Any good pizza begins with good dough. I am not talking some store bought mass produced item. I am talking about hand made goodness from flour.
- 1 (1/4-ounce) package active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoon)
- 1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, divided, plus more for dusting
- 3/4 cup warm water, divided
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
First we need to proof the yeast. Why do we proof yeast? What even is “proofing” yeast? Yeast is a living organism. Dry yeast is in a dormant state. When we proof yeast we are making sure it hasn’t died and bringing it back to an active state. Yeast eats sugars and produces carbon dioxide. Warm water activates the dry yeast and we give it a form of sugar to start eating.
In a mixing bowl add the packet of yeast, 1/4 cup of warm water, and a tablespoon of flower. Mix it all together and then put it aside. After about five minutes check back to make sure your little yeasty beasties are alive and working. The mixture which was a flat tan color should look like someone has poured some cream into it. I tried to capture it in the picture below. You’ll hopefully know it when you see it.
Or you can just go straight to the rolling out phase. I don’t do the whole toss the pizza in the air thing. I roll it out to generally be the shape and size of my pizza pan. I oil up the bottom of the pizza pan and then put the dough in it. I use my fingers to push out the dough till it fits the pan. I like to build up a little edge on the outside for a bit of crust to hang onto.
- 1 Can of diced tomatoes. I thought these were 16 oz but they are actually only 14.5. I actually prefer to use the canned tomatoes instead of the bad greenhouse tomatoes you can get from the grocery store. Obviously the best would come from tomatoes grown locally.
- 12 oz tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2-3 cloves of garlic
- Italian seasoning to taste( oregano, basil, thyme) I use a lot. probably about 3 tablespoons
Pizza Margherita is just pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, and fresh basil. I got the basil from my balcony garden. I spread the sauce over the dough. I then place some basil leaves. You should really use fresh mozzarella cut into slices and placed over the top. I didn’t have that so I just used a bag of shredded mozzarella.
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