Homemade Pizza
It’s a simple fact: everybody loves pizza. Pizza is just delicious, and there’s not much more to say about it.
Making a pizza at home is so much fun. There is truly an artistry to making your own pizza, and there is added fun in that creative process.
It all starts with the dough. You baby this dough, let it rest for at least 48 hours to develop a rich, yeasty flavor. When I prepare the dough for pizza, it gets its own special treatment of toppings: brushed with strong olive oil, sprinkled with sea salt and sometimes a bit of garlic powder or onion flake. The crust of the pizza is often the first thing that touches your tongue when you’re eating it- so you’ve gotta make it good.
Then, the sauce. We do two variations: homemade pesto, and homemade tomato sauce. Both options are great and you’re only limited by your imagination. Some people who don’t like any sauce at all, some who use olive oil- or even infused olive oil. This is a creative experience, so every person making a pizza can do their own thing with it. That is part of what makes it SO fun!
Next, the toppings!! Oh, the toppings! You have so many options you can really put anything you want on a homemade pizza as long as you can find it at the store. My standby is a traditional Margherita. I use buffalo mozzarella, chopped cherry tomatoes, and fresh basil. William loves his salamis. He also enjoys putting minced, fresh garlic on top and placing it under the broiler for a bit.
There are a few tips I can give about toppings:
Avoid cheeses that are super soft or too creamy (like burrata) as they will melt all over the place and basically liquefy.
Don’t put fresh herbs or greenery on the pizza while it is cooking, wait until after and treat it like a garnish, unless you want them wilted and limp.
As for fresh tomatoes, if you wanted a roasted char, I suggest cooking them separately, you are unlikely to get that by simply placing them on the pizza in your standard, home oven. Usually, I place them on the pizza after cooking.
Other than that, treat your dough like a canvas and place the toppings wherever you want! You can even try to make actual images out of it. This is a really fun activity when you have a group of people for dinner and everyone wants something slightly different.
A note on tools: I am IN LOVE with my pizza stone. It is definitely one of the best kitchen purchases I have ever made. Get a good pizza stone. You know you want to. Just do it. I also have a pizza peel and a nice pizza cutter (we make pizza a lot….). They aren’t necessary but they’re fun to have. Also, make sure you have some parchment paper or wax paper on hand for this, especially if you’re going to be making several pizzas at a time. They are perfect as staging areas for a pizza to be made, and it’s super easy to flip the pizza over onto the pizza stone using the paper without damaging the shape of the crust.
Homemade Pizza
Ingredients
- 2 cups warm water
- 2 tablespoons yeast
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 5 1/2 cups flour
- 2 tablespoons kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon olive oil plus extra for rising
- Toppings and sauce of choice.
Instructions
Proof the yeast.
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Preheat the oven to 200F. After it has preheated, turn it off and open the oven door.
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Combine warm water, yeast, and sugar in a glass container, stirring gently.
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Place the bowl in the oven, keeping the door open, for about ten minutes, until creamy and foamy.
Make the dough.
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Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl.
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Fold the proofed yeast into the flour until everything comes together in a ball.
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Let rest for ten minutes.
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Coat dough in olive oil to moisten, and divide the dough into four equal pieces and place in a large container or casserole dish.
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Coat them with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and seal with plastic wrap.
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Let rest in the refrigerator for 48 hours for best flavor, or at least two hours (on the counter) if you are in a hurry.
Assemble and bake.
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Preheat the oven to 425F with a pizza stone inside. Be sure to allow twenty minutes for the pizza stone to be brought up to temperature in the hot oven.
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On a piece of parchment paper, flatten the dough into any shape you’d like, keeping it roughly 1/4″ thick.
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Brush the crust with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
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Use the parchment paper to flip the dough over carefully onto the pizza stone.
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Cook it for about ten minutes, or until crisp.
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Remove and top with sauce and any other toppings.
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Put the pizza back into the oven, this time on broil, and cooke for another five minutes- watching it closely.
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Add any additional seasonings, herbs, or olive oil to garnish.
Recipe Notes
Toppings such as truffle oil, fresh basil, and spices should be added after the pizza has been cooked.
