How to make a great pizza
PIZZA KNOW-HOW
The Italian city of Naples claims to be the home of authentic pizza because it has the world’s oldest pizzeria, established in 1738. Pizza marinara gets its name from the Neapolitan sailors who ate it in the 18th century. Pizza margherita was supposedly created much later and named after Margherita, the Queen of Italy, who visited the city in 1889. Its colours – green, white and red – matched those of the Italian flag.
THE ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS CHEESE
We thought that only the finest ingredients, such as fresh buffalo mozzarella would do. We were wrong – soft mozzarella proved to be too watery, whereas the cheaper blocks of ‘cooking’ mozzarella and packs of ready-grated mozzarella melted perfectly without releasing too much liquid.
FLOUR We used Waitrose Essential Bread Flour for the dough, which worked well. Special ‘00’ flours might make a small difference to the texture, but not enough to justify spending extra.
TOMATOES What did make a difference was good quality passata because it’s made with more flavoursome tomatoes. Look for brands such as Cirio or Natoora. The herbs are key ingredients. Italians often use dried oregano, but we like fresh leaves, along with fresh basil.
WHAT ABOUT THE CRISPY BASE?
Neapolitan pizzas are traditionally cooked at 485°C for 60-90 seconds. That’s not possible in a domestic oven. A pizza stone helps to create a crisp crust, but if you don’t have one a hot baking sheet will do a similar job. Roll out the dough as thinly as you can, then hold it up to the light – it’s the right thickness when you can almost see through it.
HOW TO JAZZ IT UP
• Crumble 100g ’nduja over the tomato sauce-topped base along with the grated mozzarella.
• Fry 3 sliced onions for 1 hour until caramelised. Pile the onions on top of the tomato sauce-topped base, then sprinkle with crumbled goat’s cheese and fresh thyme leaves.
• Drizzle fresh pesto over the base, then top with chargrilled antipasti artichokes, serrano ham and a mix of grated mozzarella and parmesan.
• For our master recipe, search for ‘ultimate margherita pizza’ at deliciousmagazine.co.uk