Pasta della pizza

Naples - Campania
Preparation - 1 - 3 hours for dough to rise and rest
One 10- to 11-inch pizza

Remember that pizza needs a very hot oven - commercial pizza ovens run about 700 degrees F.

• 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour plus 1/2 cup for rolling out
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast, dissolved in
• 1/2 cup lukewarm water

NOTE: Be careful with measuring - 1 cup in a pyrex measuring beaker can be different from a simple 1 cup measuring cup. You can adjust by adding flour or water, but it increases the work.

BY HAND:

DISSOLVE yeast in lukewarm water and add salt and olive oil.IN a separate, large mixing bowl, put 1 1/4 cups flour.POUR the salt, dissolved yeast, and olive oil mixture onto the flour in the mixing bowl and combine the flour with all the other ingredients. Mix with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, slowly adding flour until the mixture can be worked by hand without the dough sticking unduly to your hands. Turn out on a surface dusted with flour and kneed, dusting with small amounts of flour if necessary (5 - 8 minutes) until you have a smooth, consistent, elastic ball.

PLACE the kneeded dough bowl brushed with olive oil, cover with dish or plastic wrap, place in warm, non-drafty place to allow dough to rise until doubled in bulk - 1 - 3 hours. Dough should be firm and elastic. The dough can 'hold' a few hours longer if you wish.

WITH A FOOD PROCESSOR:

PUT the flour and salt into the processor. Start processor, then slowly add the dissolved yeast and the olive oil. Continue processing until dough forms a ball, or glutinous fragments.REMOVE from processor, kneed by hand until you have a smooth, consistent elastic ball. Dust with flour if mixture is too sticky.

PLACE the kneeded dough in a covered bowl in warm, non-drafty place to allow dough to rise until doubled in bulk - 1 - 3 hours. Dough should be firm and elastic. The dough can 'hold' a few hours longer if you wish.

PREPARE THE OVEN: Leave one rack on bottom shelf, place your pizza stone or quarry tiles or even an upside down cast iron pan (large enough to hold the pizza you make). Turn on oven if you are ready to expand your pizza dough.

For 7" inch pizzas (photo) divide the dough into 2 balls, allow to rest 10 minutes or so. Flatten a ball with your palm, then pick the dough up with both hands and rotate it in a circle letting the weight of the dough gradually expand the flatten ball into a circle... pizzaiolos don't roll pizza dough out, they stretch and work it (the famous throwing up in the air) so that the gluten in the dough stretches. You can determine your own thickness, and leave a thick edge if you wish. Let the raw pizzas rest for a half hour or so (dough will barely spring back when the put a finger into it), while your oven is coming up to 500 degrees F.
NOTE: You can also roll the pizza out with the traditional roller - especially if you want a thinner pizza with crisp crust.


GARNISH: Add the sauce and the topping. Arugula should be added about a minute before pizza is cooked.

Cook for 4 minutes, take a look. Be ready to rotate pizza 180 degrees with tongs if the top is browned on one side and not the other... pizza should cook in 4 - 6 minutes. Remove from oven, allow to cool

<<PREVIOUS- BROWSE RECIPES -NEXT>>