I love pizza! Who doesn’t? There is so much you can do, so many different ways to be creative. I like to make a thin-crust pizza and this recipe is very light and wholesome. With the right toppings, pizza is actually quite healthy and certainly not “bad for you” as is sometimes suggested. It is a cozy family meal, we often make it a “movie night” weekend meal, and it’s always something we look forward to!
I also love making pizza for friends as it is such a relaxed and convivial dinner plus there's no need to be running back and forth to the kitchen,
Here is my recipe, which makes 3 large pizzas:
Dough:
1 1/3 cup ice water
1 tsp. yeast
1 tbsp. oil (vegetable or oil)
2 tsp. sugar
3 cups flour, preferably bread flour
2 tsp. salt
Can of crushed tomatoes
Oregano (Dried is fine)
Mozzarella cheese - I like to use "Galbani - Great for slicing"
Parmesan Cheese
Toppings according to your preferences - be creative! Anything is possible 😋.
Side note: There's a whole selection of Pizza Peels here, I prefer the wood or bamboo ones. My absolute favorite Pizza Stone is this one, I just leave it in the oven and rarely take it out.
In a food processor, or standing mixer, or using dough function of your bread machine, or by hand, mix water, yeast, oil, sugar, flour and salt in this order to obtain homogenous ball of dough. The dough should be slightly sticky. Place dough in lightly oiled bowl, cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap and a towel and refrigerate, preferably overnight, or at least for 2 hours.
Take dough out of fridge and let sit at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours (depends on how warm your kitchen is).
Just before starting to make pizzas, preheat oven to as hot as your oven allows (I preheat mine to 460°F). The hotter, the better.
Separate dough into 3 balls and start rolling it out. In between rolling it out, stretch it over your hands (see video at approximately the 5-min mark).
Place dough disk onto baking sheet covered with parchment paper. If you are using a pizza peel and a pizza stone, cover the peel with parchment paper as it will make it much easier to glide your pizza with toppings onto the pizza stone. Once there are toppings on the pizza, it becomes heavier and sticky and difficult to glide pizza onto the stone. Parchment paper makes the whole process so much easier!
Spread a very thin layer (almost transparent) of crushed tomatoes onto pizza disc.
Sprinkle with oregano.
Place very thin slices of mozzarella cheese on top of sauce and sprinkle parmesan cheese over mozzarella cheese (gives it a bit more flavor).
Decorate your pizza with toppings of your choice. Less is more, so don’t overload the pizza!
Bake for 5 to 10 minutes in your oven (depends on how hot it is) until the crust is golden and the cheese is all melted.
Enjoy!