This delicious pizza is made with a 2 hour pizza dough. If you have more time, and sourdough starter, you can do the sourdough pizza dough instead. They are both delicious and both recipes are included below.
Pizza Dough (2 hour)
Ingredients:
4 1/8 cup flour – type 00 works best
1 package yeast
1 1/4 tsp sugar
1 1/4 cup warm water
2 1/2 TBS lard or butter
Directions:
Mix warm water, sugar, and yeast. Let sit for 5 minutes. Mix salt and flour in a separate bowl. Add flour mixture to yeast mixture then add lard or butter.
Mix and knead dough.
Let rise for 2 hours.
Divide into desired size and shape for pizza
Sourdough Pizza Dough
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cup water
1/2 cup sourdough starter
10 grams or 1 3/4 tsp salt
2 1/2 cup flour – type 00 works best
Directions:
Mix all ingredients.
- Cover for 30 minutes.
- Stretch and fold.
- Repeat steps 1 and 2 – four times
- Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for 8 hours at room temp.
- Stretch and fold.
- Divide into baseball size balls.
- Store for up to 3 days in fridge.
- Remove from fridge and let come to room temp before use.
Margherita Pizza
Ingredients:
Pizza dough (one of the above recipes)
Tomato sauce; mix tomato passata with fresh basil and extra virgin olive oil.
Mozzarella cheese; I prefer fresh mozzarella—either di bufala or the cow’s-milk version, fior de latte—because it’s what was used on the original Pizza Margherita in Naples, Italy. Do not use pre-shredded type or you will be disappointed.
Fresh Basil
Extra virgin olive oil
Directions:
Once you have your dough shaped and ready to go, heat oven to 500 F. Make sure the rack is in the upper third of the oven.
Place your tomato sauce, cheese and basil on the uncooked pizza dough.
Cook in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, until the rust is golden and the cheese is partially golden and melted.
Drizzle olive oil and enjoy!
