Margherita Pizza

Makes two pies.

Ingredients

Dough

• 500 g ‘00’ or all-purpose flour
• 350 g water at 90 to 95 ºF
• 11 g salt
• 1/8 tsp instant yeast

Topping

• 1 can whole San Marzano tomatoes
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 100 g mozzarella, grated
• fresh basil (optional)

Instructions

1. Autolyse: mix flour and water by hand in a large container or bowl. Cover and let sit 30 minutes.
2. Final mix: Add salt and yeast. Pinch dough between thumb and fingers to split it in smaller pieces, then stretch and recombine. Repeat for several minutes to integrate salt and yeast.
3. Bulk fermentation: Leave covered overnight, 12 to 14 hours, until roughly doubled or tripled in volume. There might be some small bubbles.
4. Divide: Place dough on a floured counter and divide in half.
5. Shape: Shape each half into a ball by folding corners into the center, then flip it over and roll against the counter with palms held against the sides to tighten the dough.
6. Proof: Leave both dough balls covered on the counter for 1 hour.
7. Refrigerate: Lightly coat each dough ball with oil and cover in plastic wrap. Place them in the fridge for 6 hours or up to 2 days.
8. Preheat: Preheat oven to 450 ºF.
9. Sauce: Blend tomatoes with olive oil and salt. Use enough tomatoes to make 170 mL of sauce, not the entire can. Do not use liquid from the can.
10. Shape: Remove dough balls from the fridge. Toss and stretch into a circular or rectangular shape.
11. Topping: Place each pizza on an oiled baking tray or a pizza stone. Spread half the sauce and cheese on each.
12. Bake: Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, watching carefully towards the end. Switch to broil for the last minute or two.
13. Sprinkle basil leaves if using and serve.

Notes

• You can also use Overnight bread dough if you want to make bread and pizza at the same time. It uses all-purpose flour and higher hydration.
• An immersion blender works well for blending the sauce.
• Refrigerating not only lets you wait until supper time, it also makes the dough much easier to stretch without tearing.
• Instead of refrigerating the dough balls, you can freeze them. When you’re ready to use them, thaw in the fridge overnight.