My mom was a great scratch baker, famous for her fluffy yeast rolls and gooey sweet rolls. She made her dough in a huge wooden bowl and covered it with a tea towel to let it rise.
Sometimes, as a treat, she turned the dough into square thin-crust pizza she baked in a shallow sheet pan. Saucy and bubbling with cheese, it was pretty good. But it never inspired me to try making pizza at home. I’ve always thought of pizza as something best left to the professionals.
Recently, though, the explosion of restaurants around Atlanta with pizzaiolos working dough and firing fancy pizza ovens piqued my curiosity, and I decided to sit-in on a pizza making class at Double Zero Napoletana in Sandy Springs.
The evening I was there, the instructor was sous chef Brian Owens, who explained the details of the pizza process with precision and a touch of humor.
Double Zero adheres to the traditions and stipulations of traditional Neapolitan pizza, using imported Italian ingredients, including Antimo Caputo Superfine “00” flour and a wild yeast starter from Naples.
From start to finish, the dough goes through nearly three days of rising, proofing and refrigeration. After that, it’s fashioned into crusts that are topped with San Marzano tomato sauce, buffalo mozzarella and an assortment of ingredients. Finally, 90 seconds in a custom imported oven transforms it into a beautifully blistered pie.
The best part of the class was a hands-on lesson from a pizzaiolo, who gracefully shaped balls of dough into perfectly round, thin crusts in a matter of minutes. Honestly, I couldn’t really get the hang of it. But with his help, I was able to put together a yummy mozzarella, sopressata and wild mushroom pizza.
Back home, I finally got inspired to give DIY pizza a go. I tested a basic “00” dough recipe and simmered a simple San Marzano tomato sauce.
Lacking a fancy wood burning oven, I tried out three different cooking methods — baked, grilled and fried. I used both fresh and shredded mozzarella with all kinds of toppings — pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, peppers, some fresh basil and oregano, even a bit of fennel salad.
I certainly didn’t expect to recreate the greatness of Neapolitan pizza. If anything, I learned enough in class to reinforce my original notion about leaving that to the professionals. But I was pleasantly surprised to find more success than failure in my homemade pies. And I think I’ll continue to tinker with pizza recipes.
Recipes
DIY pizza takes dough, and maybe some sauce. Beyond that, it’s up to you. Choose your toppings to create your own special pie. Just remember, too many heavy or juicy toppings will make the crust hard to handle and could turn it soggy.
Basic Pizza Dough
Hands on: 30 minutes Total time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Makes: 4 pizza crusts
This basic pizza dough recipe makes 4 rustic pizza crusts that can be used immediately or made ahead and frozen for up to three months. Superfine “00” flour, available at many markets nowadays, makes the dough soft and stretchy, and the baked crust crispy, but you can substitute bread flour in a pinch.
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon fine sugar
1 cup lukewarm water
2 1/2 cups “00” flour, plus more to roll out dough
1 teaspoon fine sea salt or sea salt flakes
1 tablespoon olive oil
In a small bowl, add yeast, sugar and water and stir together. Set mixture aside in a warm place until bubbles form on the surface, about 5 minutes.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt and olive oil and make a well in the center. Pour in the yeast mixture and mix together with well-floured hands to form dough.
Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 3-4 minutes, or until dough is smooth and elastic, and form it into a ball.
Place dough ball in a clean medium bowl, cover with plastic wrap or a damp tea towel and set aside in a warm place until dough doubles in size, about 1 hour. Punch down dough and allow to rest 5 minutes.
Roll the dough out of the bowl onto a floured surface. Using a pastry cutter or chef's knife, cut dough into four equal-size pieces to form four equal-size balls. Stretch or roll out each ball to make 4 crusts about 8-10 inches round and 1/8 inch thick.
Use immediately or freeze each crust in layers of nonstick baking paper and plastic wrap for up to three months.
Adapted from Donna Hay Magazine, www.donnahay.com.
Per pizza crust: 327 calories (percent of calories from fat, 12), 9 grams protein, 62 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams fiber, 4 grams fat (1 gram saturated), no cholesterol, 473 milligrams sodium.
Tomato “Mother” Sauce
Hands on: 15 minutes Total time: 4 hours, 15 minutes
Makes: about 3 quarts
Pizza sauce can be as easy as canned Italian tomatoes whizzed in a food processor with your favorite seasonings. But this elemental slow-cooked marinara from chefs Frank Falcinelli and Frank Castronovo of Brooklyn's Frankies Spuntino restaurant is a true Italian-American “mother” sauce. As the Frankies say, “There's almost nothing we won't cook in it or put it on.”
1 cup high quality olive oil
13 cloves garlic, peeled
4 28-ounce cans San Marzano or other high quality whole peeled Italian tomatoes
large pinch red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
In a large deep saucepan over medium-low heat, add the olive oil and garlic and cook for 10 minutes, stirring or swirling occasionally, until garlic is deeply golden in color and fragrant. If garlic starts to smell acrid or color too quickly, remove pan from burner and reduce heat.
While the garlic is getting golden, pour tomatoes into a large bowl and crush them with your hands, while pulling the firmer stem end from each tomato and discarding it, along with any basil leaves packed in the cans.
When the garlic is just about done, add red pepper flakes and cook for 1 minute to infuse the flavor into the oil. Dump the tomatoes into the saucepan with the oil, add the salt and stir well. Turn heat up to medium, and gently simmer 4 hours, stirring and adjusting heat, as needed.
This recipe makes a lot of sauce. But it can be stored covered for at least four days or frozen for up to three months.
Adapted from the “The Frankies Spuntino Kitchen Companion & Cooking Manual” by Frank Falcinelli, Frank Castronovo and Peter Meehan (Artisan, $24.95).
Per 1/4-cup serving: 65 calories (percent of calories from fat, 67), 1 gram protein, 4 grams carbohydrates, trace fiber, 5 grams fat (1 gram saturated), no cholesterol, 222 milligrams sodium.
Oven Baked Pizza
Hands on time 15 minutes. Total time: 15 minutes, plus 30-60 minutes for heating cookie sheet or pizza stone.
A pizza stone in very hot oven is the tried and true method for making pizza at home. If you don’t have a pizza stone, use a cookie sheet.
Preheat oven to its highest temperature (usually 500 degrees), on the convection setting, if possible. Place pizza stone on the bottom of the oven and heat for one hour before starting. If the oven has coils on the bottom, place on the lowest rack. Otherwise, place a cookie sheet on the bottom of the oven or lowest rack and heat for 30 minutes before starting.
Using a spoon or ladle, spread just enough sauce to lightly cover the pizza crust. You should be able to see the dough through the sauce. Cover crust with toppings and transfer to the stone or cookie sheet and bake for approximately 10 minutes, until the outer crust is browned and toppings are bubbly.
Grilled Pizza
Hands on time: 15 minutes Total time: 15 minutes, plus at least 10 minutes for heating the grill.
Turn your gas grill into a pizza oven with this simple method.
Oil the grill grate. Preheat grill with all burners set on high and the lid closed for at least 10 minutes.
Lightly brush both sides of crust with olive oil. Using a rimless baking sheet or a pizza peel, carefully slide crust onto the grill grate and cook until the underside is well marked, about two minutes.
Transfer crust back to baking sheet or peel with the grilled side up. Arrange toppings on grilled side and carefully slide crust, uncooked side down, onto grill grate. Close lid and cook 4-5 minutes until the outer crust is browned and toppings are bubbly.
Fried Pizza
Hands on: 10 minutes Total time: 10 minutes plus time for heating the oil.
Frying is the quick way to a crispy, buttery crust. Toppings get a quick turn under the broiler. Smaller pies make a fun starter or party snack. If you don’t have a deep fryer, use a dutch oven or deep sauce pan.
Divide basic pizza dough recipe into 6 or 8 balls, depending on desired crust size and size of your fryer, and stretch or roll out each ball to make 6-8 crusts about 4-6 inches round and 1/8 inch thick.
Preheat oven broiler to its highest temperature.
Heat a deep fryer filled with canola oil or a dutch oven filled with at least 4-inches of canola oil to 365 degrees. Using tongs, fry each crust for about 1 minute on each side or until cooked through. Remove with tongs and transfer to a baking sheet. When all the crusts are fried, cover each with toppings and place baking sheet under broiler until toppings are bubbly and crust is golden brown.
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