Pizza is one of those recipes that has always intimidated me. Despite this, Vito’s pizza dough video makes making a quality pizza a lot more accessible. Here, I have laid out the instructions for you so you can read and follow along with the video.
Neapolitan-style Pizza Margherita
Yield: 10 Pizzas
Active Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients
Poolish
300 ml water
300 grams flour
5 grams dry yeast
5 grams honey
Dough
700 ml water
1,250 grams flour
40 grams salt
Olive oil
Pizza
2.5 cups marinara sauce
3 logs of fresh mozzarella (8 oz.)
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 cup thinly sliced basil
Note 1: If using a pizza stone, preheat oven with stone for at least 1 hour before cooking pizzas.
How to Make It
- Poolish: Combine water, yeast, and honey in sealable container and stir until dissolved. Add flour and mix until combined. Cover and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour. Place in refrigerator overnight.
- Dough: In a large bowl, combine water, salt, and poolish, and mix until the poolish is dissolved. Add flour and mix. Put contents onto surface and knead until dough is combined. Cover dough with bowl on surface for 15 minutes. Apply oil to your hands so dough does not stick. Keeping top side up, fold air into dough by pulling sides down into the bottom of the dough. Continue until top surface appears smooth. Put thin coating of oil into mixing bowl, return dough, and cover for 30 minutes. Re-apply oil to hands and divide dough into tenths, one at a time. With each dough ball, fold air into it keeping top side up as instructed previously. Place each dough ball into an oiled bowl or onto a baking tray covered in flour and rest covered for 2 hours.
- Pizza: Preheat oven to maximum temperature (see Note 1). Remove each dough ball one-at-a-time. Place ball onto plate with flour and coat both sides of dough. Place dough onto lightly floured surface to begin stretching. Push down on middle of dough going outward towards the crust to add air bubbles into the crust. Start pulling out dough and toss until at desired size. Apply thin layer of tomato sauce (~1/4 cup per pizza) to dough and drizzle some olive oil throughout the sauce and onto edge of crust. Place in oven and cook until crust gets a light golden brown color. Remove pizza, and add fresh mozzarella, a sprinkle of parmesan cheese, and a drizzle of olive oil. Remove pizza when cheese is melted and crust is browned. Garnish with fresh basil.
