Sunday, February 2, 2014

Marta's Pizza


Ok, so I have been ranting and raving about my friend Marta's pizza dough recipe.  You may recall that I've mentioned that every Friday night in our house is "Pizza Night" and so each Friday I whip together the dough from this recipe and throw on some toppings.  Other than pulling leftovers from the freezer, it's probably one of the easiest things to make so when it comes to weekly meal planning, I smile when I write pizza beside Fridays before racking my brain for the other nights of the week.

This is not actually Marta's recipe.  She got it from a Mediterranian cookbook but when I make it I give her credit in my head and I am pretty sure she might be sorry that she gave me the recipe because I keep telling her how much I love it!  I don't actually know if it's that special, but I've never had much success with pizza dough other than this one, so there you go.

Marta's Pizza

1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
1 tsp of sugar (a little less)
1 tsp instant dry yeast
3 and 1/2 cups of flour
1 tsp of salt
2 tbsp of olive oil

1.  Add sugar to the lukewarm water and sprinkle yeast on top.  Do not mix.  Set aside for a couple of minutes.
2. In a separate bowl, combine flour and salt. 
3.  Add sugar, water and yeast mixture to the flour and salt mixture and add olive oil.
4.  Kneed well until smooth and set aside to rise in a warm area to rise 1 hour.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
5.  Separate into two balls and roll each out on a floured surface until quite thin.  Place on a pizza pan and trim the edges.
6. Add toppings -- pepperoni, proscuitto, caramelized onions and peppers, sundried tomatoes, spinach, mozzarella
7.  Cook pizza at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 mins for soft crust or 12 for crispier crust.

I find it is best to make several hours in advance if you want softer, more pliable dough.  You can make the night before, rise and set in the fridge, but be sure to remove early in the day and let rise again before rolling the dough out.  This is enough for two pizzas or more depending on how you like the crust.

Hope you love it!  Let me know.

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