Homemade Pizza Dough

My grandparents came from Vieste (FG) Italy. In my quest to learn more about my heritage I went to Vieste and took a cooking program. My husband and I had 4 chefs at a five star hotel to ourselves for a week and learned many traditional dishes made in the village and Gargano. I’ve had many people ask me how to make pizza dough at home. The recipe below was given to me by Chef Marco at the Pizzo Munno Vieste Palace Hotel.

Recipe Summary
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: N/A
Yield: 1 large pizza, 2 medium size pizzas

Ingredients
3 1/2 cups flour 00, reserve 1/2 cup for working the dough
1 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 cup water, tepid

PREPARATION IN A FOOD PROCESSOR
Put the water in a bowl and mix in the yeast and sugar. Place it in a warm place such as the oven and allow it to activate for about 15-20 minutes or until it doubles in size.

Put 3 cups of flour and salt in a mixer with the dough element and pour in the yeast mixture. Process it until it forms a ball. If working it by hand, place it in a bowl and mix the flour and yeast mixture with a wooden spoon.

Knead the dough lightly and place it in a bowl brushed with the olive oil and cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap. Place it in a warm place and allow it to rise for at least 1 hour.

Punch the dough down and let it raise for another 1/2 hour covered. You can use as much of the dough as you might need and freeze the rest. When defrosting it, allow the dough to raise again.

Roll out the dough using the reserved flour and you are ready to prepare your pizza, calzone, cheese bread, stromboli etc.

PIZZA SUGGESTIONS
When spreading the dough out, use your hands rather then a rolling pin. This will keep the air in the dough and your pizza will be puffy if this is the result you want. I prefer stretching the dough with your thumb and the back of your hand. Use you finger tips to then rotate it on a board stretching it and turning it over a few times.

Most of us don’t have wood burning pizza ovens however; a pizza stone is the best solution for a home oven. You can also use terra cotta tiles, which can be bought in a home supply store. If you do this, buy 2 or 3 layers, they will keep the heat in really well and do the trick without spending a lot of money for a pizza stone. Be sure to cook it in a very hot oven at least 500º F. Put your pizza stone in the oven until it is hot at least 1 hour.

Spread semolina flour on the bottom of the pizza pallet or wood board and prepare your pizza. This will allow you to slide it off the board easily onto the tile or stone. Flour will also do, but the dough slides off the wood palette more easily with semolina. I recently read that parchment paper works very well and tried it. It was very easy to slid off and I didn’t have to use semolina.

If you are grilling it in a fireplace or on a grill, I have found that a metal grate works very well and allows me to easily turn it. I like this because it also allows the heat to brown the bottom making very crispy and gives it a smokey flavor. The fire should be red coals.

FILLING
Don’t be afraid to use whatever you like. Goat cheese, Gorgonzola Fete cheese are great. Olives, most vegetables, meats and seafood even fruits combined with cheese such as Gorgonzola makes a very delicious pizza. Be creative!

You can use fresh tomatoes, or Passate di Pomadori or just pureed can tomatoes. Some people like to use a tomato sauce, but I really prefer the fresh taste of tomatoes adding the herbs that you prefer. Sprinkle with chopped garlic, oregano or basil, salt and pepper; add whatever you like on the top. Mozzarella is traditionally used layered on the top and should be added a few minutes before the pizza is done. Just long enough so that it melts. I find this allows everything to cook on top of the pizza without the crust getting soggy.

~ by Patricia Turo on August 20, 2009.