Vizzio's Italian Cookbook

No stories, just good old-world Italian recipes

Pizza

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Pizza

NY style pizza, not that fake ish.
Prep Time 1 day
Cook Time 15 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine Italian
Servings 2 people

Equipment

  • 1 Pizza stone
  • 1 Pizza Peel
  • Oven capable of higher than 500F

Ingredients
  

  • 4 oz Pizza sauce fresh is preferred
  • 2 Cups Bread flour not multi-purpose. Preferably King Arthur’s.
  • 1 pkg Active dry yeast or instant dry yeast
  • 2 Tsp Salt
  • 1 Tsp Sugar
  • 4 Tsp Olive oil
  • 1.25 cups Warm water 105-115F
  • 8 oz Mozzarella cheese NOT PRE-SHREDDED
  • Extra Bread flour

Instructions
 

  • In large bowl, mix flour, water, yeast, salt, sugar, and oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 2 hours at room temperature. The dough should rise to about twice the size.
  • On large cutting board, put down a light layer of flour. Remove dough from bowl and put on cutting board. Knead for approximately ten minutes. Add flour to board and hands to prevent dough from sticking. When adding flour be careful to not add too much flour, the dough should still be a little sticky after kneading. Put in a lightly oiled air tight container and refrigerate at least 24 hours.
  • Shred mozzarella cheese, or cut into thin slices. Preheat oven to 500F. Remove the container from the fridge and let sit for at least an hour to warm up to room temperature, do not remove cover as air will dry out dough. Remove from container and place on lightly floured counter or cutting board. Create a crust along the circumference of the dough about 1 inch wide by pushing down with your fingers 1 inch away from the edge of the dough. The thickness where you press down should be less than 1/4 inch while the crust should be 1/2 inch or thicker. The center of the dough should remain thick at this point. Put one hand on the center of the dough and the side of your other hand in the newly created low point by the crust, the side of your hand being your pinky side. Hold the center of the dough lightly and stretch the dough outward using the side of your hand about 2-3 inches once. The dough will spring back a little bit. Turn the dough a quarter of a turn using your center hand and repeat the stretch. Repeat this process until you have turned the dough in a complete revolution. Move your outer hand an inch or two closer to the center and repeat the stretching process. Repeat this until the dough is 12-14 inches in diameter and the thickness is roughly the same throughout the entire dough, minus the crust.
  • Lightly flour the pizza peel and transfer dough on top. Scoop all of sauce into a large ladle. Place ladle in the center of the dough and slowly pour sauce. In a circular pattern slowly pour sauce while working your way outward until the crust. Use the bottom of the ladle to push sauce into any empty areas.
  • Sprinkle shredded mozzarella on top, or cover with slices. Pre-shredded mozzarella burns because it is coated in non-stick oil, whereas fresh cheese does not.
  • Open oven and transfer pizza onto pizza stone. To do this, angle pizza peel at 15-25 degrees and make short, quick motions until pizza slides off of peel. Cook for 9-10 minutes or until crust starts to brown.

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