Pizza
What do you think of this? I made my first pizza good enough to post on the site. It was actually an experiment, but it turned out so well that it falls into the total success category. I wouldn't have set out to make pizza at home when there's good pizza in town, and between us, I've had so many failures, but on Saturday, while chatting with some friends (over a beer, you guessed it 😉 ), one of them told me that in Italy he saw an Italian who made catering pizza and used beer instead of water. It's all the beer's fault! The idea stuck with me, so on Monday I prepared the dough, and Tuesday night I was baking pizza.
If you like thin crust pizza, this is the ideal recipe for home. You just need flour with at least 12% protein (I used the classic Hungarian Finom Liszt flour which meets this requirement), a can of beer, and a bit of patience because the dough rising in the refrigerator will develop a more intense flavor than if it rises quickly at room temperature, but this process takes 1 day.
And one more important thing - I used fresh mozzarella from Delaco for the first time and it's super good. I bought it just for the great price but I was impressed by the quality. I recommend you at least try it, it's similar to the imported Italian one.
Ingredients
Pizza Dough
450 g all-purpose flour (with at least 12% protein)
280 ml beer
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 packet dry yeast
Tomato Sauce
1 can diced tomatoes (400 g)
1 tablespoon oil
3 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon oregano
3-4 fresh basil leaves
salt, pepper
Toppings
a few tablespoons olive oil
400 g fresh mozzarella
spicy salami
1 hot pepper
1 slice ham
Servings: 4 pizzas
How to prepare pizza
- The dough: warm the beer slightly until lukewarm. Dissolve the yeast in a cup with a little beer and add the sugar.
- Put the flour in a bowl, make a well in the center and pour in the yeast. Add the oil, salt and start mixing, slowly pouring in the remaining beer until the dough comes together. Knead well until you get an elastic dough that no longer sticks to your hands, about 5 minutes.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put the dough in the refrigerator (on the bottom shelf) until the next day (24 hours). This way the dough will rise slowly.
- Take the dough out of the refrigerator 2 hours before baking the pizza, to give it time to come to room temperature.
- Prepare the tomato sauce: heat the oil slightly and add the sliced garlic. Let it soften a bit (until the garlic starts to smell) and add the tomatoes, then season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the oregano and cook for about 5 minutes on higher heat, stirring frequently, until the sauce thickens a bit. Turn off the heat and add the chopped basil. Let it cool and if you want it to be perfect, strain the sauce through a fine sieve to make it very smooth (I didn't do this).
- Turn the oven on maximum (250°C) and place the pan you'll bake the pizza on inside.
- On the work surface, cut parchment paper to fit the pan you're baking the pizza in (I used the oven tray). Sprinkle a little flour on it and gently knead the dough to release the air bubbles. Cut it into 4 equal pieces.
- Take one piece and on the parchment paper stretch it into as thin a sheet as you can (I stretched them to 27 cm diameter), leaving the edges slightly thicker.
- With a brush, coat the dough with a little olive oil so it doesn't crack.
- Then spread 3-4 generous spoonfuls of tomato sauce all over the pizza.
- Sprinkle the shredded mozzarella on top. You've made your first margherita pizza. I made 2 margherita pizzas.
- If you want, you can add other ingredients on top - I also made one with spicy salami and another with spicy salami, ham and hot pepper slices. It's important that all the toppings you put on are sliced as thinly as possible.
- Take the hot pan out of the oven (use oven mitts so you don't burn yourself) and carefully slide the pizza into it, along with the parchment paper you formed it on.
- Bake on the 3rd level (from the bottom) for 7-10 minutes. To make sure it's done, lift an edge slightly and look underneath - the dough should be golden.
- Remove the baked pizza, cut it into slices with a pizza wheel and serve while hot.
Pizza dough
Risen dough
Tomato sauce
Stretch into a thin sheet
Assemble the margherita pizza
Another pizza with hot pepper (made by Radu)
Baked margherita pizza
Margherita pizza slice
Spicy pizza slice
