Description
Feast your way into fall by making this delicious Italian-style pizza, adapted from a Serious Eats recipe. Try adding toppings like salami or serrano peppers to bring this pizza to the next level.
Ingredients
Pizza Dough Ingredients
545 grams (about 4 ½ cups) all-purpose flour
22 grams (about 3 tablespoons) vital wheat gluten
0.3 ounces (about 2 ¼ teaspoons) kosher salt
0.2 ounces (about 1 teaspoon) instant yeast
0.2 ounces (about 2 teaspoons) white sugar
12 ounces water (1 ½ cups) water
Toppings Ingredients
1 14-ounce can whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes
12 ounces (little less than a pound) high-moisture mozzarella block
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Handful fresh basil leaves
Kosher salt
Instructions
- In a stand mixer, whisk together all dry dough ingredients. Add water and knead on low until just combined. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes, then knead on low for another 10 minutes until cohesive dough forms that only lightly sticks to the bottom of the bowl as it kneads. Add flour 1 tablespoon at a time if needed.
- Transfer dough to a floured surface. Divide dough into 6 equal pieces and shape into balls using floured hands. Place each in a separate container coated with nonstick cooking spray or olive oil. Cover each bowl tightly and refrigerate for at least 8 to 72 hours. The dough should rise to approximately double its size. (If you want to save any for another day, you can move those dough balls to the freezer after allowing them to rise in the fridge.)
- Remove the dough from the fridge (or the freezer). Let dough balls rise at room temperature in containers for 2 to 3 hours until doubled in volume.
- Pass the tomatoes through a fine-mesh strainer, breaking up tomatoes with your fingers to squeeze out as much excess juice as possible. Transfer tomatoes to blender with ½ teaspoon kosher salt and blend until mixture is smooth. Set aside.
- Put a double layer of paper towels on a clean plate. Cut mozzarella into ½ inch chunks and place on the plate. Put another layer of paper towels or kitchen towel on top of the cheese and stack another plate on top of it. Let excess water drain from cheese for 10 minutes.
- Position oven rack so skillet will fit close to broiler. Preheat broiler to high. Place skillet on stovetop and heat over high heat until it reaches a temperature of 450–550ºF.
- Bring extra flour, tomato sauce, drained cheese, risen pizza dough, olive oil, and kosher salt near the stovetop.
- Lightly coat 1 ball of dough with flour, dusting off excess. Stretch dough into 10-inch circle on a lightly floured surface, keeping the outer 1-inch edge slightly thicker for a crust. Do this by placing the dough on the surface and dimpling with fingers, flipping once. Pick up dough and rotate it as you stretch the dough. Place back on the work surface as needed to stretch the edge out.
- Dust skillet lightly with flour and transfer stretched pizza dough to the skillet. Quickly spread about 2 tablespoons of sauce over the dough, leaving the crust with no sauce. Top with ⅙ of your cheese. Sprinkle kosher salt and drizzle 1 tablespoon olive oil over pizza.
- When the bottom is beginning to char, transfer skillet to broiler and cook until pizza is puffy and charred in some spots (between 90 seconds and 4 minutes, depending on your broiler’s strength).
- Remove from oven and transfer pizza to a plate. Top with fresh basil and serve immediately. Repeat steps 8 through 10 to bake remaining pizzas.