Pizza Magherita Deluxe

There are many ways to make pizza and everyone has their favourite toppings. But in the excitement, many tend to pile their pizza sky high with ever more weird things and cover it all in 20 cm of cheese. Well, not this one. This is back to basics with one of the best guidelines in cooking: Keep it simple. The Magherita in a deluxe version which all it means is that I've added a bit of goat cheese. I haven't been blogging for a while as I've had a visit from my family. I served them these pizzas and they absolutely loved them. I dedicate it to Arne who hardly ever has pizza at home because his wife gets it at work. Go on Arne, make it yourself... The dough and sauce is borrowed from my food guru, Chef John at foodwishes.com (see link on the right).

Ingredients (4 pizzas):

Dough
1 pack dry yeast
750g all purpose flour
175ml warm water
1 tsp salt
120ml olive oil
Tomato sauce
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried red pepper flakes (or chili, if you want it a bit spicier)
3 cloves of garlic
1 can of toatoes
Olive oil
2/3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar.
Toppings
Aprx. 15 big, fresh basil leafs per pizza
1-2 very thinly sliced tomatoes
Mozarella Cheese
Parmesan Cheese
Goat Cheese
Olive oil
(1 clove garlic)
(Corn flour)

Put one package of dry yeast (or of fresh, but I seem to get best result with dry yeast) ...

Add 175ml of finger warm water (not cold nor burning hot, or yeast won't work).

Add only 95g of plain flour. Give it a good mix and leave it in a warm place coveed with a moist cloth for 30 minutes to create a spungy consistency.

After 30 minutes you add 150g of flour and 1 tsp of salt.
Then 240 ml of cold water to the spunge. Whisk it together and leave in a warm place for another 30 minutes.

After 30 min, fold in the rest of the flour (500g) bit by bit, at first with a scraper and later with your fingers.

Add the olive oil.

You need to knead the dough well for at least 5 - 10 minutes to get it really nicely smooth and elastic. You want it to bounce back when you stick a finger into the dough. (Sorry about the picture quality, my camera ran outof battery and I had to use my mobile phone. Dough shouldn't be that yellow).

Form a ball of the dough and put some olive oil on your hands, which you rub all over the ball. Leave to rest covered with a wet cloth for at least 2 hours. I normally cut the dough into 4 pieces beforehand which I then cook 2 immediately, and put the other two in individual plastic bags in the fridge. This way will last for 2 extra days and even get a bit tastier as they develop more flavour, I would say.

Now for the sauce. Warm up 1 spoonful of olive oil at medium low temperature. Add the crushed garlic and spice and stir it for 1 minute. Be careful not to burn the spice, you just want it to lightly sizzle so you wake up the flavours.

Add a can of peeled, quality tomatoes. Add a tsp of salt and another of sugar. Simmer for 30 minutes with no lid while stirring regularly. Blend it at the end for a smoother sauce and let it cool off while preparing the rest.

Prepare all the ingredients you want to put on. The trick is to put them on your pizza dough as fast as possible not to let the sauce seep too much into the dough and make it soggy in which case it won't rise.

If your dough has been in the fridge take it out at least an hour before. Roll out your dough on a flour sprinkled surface. If you start with a perfectly round ball it's easierto make a perfectly round pizza. You want it evenly thin all over.

Optionally, sprinkle cornflour on your baking paper to achieve that authentic pizza feel on the crust.

Spread a thin layer of the tomato sauce and top it with fresh basil leaves. Contrary to popular pizza making, less is more. Too much sauce will result in a wet pizza.

Add some grated mozarella and then your tomato shavings. Again not too much, you want a balance.

Finish it off with some grated parmasan cheese and sprinkle it with olive oil (and possibly some freshly minced garlic).

Make sure you oven is as hot as possible. Put it at maximum and leave the tray in there. Transfer the pizza to the hot tray and quickly put in the oven not to lose heat. Remember, real pizzas are made in stone ovens at much higher temperatures. (This is an older picture. I've found that turning the baking tray up-side-down actually makes it easier to transfer the pizza from and to the table)

Pizza is done when cheese is melted and light brown.

Look at this. The smell of basil, tomato and melted cheese is beyond words. At this stage, I know you want to dig in, but give it at least 5 minutes to cool down a bit or you'll burn your tounge. Furthermore, you taste it better when it isn't burning. Sprinkle it with dry oregano.