Pizza Dough & Sauce
This page is an ongoing collection of creative, & easy, pizza dough and pizza sauce recipes.
New York Style Pizza Dough Recipe
Ingredients:
9.8oz or 1.25 cups or (280g) warm water
16.4oz or 2.05 cups or (466g) bread flour
½ tsp (1.25g) instant dried yeast
1¼ tsp (8g) salt
1 tsp (4g) sugar or honey.
Sugar or honey helps activate/feed the yeast and also acts as a browning agent in the dough when baked.
1 tsp of olive oil
Execution:
In a mixing bowl, combine the water, yeast, and sugar/honey, mix until well combined.
Add the flour and salt, then with your hands or a spatula mix until the liquid is completely absorbed
Add the olive oil and mix for 5 minutes, or until the ingredients are fully incorporated and start to form a ball.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, and knead until the dough is smooth, elastic, and only a little bit sticky (6 to 8 minutes)
Divide the dough into two equal portions. Form each into a ball, place each in a lightly oiled airtight container.
If you want to bake pizza that day, the dough must double in size at room temperature (covered) before shaping and baking.
Or you can refrigerate for 24-72 hours to prove the dough cold. Cold proving gives the dough more character and flavor. If you have cold-proved the dough, remove the from the refrigerator 1-2 hours before baking.
While the dough is doubling in size, fire up your oven to 550˚F
The oven (with the baking stone) must reach 550˚F for at least 35 to 40 minutes before baking
Using a small amount of flour, dust your peel.
Stretch the first pizza dough ball out to 16 inches and lay it out on your pizza peel and add your preferred toppings.
Slide the pizza off the peel and into the oven, making sure to rotate the pizza so it cooks evenly on all sides. It should take about 6 minutes to cook.
Once cooked, remove the pizza from the oven, slice, and serve!
No Cook
San Marzano Pizza Sauce
What are DOP San Marzano tomatoes?
DOP San Marzano tomatoes are a special variety of tomato that grows in the Sarnese-Nocerino district in Campania, Italy, near Naples.
Like any product labeled DOP guarantees that what you bought are actual San Marzano tomatoes and not a San Marzano Style tomato.
DOP means: (Denominazione d'Origine Protetta or Protected Designation of Origin), San Marzano tomatoes are cultivated in a specifically defined region of Naples.
Typically, the San Marzano’s are low in acid, velvety in texture and sweeter than most canned tomatoes.
Ingredients:
1-28 oz (794g) can of San Marzano dell’Agro Sarnese-Nocerino D.O.P. Plum Tomatoes. I use the Mutti brand from Italy.
Please don't use inferior quality tomatoes. This is the most important ingredient.
4-5 Tbsp good quality extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp sea salt (look to see if salt has already been added to the can). If it has, taste first then add salt, if needed.
A few pinches of dried oregano
4 or 5 leaves of fresh Italian basil, torn into small pieces
(optional) A clove of fresh minced garlic. This is the way I make my sauce. Typically, garlic is only used on one type of pizza in Naples.
Execution:
In a stainless bowl, hand crush the tomatoes
Add garlic, basil, oregano and garlic
Add salt if needed
Stir thoroughly and taste
Adjust seasoning if needed.
DO NOT COOK.
Place in the fridge until ready it’s to be used.
Poolish Pizza Dough Recipe
What is Poolish?
Poolish is a highly fluid yeast-cultured dough. It's a type of pre-ferment traditionally used in the production of French bakery products.
The Poolish technique was brought to France in the 1920's and the term “poolish” comes from the old English “Polish”. It is quite famous in French bread-making. It's mostly always 100% hydration.
This recipe is something you can do without disrupting your busy lifestyle. You can make the poolish in roughly five minutes before you go to bed and will be ready when you start your day (8 to 10 hours).
I recommend using a food scale to weigh your ingredients in grams so you can achieve a more consistent accurate bake, they are avaiable on Amazon for around 15 - 20 bucks.
However, if you don’t have one, I have converted grams into cups and ounces.
This is the one I use
Poolish Starter
Ingredients:
300g or 1¼ cups of 00 flour (or any good high protein bread flour)
300g or 1¼ cups of water
0.6g or 1 heaping tsp of dried yeast
Execution:
Part 1 - The Poolish Starter
Make the poolish – mix 300g or 1¼ cups of water and 300g or 1¼ cups of flour with 0.6g or 1 heaping tsp dried yeast in a large mixing bowl.
Cover (with plastic wrap) and leave to proof for 8 to 10 hours at room temperature (or until the poolish is really frothy with lots of bubbles). It will smell a bit like beer.
Below is the remainder of the recipe.
Pizza Dough
Makes 4 - 12 inch or 3 - 16 inch pizzas
Part 2
This is added to the Poolish
70g or 1/3 cups water of water
330g or 2 5/8 cups. of 00 flour
14g or 2 1/2 tbsp of salt
Execution:
Part 3
Mix 70g or 1/3 cup of water, 330g or 2 5/8 cups of flour, and 14g or 2 1/2 tbsp salt and mix into your poolish to form the dough
Knead the dough for 10 to 15 minutes. While you knead, put a little olive oil on your hands and knead until the dough is shiny and smooth).
Form into a ball and on your workspace, cover with a mixing bowl, and leave to rest for a half-hour.
Part 4
After resting for a half-hour, gently take the dough ball, (and yes, the dough is supposed to be a bit sticky) and palce it into a lightly oiled bowl and cover.
Slow bulk ferment in the fridge overnight OR you can leave to rise 2 hours in the same covered bowl at room temperature to use that day.
Cold fermenting adds flavor and character to the dough.
Part 5
The dough should have doubled in size.
If the dough has been cold-fermented, take the dough out of the fridge, and allow it to warm to room temperature for about a half-hour before you work with it. If you didn’t cold ferment, skip this step.
Dump the dough out onto a very lightly floured work area
You will see lots of little bubbles (facing up at you) this will be the BOTTOM of the dough.
Now use a bench scraper or knife to cut into portions
Important: Make sure when you cut the dough portions to form the balls, be as gentle as you can, and turn the dough strip over.
The bubbled area (bottom) since being turned over will remain to be the bottom and the shiny smooth side will be the top.
Divide and form dough into 4 equal dough balls.
Cover and leave the dough to proof at room temperature (or until doubled).
Now, Stretch, top, and bake
Classic Pizza Dough Recipe
Classic Pizza Recipe
Classic Dough Recipe
3 cups of all-purpose flour or bread flour
1 package active dry yeast (1 1/2 tsp)
1/3 cup warm water (to dissolve yeast in)
2/3 cup warm water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp olive oil
makes 4 small pizzas or 2 medium or 1 large
Execution:
dissolve yeast in 1/3 cup warm water (105 degrees), add tsp sugar (or honey) to help yeast activate, if it starts to bubble it's alive, if not get new yeast.
In a stainless bowl, place all dry ingredients, make a well in the center and add all wet ingredients. Mix until you can form a loose crumbly, slightly sticky ball of dough....(it might take a little more water if too dry or a little more flour if too wet).
Dump out onto a lightly floured surface and knead, in the same direction for at least 10 minutes, repeat and then rest, repeat again then rest, until the dough is smooth and shiny.
Kneading forms the gluten, so it gives the dough proper texture and pull.
Let rest and put into a lightly oiled bowl with a damp towel on top and let it rise for an hour and a half.
When it's finally doubled in size, punch down allow to rise, then punch down again and form disks for pizza.
rest dough, covered under plastic wrap before forming pizza
Start by preheating your oven to 550 degrees.
When ready, use your hands on a floured surface, to form pizza. Don't flatten with a rolling pin, it forces all the air out of the dough.
This dough is best when stretched and formed by hand. Placed on a floured pizza paddle, baking sheet, or pizza pan to be topped and baked.
Bake 5-7 minutes or till golden and bubbly.
If you have a pizza stone, it will give great results.
Tips:
Rule of thumb: Kneading by hand or in a mixer is the way to develop strong gluten strands, which will give you the proper pull and texture for your pizza.
1. Smooth Dough: Kneading by hand: The dough will definitely start out looking uneven and lumpy. It will slowly smooth out as you knead. By the time you are done, it should be completely smooth, a little tacky and it should hold its shape.
2. Poke it: Give your dough ball a poke with your finger. If it goes back to its original shape quickly, you’re in business… If not, continue kneading.
3. Can you see through it: Pull off a small piece of dough and stretch it into a thin sheet. If the gluten’s strong, it will stretch paper-thin to create your very own dough window. You really should be able to see through it. If it breaks and you tear a hole into it, keep kneading
Classic tomato sauce recipe
Ingredients:
2- 6 lb 10 oz. cans of Cento peeled plum tomatoes (I prefer San Marzano).
1 large onion, diced
12-14 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped
2 bay leaves
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/8 cup sea salt
Execution:
In a stock pot:
sweat onions and garlic in olive oil, until translucent
add tomatoes
add salt
add bay leaves
bring to a low boil and turn down to simmer for a couple of hours.
don't have it on high heat too long it will burn on the bottom.
don't add black pepper till finished cooking, it will turn bitter.
Then when finished cooking take a potato masher to the whole tomatoes to give it a smoother consistency...you can puree it but I like it more rustic.
This sauce is a good vehicle for adding fresh herbs, red wine, meatballs etc...
I use it in braising, soups, curries, I make a Bolognese sauce out of it or use it on pasta as is.
* If it's too much, cut the recipe in half....this is the batch I make every month.
Build a pizza
Classic recipe!
Nothing better than fresh pizza, made at home!
Execution:
Form your dough using your hands, don't flatten with a rolling pin, it forces all the air out of the dough.
Put rolled out dough on a floured pizza paddle. Give the dough a shake so it doesn't stick to the paddle.
In this instance, I spread 6-8 cloves of chopped garlic on the dough and a splash of olive oil.
2-3 ladles of tomato sauce (see recipe above)
top with knobs of fresh mozzarella and another splash of olive oil.
Then slide into a preheated 550 oven.
Bake for 5 to 7 minutes or until it is golden and bubbly.