Prep - about 10 min
Wait for rise 45 min
Toppings... about 5 min
When you have the time to put it together and the time to let it rise, it is incredibly delicious and a fun activity
Notes from the times I have made it -- recipe at bottom
- Flour: recipe calls for AP flour, I usually try to find the 00 (extra fine ground) flour, usually something Italian import or named something Italian, it usually comes in one of the smaller little paper folded bags of flour -- it has a higher protein content and will allow for very stretchy dough
- Method: I usually add the honey into the warm water/wine mix to give the yeast a bit of extra food, and to let the honey dissolve and make easier to incorporate later
- Yeast: this recipe calls for 1.5 oz -- which doesn't make sense to me...
- most common yeast is "active dry yeast" that comes in packets or a little jar (Fleichman's or Red Star), and is in .25oz envelopes
- The cake/fresh yeast is in little cubes of 0.6 oz
- QED Mario Batali just uses so much yeast he gets it in bulk and if you were to use the active dry at 1.5 oz you'd have 6 envelopes and that seems nuts.
- My assumptions
- I think it makes most sense that he would use the fresh cubes of yeast, and that means about 3 cubes -- and the dry packets are equivalent to 1 cube
- According to this reference https://www.kingarthurflour.com/pro/reference/yeast the weight is divided by 3, meaning .5 oz -- with packets that is 2 packets
- I use a yeast spoon (2.25 tsp) which gives an equivalent of 0.25oz of the dry active yeast packet --- which has come in handy since United is only selling yeast in 0.25lb rationed baggies in bulk.... and you can only buy one/customer
- Today I made it with one spoonful and it was ENOUGH -- you can do more- but it got huge and tasted great -- so just do what you want -- follow the recipe or be yeast-frugal
- Wine: notice it calls for 1/4 cup of wine... yep... so you *have to* open a bottle (darn!) or you can use this when you've got some extra white laying around that you don't want to waste -- assuming leftover rose or sparkling would work great; honestly probably red too since it is so little but i haven't tried it.
- Salt -- don't forget to add salt with the flour after the yeast is all proofed up - it will impact it proofing if you add to the liquid
- Sauce -- i'm partial to the cheap Italian canned pizza sauces
- The dough will feel lumpy/shaggy before you let it rest the 45 min -- after you let it rest it will be very smooth
- BAKING
- I like to line a cookie sheet/pizza pan with foil and stick it in the oven to get hot (because i don't have a pizza stone :( but my bday is coming up...)
- I would stretch the dough out on parchment, so that it was easy to slide the parchment on top of the hot pan and get it back in the oven
- I prefer to blind bake my dough (add some docking to the dough) for 5-8 min (until it looks like it is getting mostly cooked but not golden) and then add the pizza sauce and toppings -- this is because i can't usually feel like with the amount of sauce i like lets the dough in the middle cook
- if you make smaller pizzas, like 2-4 out of this recipe, you might be fine to not blind bake the crust
- this recipe doesn't have a temp/time to cook....
- In the past I would turn it up to 500 F and check it a couple of times, but ended up being 10-15 min depending on size and toppings
- if you had a wood oven that gets 700-900 F it would take minutes
- Don't cook under 400, i'd even say 450 -- it's not hot enough and everything gets soggy
- My method: blind bake your crust for 10 min at 450-500, add toppings, bake another 5-10 min, let it get well tanned on the crust bits and be sure center is cooked
My favorite toppings...
- (obligatory lots of red sauce and mozz)
- red peppers
- goat cheese or ricotta
- roasted mushrooms (or thinly sliced ones)
- pancetta or Italian sausage
- Topped after cooking with raw prosciutto and arugula....
from NYTimes.com
Mario Batali’s Pizza Dough
Published: August 16, 2007
¼ cup white wine
¾ cup warm water
1 ½ ounces yeast
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
3 cups all-purpose flour
Method:
Combine wine, water and yeast in a large bowl and stir until dissolved. Add the honey, salt and olive oil and mix thoroughly. Start by adding 1 cup of flour and make a wet paste. Add remaining flour and incorporate.
Place dough on a lightly floured board and knead for 2 to 3 minutes.
Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a towel. Let rise for 45 minutes
.
.
for more info on types of yeast: https://www.thekitchn.com/baking-school-day-11-all-about-yeast-and-baking-222489
