- 3
Ingredients
- For the topping:
- NGREDIENTS
- Makes 3 large pizzas. For vegetarian option, just omit the ham.
- 400 G Italian ‘00’ grade flour, or strong white bread flour
- 3 g fresh or 1/4 tsp fast action yeast
- 10 g salt
- 240 g/ml water, at room temperature
- 2 tbsp olive oil plus a little more for kneading
- a little semolina
- tomato sauce made from 1lb fresh tomatoes or one tin, recipe here*
- 3-4 tbsp grated parmesan
- smoked salt (optional)
- a small bunch of basil leaves
- 150 g good quality cooking mozzarella**
- 3-5 slices of prosciutto, or cooked ham if preferred
- a few cherry tomatoes
- a few olives (optional)
- olive oil
- just skip the basil – it will come onto the pizza on its own
Preparation
Step 1
**mozzarella di bufala is gorgeous and I’m not too stingy to use it but it’s really wet in the middle and it makes the pizza a bit soggy. So unless you insist on the buffalo stuff and want to drain and squeeze it really well, use good quality cow’s milk cheese meant for cooking with.
METHOD
Start the dough the night before you want to make the pizza. Mix the flour with the yeast and salt, add the water and oil and knead for about 10-15 minutes, until it’s smooth and elastic, doesn’t stick to your hands or bounces off the mixer bowl walls. Place it in a large bowl covered with cling film and keep in ambient temperature for 18-24 hours.
Prepare the sauce and bring all the topping ingredients to room temperature. Halve the cherry tomatoes, squeeze out the seeds, sprinkle the cut surface with salt and place them cut side down on a paper towel, to drain the moisture. Slice the mozzarella or tear it roughly. Thinly slice the olives, if using. Tear prosciutto slices into smaller pieces.
Pizza topping ingredientsDivide the dough in three pieces (about 200g each), shape into balls and leave on a floured surface for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat a frying pan large enough for a pizza to fit in (30cm diameter) on the hob, until smoking. Preheat the grill to the highest setting – I find that putting an upturned roasting tin in the grill compartment helps, otherwise the pizza won’t be sitting close enough to the heat source.
Stretch the dough balls out or roll them out with (although the latter is considered a cardinal sin) to discs about 25cm in diameter, making sure the rim is formed at the edge to catch the sauce. Sprinkling some semolina under the dough disc might help transport it into the pan, if you want to use a peel.
Homemade pizza doughWhen the pan is smoking hot transfer the dough disc into it, using a peel, just your hands or half-wrapping it around a rolling pin. Lay it flat in the pan, spread the tomato sauce over it, sprinkle with parmesan and smoked salt, if using, add a few basil leaves, a third of the mozzarella pieces and the prosciutto chunks. Drizzle with olive oil and place a few cherry tomato halves and olive slices on it. Frying pan pizzaWhen the base starts to get charred (use a spatula to look underneath), take the pan off the hob and place it under the grill. This won’t take any time at all – as soon as the cheese starts to bubble, it’s ready.Pizza under grillSlide it off the pan onto a wooden board – this is a tricky bit as the large pan will be heavy and hot – cut with a pizza wheel and serve. Bring the pan back on the hob to smoking hot for the next pizza.