Pat PilcherAre you disappointed at your attempts at homemade pizza, or maybe even too scared to try? PAT PILCHER is here to explain the techniques that will make you a pizza guru.
When I got my hands on the rather amazing Ninja Woodfire Outdoor Oven, I realised I had to up my pizza-making game, even though I’d been cooking pizzas for years.
While making an okay-ish pizza at home isn’t difficult, making incredible pizzas takes practice and patience. Here are some tricks I picked up on my pizza-crafting journey. Hopefully, they’ll help you, our beloved reader, craft killer pizzas!
The secret to Italian food is letting the ingredients speak and not getting too fussy. Traditional Italian cookery has always been about using seasonally fresh ingredients in ways that showcase their taste, texture, and freshness. In this case, it comes down to getting the three parts of a pizza right: the dough (the base), the sugo (pizza sauce), and the toppings/cooking technique.
Starting with the pizza dough, there are a few tricks. A good pizza dough is simple, consisting of flour, yeast, water, olive oil and salt. I use granulated yeast dissolved in water (see the recipe below). These are mixed to form a dough, which is left to rise. The other secret ingredient with pizza dough is time.
Once the dough is mixed and then kneaded for 10 minutes, you can use your hands or mixer with a dough hook (I use my Thermomix). It’s placed in an oiled bowl and covered with a damp tea towel (or Glad Wrap) and left to do a fast rise for 1-2 hours in a warm environment where it should double in size. Once this is done, the dough must remain covered so it doesn’t dry out and be moved to the fridge for 24–48 hours for a slow rise.
The reason for both a fast and a slow rise is simple. Yeast needs a decent amount of time to ferment all the sugars in the dough. Doing this sees the yeast farting out bubbles of carbon dioxide. These make the dough super light, imparting a wonderful, airy, yeasty taste. (Yep, pizza tastes great because of yeast farts, who’d have thought?) The other reason behind doing a combination of fast and low rises is that the 24 hours allows the yeast to convert as much of the sugars in the flour as it can find, meaning that the dough won’t continue to ferment in your stomach, which is a cause of pizza bloat.
Another major factor separating average pizza dough from the fantastic is how much water you add to it. Hitting the right water-to-dough ratio results in a crispy, bubbly, puffed pizza that feels oh so good to eat. The ideal water-to-flour ratio is about 63% (that’s 630ml of water for every kg of dough).
In addition to water, measure flour by weight. Flour can compress, so avoid pizza dough recipes that use cup measurements. One cup can be 400g or 600g, which can make a huge difference to the quality of your pizza base.
Using the right flour is also crucial. Many say you should use Flourtipo 00 flour. This isn’t correct. Flourtipo 00 simply refers to how finely the flour is milled, not its protein content, which is what lets the dough form stronger gluten bonds, trapping in more air for a lighter yet more chewy base. Aim for at least 11% protein content. This can be found by reading the nutrition information printed on the flour bag.
As the dough nears the end of its slow rise, move on to the next trick: the sugo (pizza sauce). Some people insist on making elaborate sauces loaded with all sorts of ingredients. In Naples (the spiritual home of pizza), many opt for the zen-like simplicity of squeezing out tinned tomatoes onto the pizza base by hand (which is super messy but so much fun), often using tinned San Marazano tomatoes for their combination of acidity and sweetness. I prefer a cooked Sugo (see the recipe below).
When cooking multiple pizzas, this next step really simplifies everything. Balling involves separating the dough into balls that can be shaped into individual pizzas. I’d never thought of this as a vital step, but it not only makes shaping pizzas easier, it also means that you knock far less air out of the dough, resulting in a lighter and tastier pizza. The ideal ratio is 1 to 6 – that is, for every 1kg of dough, you can shape six sized balls of dough. This involves breaking a handful of dough off the main lump and folding the edges of the piece of dough inwards. Seal in the centre and flip over so the seal is underneath as it slowly rises on an oiled tray covered with oiled Glad Wrap and a damp tea towel.
Once you’ve made the dough/sugo and the dough has done the fast/slow rise, flour your workbench (don’t be shy with the flour, or your dough will stick, which makes transferring it onto the pizza peel a total ‘mare). Make sure the dough’s underside is floured, using the tips of your fingers to gently press the dough, work from the centre outwards, but leaving the lip at the edge of the dough, which will form the chewy crust. When you’re satisfied with the approximate shape, gently stretch the dough without touching the crust so it is thin enough to see light through it, but not so thin that it’ll tear. If you prefer a bready pizza base, skip the stretching step. Also, avoid rolling out the dough with a rolling pin, as that’ll knock all the air out, resulting in a heavy and unpleasant base.
There are literally dozens of different methods for shaping and stretching pizza. My advice is to pull up a chair and peruse YouTube for a technique that works best for you, as no single technique is best.
Now you’ve got the sugo and pizza sorted, the next step is to decorate. There are several rules of thumb when it comes to this step. The first is that a sugo should be used sparingly. Too much will result in a soggy mess instead of a crunchy and light pizza. Ideally, for a large pizza, I fill a 100-120ml serving ladle, dumping it in the centre of the pizza base and using the underside of the spoon to spread the sauce out as thinly and evenly as possible using an outwards spiral motion. If you’re using fresh mozzarella cheese in brine, place each chunk of mozzarella on a paper towel and pat it down so it is reasonably dry. Then tear and scatter it onto the pizza. If using dry mozzarella, grate it directly onto the pizza. There are no hard and fast rules for toppings (yes, if you must, use pineapple), but most Italians use the “rule of 3”, where they’ll use no more than three toppings per pizza.
The gold standard for crafting super-tasty pizza is a wood-fired oven. That smoky wood-fired taste adds magic to pizza. That said, brick wood-fired pizza ovens cost a bomb and take up huge amounts of space. Most wood-fired pizza ovens also have hot and cold spots, requiring you to regularly turn the pizza as it cooks to ensure everything cooks evenly without burning. A good infrared thermometer for measuring temperatures is vital if using a wood-fired oven.
Suppose you don’t have the space, can’t be arsed farting about cutting wood and don’t want to bother turning the pizza, Ninja’s Woodfire Outdoor Oven is a superb option (check out the review here)
If you cook pizza in your home oven, invest in a pizza stone. Pizza stones are usually round or square pieces of ceramic. They need to be preheated, and once hot enough, the pizza is slid onto the stone using a pizza peel (this is called launching). A hot pizza stone is what gives pizza a crispy base.
Picking up the decorated pizza is usually done with a pizza peel, which can be metal or wood. Using a pizza peel is a skill that takes a wee bit of practice. I sprinkle a little Semolina on my pizza peel, which ensures the pizza base doesn’t stick. Gently lift the edge of the pizza, sliding the peel underneath, carefully jiggling it to ensure it hasn’t stuck. At the oven, I gently slide the edge of the pizza off the peel onto the stone at the back of the oven, giving a slight tilt to the peel and launching the entire pizza onto the pizza stone without spilling any of the toppings or misshaping the pizza. Cooking times will vary depending on what sort of oven you use, but are usually measured in minutes.
Pizza dough
For 6 small pizzas
Ingredients
3 tsp dried yeast
630ml water (this must be lukewarm)
1kg strong flour (at least 11 per cent protein)
1 tsp sea salt
30ml extra virgin olive oil
Method
Using olive oil, coat the inside of a large bowl and set aside.
Dissolve the yeast in 630ml of lukewarm water. Stir once and leave to stand for 10 minutes. The yeast granules should be mostly dissolved.
Add the olive oil to the yeast/water and gently stir 2-3 times
Place the flour in a clean bowl (or a mixer fitted with a dough hook). Slowly add the yeast and water/olive oil, plus salt, to the flour and gently mix. Keep mixing (if using a blender, use a low speed for 5 minutes). If kneading by hand, work the dough until it starts to come away from the sides of the bowl without sticking (this usually takes around 10 minutes).
Transfer the dough to the oiled bowl and cover with Glad Wrap or a plate and a damp tea towel. Leave in a warm place for 1-2 hours until the dough has roughly doubled in size. Place the bowl in the fridge for 24 hours.
Remove the dough from the fridge and let it return to room temperature (usually takes 30-40 minutes, depending on ambient temperatures), dividing it as described in the balling step. Insert your pizza stone into the oven, turning your oven on to preheat to 300°c (check the oven’s manual for which oven mode is best for cooking pizza).
When you’re ready to start cooking, stretch the dough. Put one ball on a surface dusted with flour (or, even better, semolina). From the centre, working outwards, gently press the dough with your fingers to create a disc (leaving the outer edges, which will form the crust). Once this is done, stretch the dough.
Leave the outer edge of the pizza free of sauce and toppings, and decorate the pizza.
Before cooking, ensure your oven has reached 300 degrees (wood-fired ovens can go up to 400 degrees). If using a pizza oven, place the pizza on a peel scattered with semolina (if you’re using a home oven); you can simply transfer the pizza to an oven tray.
Slide the pizza into the oven and cook for 3-10 minutes until the crust looks crisp, leopard spots form, and the cheese bubbles. Some ovens may require that you turn the pizza so that it cooks evenly.
Sugo/sauce
Ingredients
1 tin of tomatoes
6-12 basil leaves, freshly torn off a basil plant
1 medium-sized onion, finely chopped
2 small cloves of garlic, halved
2x tablespoons Olive oil
Salt/pepper (optional)
Method
Using a pan, pour in the olive oil and preheat it.
Add the onion and cook until it is translucent and starting to go golden
Add in the tomatoes, breaking up the tomato as much as possible
Add in the garlic and basil leaves
Turn the heat down to a simmer and let it regularly stir, allowing the sauce to reduce to a puree-like texture
Once cooked, season with salt and pepper to taste (optional)
