Pizza of our home

Who doesn't like pizza? It's a highly adaptable dish. It's simple, comforting and deeply savory. I guess that's why it's loved almost all over the world. I started to play with yeast last year. I now have a stand-up mixer and the machine can muscle out pizza dough in no time. Strangely, I still prefer the taste from a no-knead recipe. And that's what I have been using, a no-knead pizza dough recipe. No machine nor  muscles required.

Pizza dough (adapted from Jim Lahey's no knead pizza dough)

- 500 g bread/strong flour (I use 350 g white + 150 g wholemeal)
- 1 teaspoon instant yeast
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1/4 teaspoon diastatic malt flour/powder (optional)
- 2 teaspoons sea salt (less if using table salt)
- 350 g lukewarm water (around body temperature)
- 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil

Mix everything thoroughly except oil in a big bowl  until the dough looks like a rugged mass. Pour 1 tablespoon of oil into the dough and dip your fingers into the oil. Lift the dough out of the bowl and shape into a boule. It takes a few rounds of folding and tucking underneath. If the dough sticks to your fingers, pour in another tablespoon of oil. The aim here is not to reach a smooth, shiny and non-sticky stage but just to form a ball. A couple of minutes would suffice.

Rest the dough in a bowl. Cover with the plastic wrap. I like to ferment the dough in a microwave to have a constant temperature which is not too cold or warm.

The dough needs to rise for about 5 hours where I live during winter, or until the volume has doubled. You can speed up the fermentation process by increasing the amount of yeast, or slowing it down as in the original recipe. I usually start the dough at noon and go about my business in the afternoon. When I come back in the evening, the dough will be ready for me. That's why I use 1tsp of yeast here. Feel free to adjust the amount of yeast to suit your life style. That's the fun of making yeasted bread.

Flour a work surface and scrape the dough out of the bowl. Divide it into smaller parts as intended to use. Perform the gluten cloak shaping technique. It's a great trick I learned from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes. Shape each portion into a ball. Then for each ball, gently stretch the surface of the dough from top to the bottom on all sides, rotating the ball as you go along (see the video). Rest the dough for another 30 minutes before rolling out. Refrigerate or freeze the unused portions.

Before rolling out the dough, heat the oven at 230C (or as high as you can). Well oil a baking sheet and scatter semolina on top of the oiled baking sheet. This is to prevent pizza sticking to the surface. I like the slightly added crunch and contrasting texture that semolina brings. You can leave it out completely of course. Roll out or stretch a pizza dough to fit the pan. First cover the bare dough surface with tomato sauce (recipe to follow) leaving a border of 1/2 inch outside. Scatter mozzarella cheese all around. Dot Mascarpone cheese on top. You don't need much, 4-6 teaspoons of them for a medium or large pizza would do. It's optional but please try at least once. It changed my pizza world. And finish with your favorite toppings (pepperoni/ham, artichokes and mushrooms are our favorite combo). Straight into the oven for 20-30 minutes depending on your oven temperature.

Tomato sauce for pizza

- 1 tablespoon of olive oil

- 2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped

- 400 g tinned tomatoes, roughly chopped 

- 2 tablespoons of tomato paste

- 1 teaspoon sugar

- pinch of chilli flakes

- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

- 1/4 teaspoon dried basil

- salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a soup pot and fry the garlic until slightly golden on the outer edges. Throw in all remaining ingredients. Cook the sauce, uncovered, for 30 minutes.