Margherita pizza
Ingredients:
- (1) 1 (28 ounce) can pelati tomatoes
- 2 Kosher salt
- 3 all purpose flour, for dusting
- 4 4 (12 ounce) pizza dough balls, at room temperature, recipe follows
- 5 8 ounce mozzarella, grated
- 6 handful fresh basil leaves, torn
Pizza dough
- 1 1 (25 ounce) package dry active yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
- 2 1/2 cup lukewarm (about 105 to 115 degrees F)
- 3 4 cups bread flour
- 4 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 5 3/4 cup cold water
- 6 1/4 cup olive oil, plus more for bowl
Preparation:
Preheat a wood fired pizza oven to very hot 4 hours before cooking. Alternately, you can use a preheated pizza stone in your home oven. It’s best to heat it for 1 hour at 500 degrees F before baking. Add tomatoes to a food processor and process until smooth then season with salt. Sprinkle some flour on your pizza peel. Using a rolling pin, stretch your dough to a very thin 10 inch round. Using a spoon to spread, put 1/4 of the sauce on the dough, and spread leaving a 1 inch border. Sprinkle 1/4 of the mozzarella oven sauce. Gently put the pizza on the floor of the pizza oven. Bake until golden and crisp, about 3 minutes. Top with hand torn basil. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the yeast, lukewarm water, and 1/2 cup bread flour. Mix well and let sit until bubbly, about 30 minutes. Whisk together the remaining 3 1/2 cups bread flour and salt in another bowl so it will be evenly distributed. Once the yeast mixture is nice and bubbly and looks like foamy beer, add 3/4 cup cold water and olive oil. Using a dough hook, turn the mixer on and add the flour in increment. Mix the dough hook and comes away from the sides of the bowl. Place the dough in a large bowl lightly greased with olive oil. Turn to coat all sides of the dough with oil. Cover the bowl loosely with a clean tea towel. Let rise until doubled in size, about 2 hours. Punch dough down, and let rise another hour. Divide the dough into 4 equal disk. Lightly flour a work surface. Using your fingers or heels of your hands (and a rolling pin, if you prefer) stretch the disks out to a 10 inch round. Repeat with the remaining 3 pizza dough disks.
