Pizza Margherita - Neapolitan Style
Sunday is Pizza Day and my favourite way to celebrate the end of the week is by making the pizza myself at home. Pizza making can sound scary and difficult but it’s actually really easy, fun and so cheap! I’m not going to lie, the first time your pizza might not be perfect but the more you practice the more you’ll find that you actually like your home made pizza better than any restaurant pizza or delivery pizza.
I especially like making my own pizza as I can make the tomato sauce myself (using real tomatoes!) and can top it with whatever I want. You can really go crazy with it.
Prep Time: 25 Minutes + 8 Hours Resting Time (Or overnight)
Cooking Time: 10 Minutes
Ingredients for the dough (2 pizzas)
Soft White Flour - 250 g (9oz)
Fresh Yeast - 5 g (1/8 oz) - you can also use 1 Tbs dry yeast instead
Olive Oil - 1 Tbs
Salt - 3 teaspoons
Lukewarm Water - 250mL (1 cup)
Ingredients for the topping (2 pizzas)
Mozzarella - 200 g (8 oz)
2 Tomatoes San Marzano (peeled) - you can also substitute this with tomato sauce
Olive Oil
Basil Leaves - 2/3
Preparation for the dough:
If you are using fresh yeast the first step will be to dissolve it in the 250mL of lukewarm water. If you are using dry yeast you can simply integrate it to the flour but you will still need 250mL of lukewarm water.
Sift the flour and add half of the flour (125g) to the 250mL of water and start working it with your hands or in a kneading machine for around 10 minutes. I prefer to work my pizza by hand but if you want to use a machine it’s no issue at all just make sure you are not using high intensity and the dough is mixing lightly.
Add the remaining flour (125g), as well as the olive oil and the salt and work with your hands for another 15 minutes. The dough should be extremely smooth and should not be sticky by then end of it.
Once you have worked your dough to the point that it’s no longer sticky and feels smooth you can roll it in a ball and place it in a bowl. Cover it with a damp cloth and let it rise for 2 hours in your kitchen (not in the fridge - it should be room temperature).
After 2 hours you can take your dough ball out and divide it into 2 parts and place it on a floured baking sheet - cover again with the damp cloth and let rest at room temperature for another 6 hours.
When the rest time is done it’s time to stretch your pizza. Clean the surface you will be working on and dust it with flour.
Take your dough, place it on the work surface and stretch it with your hands, forming a circle. Now hold the dough with your right hand and spin it around with your left hand and keep pushing the dough from the center to the edges (this way we will create the nice crust). The crust should be around 2 cm and the pizza should be around 30 cm in diameter. It might not be perfect the first time around but you will get the hang of it.
Now start pre-heating the oven to 250°C (470°F).
Take a baking sheet and place some parchment paper on it.
Take your tomatoes and crush them with a fork, add the salt and mix into a sauce.
Take your spread out pizza dough and spread the tomato sauce as well as the drizzled olive oil on top. Bake the pizza for 5 minutes take it out and spread the mozzarella on top breaking it with your fingers. Bake for another 5 minutes.
Remove from the oven and add the basil leaves - your pizza is ready :)