Margherita Pizza From Scratch

That's right, from scratch. Even the crust. No mixes, no frozen or prepared crust here. Just flour, water, yeast, salt and a bit of sugar.

Ever since reading the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver, my husband and I (ok, well I) decided to have pizza Friday. Just like she did in the book. Well, in the book, she also makes her mozzarella cheese from scratch. I haven't gone that far...yet.

Anyway, we've been having pizza Friday for quite some time now. And we've learned a few things about making pizza from scratch:

1. Preheat the oven first. (It takes a long time to get to 500 degrees, and we're hungry here).

2. Using a pizza stone is key. (And, as I learned this week, preheating the pizza stone is even better!)

3. Don't use too much sauce.

4. Put the cheese on the bottom

5. Put fresh basil on immediately after taking the pizza out of the oven (not while it is still in the oven).

6. Alternate weeks on who gets to pick the toppings (that way, every week isn't bbq chicken pizza).

Clearly, it was my week to pick the pizza toppings. And I wanted a classic margherita pizza. No sauce, just fresh tomatoes, cheese, and basil on a chewy crust.

There's a bit of a process to making pizza. First, you get the crust mixed together, kneaded, and left to rest. While the crust is resting, chop up and prepare all you other ingredients.

When your ingredients are all ready, the crust should be too. My newest pizza trick is to preheat the pizza stone in the oven while the oven is preheating. It adds a bit of a tricky step, because you have to assemble your pizza and then transfer it onto the hot pizza stone while the oven is open.

I assembled my pizza on a cookie sheet with no edges (or you could turn one upside down). First the cheese.

Then the tomatoes.

Use a TON of flour and cornmeal on the bottom, so the pizza can slide around when you shake the pan. Then, just gently shake the cookie sheet as you guide your pizza onto the stone. It's kind of tricky, but, the crust was awesome! It's crispier this way, and can hold it's own, if you know what I mean. 

Then bake (usually about 12 minutes) and let sit just for a few minutes before slicing. I think this helps the pizza to solidify a bit, so the cheese isn't quite so melty when you try to slice it. Here is my pizza, resting right after it came out of the oven.  Looks pretty awesome, right? Check out all the different kinds of tomatoes I have on there! The green ones are called "green giants."

Then, all you have to do is enjoy your pizza! We haven't ordered take out pizza since we started making our own. It tastes so much better!

Margherita Pizza

For the crust:

3/4 c warm water (think bathwater temperature)

1 pkt yeast

1/4 tsp sugar

1 3/4 c flour

pinch of salt

For the toppings:

1 1/2 c shredded mozzarella cheese

3 large tomatoes, sliced about 1/4 inch thick

Fresh basil

First, place your pizza stone in the oven on the middle rack and preheat the oven to 500 degrees. 

Mix the warm water, yeast and sugar together until yeast is dissolved. Let this sit for about 8 minutes to "activate" the yeast.

While yeast is "activating," mix the flour and salt in a medium sized mixing bowl.

After the 8 minutes, pour the yeast mixture over the flour and stir until a ball of dough forms. Dump the dough out onto a floured surface and knead, adding flour as needed for about 2 minutes. Then leave the dough where it is to rest for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, slice the tomatoes and shred the cheese. Cut the basil into thin strips.

On flat baking sheet with no edges, dust with flour and cornmeal and spread dough out onto the sheet in a rough circle. It doesn't have to be perfect here, I think a misshaped circle looks more rustic.

Make sure the dough is free to slide easily off the baking sheet. Then, spread the mozzarella cheese over the crust, leaving about 1/2 inch space around the edge. Next lay the tomatoes on the cheese, without overlapping too much. You can make a pretty design if you have a few tomatoes of different colors.

Then, the tricky part. Carefully slide the pizza onto the heated stone in the oven. Don't get burned!

Bake for 12 minutes, or until crust is golden and has a hollow sound when tapped. The cheese should be slightly browned and bubbly.

As soon as the pizza is done, pull it out of the oven and scatter the basil on top. Let sit for about 5-10 minutes. Slice and enjoy!