how to make your own delicious cheap pizza. |
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| Dough tossing at our favourite pizzeria in Rome. |
Cooking Italian food is fun and easy, and once you know how to make Italian pizza dough the possibilities are endless!
Here's our simple, quick recipe with easy to follow instructions.
Making Italian pizza dough : why not buy it?
Ready-made cheap pizza bases are widely available now in supermarkets and delicatessens. So why would anyone go to the trouble of learning how to make pizza dough?
Taste, cost and satisfaction!
Shop-bought products tend to be bland and tasteless. Homemade dough can include the best ingredients, taste absolutely delicious, and still make a very cheap pizza.
As for the satisfaction - anyone who has ever kneaded dough knows how rewarding working the mixture with your own hands can be.
And of course, there's the satisfaction of your family and friends complimenting you on the beautiful light base they're tucking into.
Italian pizza dough : how is it different?
Cooking Italian food differs from region to region and pizza is no exception.
Different areas of Italy have different pizza traditions : in the Sorrento district, for example, they are often rectangular.
Neapolitans, who genuinely believe no-one else in the world knows how to make pizza dough, like a thicker pizza base with a rim; in Rome the bases are thinner and don't have a rim - Roman toppings tend to be thicker and stay in place without.
How to make Italian pizza dough : ingredients.
The ingredients for basic Italian pizza dough are very simple : yeast, flour, salt, and water. Many people also add a little olive oil (although Neapolitans nearly die of shock if you suggest that!).
The best flour to use is the Italian 'doppio zero' (00) which is more finely ground and makes a lovely, smooth dough. However it's not essential and any strong bread flour will work fine.
We also use brown flour sometimes for a change, although in Italy you will never find health concerns getting in the way of a 'proper' pizza dough!
Use the best olive oil you can afford - extra virgin gives an amazing taste - and if possible, a fine sea salt rather than table salt.
These quantities will make around four to six small bases, or two large ones.
Ingredients :
1 kg (2lbs) 'tipo 00’ flour, or strong white or brown bread flour
1 level tablespoon fine sea salt
14 grammes (0.5 oz) dried yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
650ml lukewarm water
How to make pizza dough : method.
✮ In a large jug, mix the yeast, sugar, olive oil and water and stir well. Set aside for a few minutes.
✮ Sieve the flour and salt into a large bowl and make a hole in the middle.
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✮ Using either a fork or your hands, swish the liquid around the sides of the flour, slowly drawing the flour into the liquid. Do this until most of the flour has been incorporated.
✮ Once it's drawn together, put it onto a lightly floured board or work surface and use your hands, covering them with a little flour first so the dough doesn't stick to them.
✮ Knead the bread until you have a smooth dough.
✮ Place the dough back into the bowl and cover it with a damp cloth. Leave in a warm room until the dough has doubled in size - about an hour.
✮ Take the dough back on the work surface and knead it again.
✮ Now use either your hands (Italian experts whirl it round their heads but you may not want to practise this at home!) or a rolling pin and roll the dough to the size you want.
✮ Put it into a greased pizza tin or on a baking tray.
✮ Top with your favourite pizza sauce and cook according to that recipe. A basic 'margherita' pizza will take about twenty minutes at 180º C (350º F, gas mark 4).
✮ Eat pizza accompanied by a simple green salad with a basic homemade Italian salad dressing for a delicious, quick and easy meal.
Top Tips for making Italian pizza dough :
If you don't want to use the dough immediately (say within fifteen minutes), don't leave it standing around - it will dry out and become hard and brittle.
It will keep well if wrapped in cling-film and left in the fridge until you need it.
This Italian pizza dough can also be frozen - we always save the left-over bits, knead them so they come together, and wrap them in cling-film. The kneaded dough will keep in a freezer for several months. More cheap pizza for a tiny effort!
We do also make this dough in the bread-maker sometimes - but don't tell our friends in Italy - they'd think all their efforts to teach us cooking Italian food was gone to waste!
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✮ Now use either your hands (Italian experts whirl it round their heads but you may not want to practise this at home!) or a rolling pin and roll the dough to the size you want.
✮ Put it into a greased pizza tin or on a baking tray.
✮ Top with your favourite pizza sauce and cook according to that recipe. A basic 'margherita' pizza will take about twenty minutes at 180º C (350º F, gas mark 4).
✮ Eat pizza accompanied by a simple green salad with a basic homemade Italian salad dressing for a delicious, quick and easy meal.
 |
If you don't want to use the dough immediately (say within fifteen minutes), don't leave it standing around - it will dry out and become hard and brittle.
It will keep well if wrapped in cling-film and left in the fridge until you need it.
This Italian pizza dough can also be frozen - we always save the left-over bits, knead them so they come together, and wrap them in cling-film. The kneaded dough will keep in a freezer for several months. More cheap pizza for a tiny effort!
We do also make this dough in the bread-maker sometimes - but don't tell our friends in Italy - they'd think all their efforts to teach us cooking Italian food was gone to waste!
How to make Italian pizza dough
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