since I find this quantity makes two pizza shells, I generally divide it and put half in a Ziploc bag in the freezer. The other half I roll into a ball, put the plastic back over it, and stick it in the refrigerator for a minimum of 15 minutes. Cold dough is more rubbery and more easily formed.

When you’re ready to rock, put some cornmeal (or semolina) on your peel, take your dough and flatten it into a disc, and, with your two fists in the center, gently pull it apart, rotating it so that it’s expanded evenly. Or you can be boring and roll it out on a floured surface.

Put the pizza dough on the semolina and, working quickly, add ingredients, burnable ones (salami) first, mozzarella before sauce, keeping stuff away from the center, because when it rises in the oven stuff will migrate to the center.

Slide the pizza off of the peel onto a stone in a pre-heated 500+ degree oven (professional ovens get to around 800). At around 500 degrees, your pie should take around 15-20 minutes. Make sure the rim is dark brown, especially if you’re yeast-sensitive like I am.

Dress with olive oil and Parmesan *after* it comes out. Let it rest for a couple of minutes.

Serve with a green salad with balsamic vinaigrette and an Italian Primitivo or good California zin.

You can get a pizza stone for $3.49 at Breed’s, incidentally. That’s where I got the one I have. (It’s a cheap piece of shit and snapped after six months’ hard use, but the break was clean, so I just fit it back together.) Or use unglazed terra-cotta tiles. Peels are also available at bakers’ supply shops, and, again, Breed’s. Wooden is best, although mine is metal, from a pizza supply specialty shop near Scranton.

You’re also right about the creativity: I used to go to a pizzeria in Berlin, of all places, that had some remarkable combinations. My favorite was fontina cheese and truffle oil.

One question: what’s that blue thing? I’ve always used a terra-cotta pizza “stone” to get that crisp crust going. That doesn’t look like it.

And why buy pizza dough when it’s so easy to make yourself?