If you want more pizza and less stress in your life, then this is a guide for you. I hope it helps you realize that you can make delicious pizza from scratch in as little as an hour.
And yes, this post is long, but only because I've gone into great detail, not because it's complicated.
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| Flour, water, yeast and salt |
Set yourself up for success, i.e., have these things on hand at all times
Whenever I go shopping, I make sure to pick up these things if I don't already have them:
- Canned diced tomatoes: these can be fire-roasted, fancy gourmet, no salt added, etc., but I do try to avoid any that include green chili peppers or anything other than garlic or basil.
- Mozzarella cheese: buy it in a ball. It can be the cheap, shrink-wrapped low-moisture kind (Frigo, Kraft, etc.), but I highly recommend stocking up on the fresh mozzarella (also shrink-wrapped) from Trader Joe's. It's cheap and it lasts a week or two in your fridge unopened. Don't worry about the moisture - we'll address that later. But whatever you do, don't buy pre-shredded cheese. If it's all you have, then use it, but if given the choice, make the best one and buy your cheese whole.
- Canned olives or other things that come in cans or jars (like anchovies, peppers, artichoke hearts) that keep a long time and you enjoy on pizza
- Salty meat, if you like it: Cured meats last a good while in your fridge so they're good to purchase for your future pizzas. My favorite is Stockmeyer Prosciutto (also found at Trader Joe's), and again, if left unopened in the fridge it's good for a while. Bacon is also always great on pizza, and many people have that in their fridge already. Or of course, packaged salami (pre-sliced makes it easier) or ham works, too. Here's a tip: go to your deli counter and get 4-5 slices of whatever salami or sausage product looks good. You end up spending about a buck, and you can cut the salami into smaller bits and it's plenty for one pizza.
- A variety of vegetables. You should be eating more vegetables anyway, and if you're finding you're not eating them, then make a darn pizza. Onions are a staple for me, and if you have nothing else you'll still have a great pizza. Mushrooms are important to me, too. But it's fun to experiment with a few wild cards, like thinly sliced Brussels spouts, broccoli, kale, scallions, etc.
- Flour and yeast. Because you can't make dough without them.
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| Broccoli and pancetta with cream sauce |
Equipment
- A cutting board (to knead dough on, prep toppings, and to cut pizza)
- Parchment paper
- A rimless baking sheet or pizza peel
- A baking stone
- Rolling pin - experts can get by without one, but we're not experts yet
- Fine mesh strainer
- An oven (any ol' electric oven will do - you do NOT need to remodel your kitchen to put in a wood-burning pizza oven. Go out for that kind of pizza.)
- A bowl and something to cover it, preferably plastic wrap or a large plate
- Long, sharp chef's knife or some other thing to cut pizza with (I just got one of these for Christmas and it's wonderful). I'm not a huge fan of rolling pizza cutters because it often drags the toppings around, but if you have one, use it!
- Optional: standing mixer with dough hook
- Optional: cooling rack
How far to plan in advance
This seems to be the hurdle for a lot of people. You don't need all day - but I would plan for at least an hour from start to finish if you're making dough (10 minutes to make the dough, 30 minutes to let dough rest and prep toppings, 10 minutes to bake, a few minutes to relax). That said, dough made a day or two in advance will taste phenomenal and save you time. Dough made 30 minutes ago will still taste good so don't let time be a barrier! If you absolutely don't have time to make dough, or just don't like making it, then find out which of your local pizzerias sell dough balls. I used to get them from Bennidito's before I got over my mental dough hurdle. Trader Joe's has dough, too.
Dough
There are a couple different methods I use to make dough, and both work beautifully.
1. Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day: I started using this no-knead method for pretty much all of my bread products a few years ago, and because of that I often have dough in the fridge ready to be used for pizza or whatever else. Here are the dough instructions from the geniuses who came up with it. You just need a large enough vessel to keep the dough in your fridge, and when you're ready to make pizza, just flour your hands and pull off a grapefruit sized ball for a single pizza, round it into a ball, place it on a lightly floured board and cover with a bowl for about an hour (assuming it's been refrigerated. You can also make the dough the same day, take the dough you need when you're ready, at least a couple hours later, and stick the rest in the fridge and start making your pizza). This dough is the tastiest and has the most satisfying chewy texture of any pizza dough I've used at home. Beautiful air bubbles, crusty edges - it's never failed me, even when I doubt my skills. Another note on starting with cold dough: My kitchen is cold and drafty, so I tend to set my oven to warm for 5 minutes, turn it off, place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and place in the warmed oven for 15 minutes to give it a head start.
2. Day-of dough. Because sometimes I don't always have dough in the fridge, and my idea for pizza comes to me as I drive home from work, Deb Perelman's recipe for Rushed Pizza Dough is my standby. I often use the dough hook in my standing mixer to knead the dough, but because it's such a small amount of dough, it's actually a little easier to knead it by hand. Use this recipe, but when you're ready to let it rise, decrease the waiting time by warming your oven for 5 minutes (use the Warm setting, i.e. 170-200 degrees F), turn it off, place the dough in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap and place it in the oven for 30 minutes (similar to above). This dough tastes more like a bland cracker compared to the other dough, but as a vehicle for delicious toppings, it still satisfies.
Prepare for pizza
I always bake my pizza on a baking stone. You can use a sheet pan or whatever, but I never do that so my instructions are for using the stone.
At this point, you have risen or mostly risen dough at room temperature, resting somewhere on a lightly floured cutting board or in a bowl.
Next, put the baking stone in the oven on a middle or lower rack and crank the heat to 515-525 degrees F.
Get your rimless sheet pan or pizza peel and place a layer of parchment paper to cover it and set aside.
When the oven has told you it's preheated, it's probably still not quite there, so I don't even begin the next steps until the preheating beep has beeped - that way I always give it a few extra minutes to get good and hot while I assemble the pizza.
On top of the pizza, mis en place
The biggest revelation I've had about pizza toppings is that less is more. Take-and-bake pizza chains led me to believe I needed to completely cover my pizzas with sauce, gobs of cheese and a million toppings, perfectly layered and arranged all around the pizza. When you make pizza at home, this just creates soggy, gross pizza. A modest ladle of sauce, spaced out blobs of cheese, and sprinkles of everything else creates a delicious pizza that allows you to appreciate everything you placed on it once it's cooked.
1. Sauce: RED: Making my own tomato sauce is so easy and so much better than canned or jarred tomato sauce. It's bright and fresh and tomato-y, and you don't need to cook it before slathering it on the pizza. You just need those canned diced tomatoes I mentioned above. (I've used whole, stewed and crushed as well and all work just fine.) One piece of equipment that is helpful in making the sauce is either a mini food chopper or blender or food processor or food mill. Open the can and drain the tomatoes using your mesh strainer. To the drained tomatoes, add either a small clove of garlic or a few shakes of garlic powder, a healthy pinch of salt and another pinch of red pepper flakes. Blend together with whatever machinery you have. Put the blended tomatoes back in the fine mesh strainer and let it drain for a few minutes while you prep the other ingredients (this helps prevent soggy pizza if the tomatoes are especially juicy). After it's drained, taste the sauce. Sometimes I need to add a dash of vinegar for a little more acid, or sugar, but that's rare. Season to your taste and place the sauce in a small bowl. Note: you won't use the whole amount on one pizza.
2. Sauce: WHITE: If you have milk, flour, butter and garlic powder, you can make a quick white sauce. Melt a couple tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in a tablespoon of flour until smooth. Add a 1/2 c. of (ideally) whole milk, a splash at a time, whisking smooth after each addition. Add salt and garlic powder to taste (you can always use fresh garlic, too), whisking until the mixture is thick enough to coat a spoon, just a couple minutes. Set aside until you're ready to assemble.
3. Cheese: Pull and tear your mozzarella rather than shred, or use the largest holes of your cheese grater. If you're using fresh cheese, get your hands a little dirty and tear the cheese into inch-or-two pieces. If it feels especially wet, it doesn't hurt to dab it with a towel to remove excess moisture. If you like adding other kinds of soft cheese here, like goat or ricotta, go for it. Or experiment with stronger cheese like aged provolone (divine if you can find it) or fontina or a combination. You'll want to shred or grate those and layer them sparingly.
4. Meat: I don't like biting into large rounds or strips of meat, so I cut it into bite-sized pieces. This way I end up using less, too, because I can sprinkle it more evenly across the pizza. In the case of bacon, I chop it, cook it, and drain it before adding to the pizza. This option is better if you have a bit more time, of course.
5. Vegetables: For the most part, you can just slice, dice, and chop your vegetables and let them cook with the pizza in the oven. When I have more time, however, I enjoy caramelizing the onions.
6. Everything else: Sliced olives, etc. should be at the ready, too.
7. Fresh herbs: I sometimes add fresh thyme or minced rosemary to the toppings, but always add basil after the pizza comes out of the oven, otherwise you won't taste it.
Roll it, bake it, mark it with a P
I roll out the rested dough on that floured cutting board, and sometimes I stretch it a little by hand. Generally, I end up with a 12-14" thin crust round. Sometimes I almost break through the dough - if that happens, just pinch it back together. Then carefully lift it and place it on your parchment-lined sheet or peel, reshaping it if needed on the paper. I keep the sheet nearby so I don't have to carry the fragile dough across the room.
Spread the sauce. As I mentioned, you really don't need to coat the pizza with it. Use less than you think you need. It will all kind of blend together through the magic of baking.
Add most of the cheese. I use about half of one small mozzarella ball (the TJ's one). Again, use less than you think you need. I add a little bit more cheese to cover any blatant holes after I've added the rest of the toppings.
Add your other toppings however you'd like, being a little stingy but making sure that any slice will have all the ingredients you want on it in the end.
Feeling fancy? Add a tiny drizzle of olive oil, add any extra cheese you deem necessary.
This is the part that might make you nervous: sliding the pizza in the oven. One of the benefits of not putting a gazillion toppings on a pizza is that it remains somewhat light and fewer things are at risk of hurdling over the top of the pizza when you swiftly slide it on the pizza stone. A couple tricks I've learned:
1. Cut the parchment paper to fit the finished pizza with an inch overhang. This allows it to slide freely but also prevents the paper from charring as it bakes.
2. Position the pizza where you want it to ultimately end up on the pizza stone - don't try to make it fly. This means putting the end of the sheet at the back of the peel, angling it down slightly (careful not to burn yourself on the element above) and then gently jerking back on the sheet as the pizza slides off with the parchment paper. The parchment paper is your best friend in this step. I've tried it without, using cornmeal or flour on the bottom, and have failed and/or ended up with a weirdly shaped pizza.
Bake it for 10 minutes. It always takes 10 minutes. If it doesn't, you might want to get your oven checked out.
Final moments before eating pizza
While the pizza bakes and cools, I usually have enough time to do the dishes and assemble a quick salad. If nothing else, clear/scrape off your cutting board and make way for cutting the pizza and get your knife ready. And hang onto your pizza peel or baking sheet because you'll need that again to get the pizza out of the oven.
If you're adding fresh basil, or my favorite, arugula (lightly dressed with olive oil, lemon and Parmesan), get that ready to go, too. I sometimes get a small mound of Parmesan ready to sprinkle on the pizza right after it comes out of the oven.
When the pizza is ready, put on an oven mitt, then take your sheet or peel and carefully slide it under the pizza (with or without parchment). The parchment is sometimes strong enough to help you pull the pizza onto the sheet. Place it on the cooling rack (or leave on the peel/sheet) to cool for a couple minutes as you ooh and aah and set the table. Place anything fresh on top after these two minutes have passed. Then slide the pizza from the cooling rack to the cutting board and slice away.
A note about moisture and soggy crust
My guide includes steps to reduce the amount of moisture on a pizza, but sometimes, depending on toppings, there may still be small pools of liquid on top. If possible, I dab with a paper towel after the pizza has cooled a couple minutes to help absorb it and prevent that thin, crispy crust from turning to mush. For added insurance against soggy crust, once I cut the pizza I separate the slices to keep them from sitting in a soggy center.
Mistakes make great cooks
Ultimately, this post is built on mistakes I've learned from. There are many great ways to make pizza, but my biggest advice is to find a recipe - for pizza or something else you love - and make it enough times that it you know it all by heart. Memorizing a process opens you up to trying all sorts of variations on the theme. And suddenly you're that person who's pretty good at something, at least enough to write a blog post about it.
2. Day-of dough. Because sometimes I don't always have dough in the fridge, and my idea for pizza comes to me as I drive home from work, Deb Perelman's recipe for Rushed Pizza Dough is my standby. I often use the dough hook in my standing mixer to knead the dough, but because it's such a small amount of dough, it's actually a little easier to knead it by hand. Use this recipe, but when you're ready to let it rise, decrease the waiting time by warming your oven for 5 minutes (use the Warm setting, i.e. 170-200 degrees F), turn it off, place the dough in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap and place it in the oven for 30 minutes (similar to above). This dough tastes more like a bland cracker compared to the other dough, but as a vehicle for delicious toppings, it still satisfies.
 |
| Prep station |
Prepare for pizza
I always bake my pizza on a baking stone. You can use a sheet pan or whatever, but I never do that so my instructions are for using the stone.
At this point, you have risen or mostly risen dough at room temperature, resting somewhere on a lightly floured cutting board or in a bowl.
Next, put the baking stone in the oven on a middle or lower rack and crank the heat to 515-525 degrees F.
Get your rimless sheet pan or pizza peel and place a layer of parchment paper to cover it and set aside.
When the oven has told you it's preheated, it's probably still not quite there, so I don't even begin the next steps until the preheating beep has beeped - that way I always give it a few extra minutes to get good and hot while I assemble the pizza.
On top of the pizza, mis en place
The biggest revelation I've had about pizza toppings is that less is more. Take-and-bake pizza chains led me to believe I needed to completely cover my pizzas with sauce, gobs of cheese and a million toppings, perfectly layered and arranged all around the pizza. When you make pizza at home, this just creates soggy, gross pizza. A modest ladle of sauce, spaced out blobs of cheese, and sprinkles of everything else creates a delicious pizza that allows you to appreciate everything you placed on it once it's cooked.
1. Sauce: RED: Making my own tomato sauce is so easy and so much better than canned or jarred tomato sauce. It's bright and fresh and tomato-y, and you don't need to cook it before slathering it on the pizza. You just need those canned diced tomatoes I mentioned above. (I've used whole, stewed and crushed as well and all work just fine.) One piece of equipment that is helpful in making the sauce is either a mini food chopper or blender or food processor or food mill. Open the can and drain the tomatoes using your mesh strainer. To the drained tomatoes, add either a small clove of garlic or a few shakes of garlic powder, a healthy pinch of salt and another pinch of red pepper flakes. Blend together with whatever machinery you have. Put the blended tomatoes back in the fine mesh strainer and let it drain for a few minutes while you prep the other ingredients (this helps prevent soggy pizza if the tomatoes are especially juicy). After it's drained, taste the sauce. Sometimes I need to add a dash of vinegar for a little more acid, or sugar, but that's rare. Season to your taste and place the sauce in a small bowl. Note: you won't use the whole amount on one pizza.
2. Sauce: WHITE: If you have milk, flour, butter and garlic powder, you can make a quick white sauce. Melt a couple tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in a tablespoon of flour until smooth. Add a 1/2 c. of (ideally) whole milk, a splash at a time, whisking smooth after each addition. Add salt and garlic powder to taste (you can always use fresh garlic, too), whisking until the mixture is thick enough to coat a spoon, just a couple minutes. Set aside until you're ready to assemble.
3. Cheese: Pull and tear your mozzarella rather than shred, or use the largest holes of your cheese grater. If you're using fresh cheese, get your hands a little dirty and tear the cheese into inch-or-two pieces. If it feels especially wet, it doesn't hurt to dab it with a towel to remove excess moisture. If you like adding other kinds of soft cheese here, like goat or ricotta, go for it. Or experiment with stronger cheese like aged provolone (divine if you can find it) or fontina or a combination. You'll want to shred or grate those and layer them sparingly.
4. Meat: I don't like biting into large rounds or strips of meat, so I cut it into bite-sized pieces. This way I end up using less, too, because I can sprinkle it more evenly across the pizza. In the case of bacon, I chop it, cook it, and drain it before adding to the pizza. This option is better if you have a bit more time, of course.
5. Vegetables: For the most part, you can just slice, dice, and chop your vegetables and let them cook with the pizza in the oven. When I have more time, however, I enjoy caramelizing the onions.
6. Everything else: Sliced olives, etc. should be at the ready, too.
7. Fresh herbs: I sometimes add fresh thyme or minced rosemary to the toppings, but always add basil after the pizza comes out of the oven, otherwise you won't taste it.
 |
| No cheese? No problem. Just make focaccia. Potato and rosemary with flaky sea salt. |
Roll it, bake it, mark it with a P
I roll out the rested dough on that floured cutting board, and sometimes I stretch it a little by hand. Generally, I end up with a 12-14" thin crust round. Sometimes I almost break through the dough - if that happens, just pinch it back together. Then carefully lift it and place it on your parchment-lined sheet or peel, reshaping it if needed on the paper. I keep the sheet nearby so I don't have to carry the fragile dough across the room.
Spread the sauce. As I mentioned, you really don't need to coat the pizza with it. Use less than you think you need. It will all kind of blend together through the magic of baking.
Add most of the cheese. I use about half of one small mozzarella ball (the TJ's one). Again, use less than you think you need. I add a little bit more cheese to cover any blatant holes after I've added the rest of the toppings.
Add your other toppings however you'd like, being a little stingy but making sure that any slice will have all the ingredients you want on it in the end.
Feeling fancy? Add a tiny drizzle of olive oil, add any extra cheese you deem necessary.
This is the part that might make you nervous: sliding the pizza in the oven. One of the benefits of not putting a gazillion toppings on a pizza is that it remains somewhat light and fewer things are at risk of hurdling over the top of the pizza when you swiftly slide it on the pizza stone. A couple tricks I've learned:
1. Cut the parchment paper to fit the finished pizza with an inch overhang. This allows it to slide freely but also prevents the paper from charring as it bakes.
2. Position the pizza where you want it to ultimately end up on the pizza stone - don't try to make it fly. This means putting the end of the sheet at the back of the peel, angling it down slightly (careful not to burn yourself on the element above) and then gently jerking back on the sheet as the pizza slides off with the parchment paper. The parchment paper is your best friend in this step. I've tried it without, using cornmeal or flour on the bottom, and have failed and/or ended up with a weirdly shaped pizza.
Bake it for 10 minutes. It always takes 10 minutes. If it doesn't, you might want to get your oven checked out.
 |
| Prosciutto and basil |
While the pizza bakes and cools, I usually have enough time to do the dishes and assemble a quick salad. If nothing else, clear/scrape off your cutting board and make way for cutting the pizza and get your knife ready. And hang onto your pizza peel or baking sheet because you'll need that again to get the pizza out of the oven.
If you're adding fresh basil, or my favorite, arugula (lightly dressed with olive oil, lemon and Parmesan), get that ready to go, too. I sometimes get a small mound of Parmesan ready to sprinkle on the pizza right after it comes out of the oven.
When the pizza is ready, put on an oven mitt, then take your sheet or peel and carefully slide it under the pizza (with or without parchment). The parchment is sometimes strong enough to help you pull the pizza onto the sheet. Place it on the cooling rack (or leave on the peel/sheet) to cool for a couple minutes as you ooh and aah and set the table. Place anything fresh on top after these two minutes have passed. Then slide the pizza from the cooling rack to the cutting board and slice away.
 |
| Leek and bacon |
A note about moisture and soggy crust
My guide includes steps to reduce the amount of moisture on a pizza, but sometimes, depending on toppings, there may still be small pools of liquid on top. If possible, I dab with a paper towel after the pizza has cooled a couple minutes to help absorb it and prevent that thin, crispy crust from turning to mush. For added insurance against soggy crust, once I cut the pizza I separate the slices to keep them from sitting in a soggy center.
Mistakes make great cooks
Ultimately, this post is built on mistakes I've learned from. There are many great ways to make pizza, but my biggest advice is to find a recipe - for pizza or something else you love - and make it enough times that it you know it all by heart. Memorizing a process opens you up to trying all sorts of variations on the theme. And suddenly you're that person who's pretty good at something, at least enough to write a blog post about it.
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