Can't resist the warm, enticing aroma of a perfect homemade pizza with a crisp crust topped with creamy mozzarella and juicy tomatoes? Now you can become an expert pizza maker using Charles and Michele Scicolone's Pizza--Any Way You Slice It. Their simple techniques and 100 innovative recipes will have you making top-quality, authentic pizza right in your own kitchen.Inspired by a trip to Naples, the birthplace of pizza, Charles and Michele became determined to find ways to duplicate their
In Naples the classic pizza measures about 9 to 10 inches and has a crust that is neither too thin nor too thick. The texture of the pie is soft and chewy. Neapolitans say the true test of a well-made pizza is whether it can be folded in half and then folded again, into quarters, without cracking or breaking the crust. Only the edge, called the cornicione, is crisp, though it too is chewy.
In Italy flour is softer than American flour because it is low in gluten, the protein that makes pizza dough and other baked goods chewy. Soft flour is great for making cakes and pastry, but not so good for pizza, so Italians blend their soft flour with hard American or Canadian flour, which they call Manitoba. This flour, which is higher in gluten, gives Italian pizza dough the desired chewiness.
On this side of the Atlantic, we need to soften our flour to make an authentic Neapolitan-style dough, so we combine cake flour with all-purpose flour. This tender dough stretches easily and has less of a tendency to spring back on itself, so it is easier to shape. Neapolitan dough is made with less yeast, so it rises a bit more slowly - perfect for a long, slow overnight refrigerator rise, or a more rapid rise at room temperature. The longer rising time makes a slightly better-tasting crust, too.
Makes enough for four 9- to 10-inch pizzas
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 1/4 cups warm water (105 to 115 degrees F)
1 cup cake flour (not self-rising)
2 1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
Olive oil for the bowl
Olive oil for the bowl
Sprinkle the yeast over the water. Let stand 1 minute, or until the yeast is creamy. Stir until the yeast dissolves.
In a large bowl, combine the cake flour, 2 1/2 cups of the all-purpose flour, and the salt. Add the yeast mixture and stir until a soft dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead, adding more flour if necessary, until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.
Lightly coat a large bowl with oil. Place the dough in the bowl, turning it to oil the top. Cover with plastic wrap. Place in a warm, draft-free place and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours.
Flatten the dough with your fist. Cut the dough into 2 to 4 pieces and shape the pieces into balls. Dust the tops with flour.
Place the balls on a floured surface and cover each with plastic wrap, allowing room for the dough to expand. Let rise 60 to 90 minutes, or until doubled.
Thirty to sixty minutes before baking the pizzas, place a baking stone or unglazed quarry tiles on a rack in the lowest level of the oven. Turn on the oven to the maximum temperature, 500 or 550 degrees F.
Shape and bake the pizzas as described in the following recipe
Tip: Pizzaiolo Umberto Damiano gave us this suggestion for making the crust of a homemade pizza taste toasty and charred as if it had been baked in a wood-fired oven: Sprinkle the preheated baking stone with flour a few minutes before placing the pizza in the oven. The flour will brown and give the pizza crust added flavor.
