Michael Bonacini's margherita pizza
Ingredients
- 1 can (28 oz/796 grams) San Marzano tomatoes
- ½ teaspoon (2.5 milliliters) salt
- 1 tablespoon (15 milliliters) chopped fresh oregano
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) olive oil + more for drizzling
- 1 pound (454 grams) buffalo mozzarella, cut into slices
- ¼ cup (60 milliliters) basil leaves
- Flour, for dusting
- Cornmeal, for dusting
DOUGH
- 2 ½ cups (600 milliliters) warm water + more if needed
- 1 teaspoon (5 milliliters) sugar
- 1 package (7 ounces/11 milliliters) dry active yeast
- 5 cups (1.2 Liters) “00” flour
- 2 teaspoons (10 mlilliliters) salt
- Olive oil, for greasing
Directions
- To make the dough, stir warm water, sugar, and yeast together in a small bowl. Set aside for 10 minutes.
- Mix flour and salt together, then form into a mound on the counter, or in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre, then pour in the water mixture. Knead the mixture together until it forms a smooth, elastic ball. Place the ball of dough in a bowl greased with olive oil. Cover with a tea towel and let rise for 2 hours, or until doubled in size.
- Turn the dough out onto the counter. Break into four balls. Form the balls and place them on a baking tray. Cover the tray with a damp cloth and let them rise for one hour.
- Sprinkle some flour onto the counter. Roll each ball out into a large circle with a thin inner crust and a thick outer edge.
- Preheat the oven to 500 F (260 C) and place a pizza stone inside to heat up.
- Dust a pizza peel with cornmeal then place a rolled-out pizza dough on top.
- In a bowl, mix tomatoes and salt. Mash tomatoes with a fork. Mix in oregano and olive oil. Spread the mixture onto the pizza dough. Place the mozzarella slices on top. Jiggle the pizza peel to make sure the dough isn’t sticking.
- Using the pizza peel, slide the pizza onto the hot pizza stone. Bake in the oven for eight to 10 minutes, or until cheese has melted and crust is golden.
- Remove from oven. Place basil leaves on top. Drizzle with olive oil.
- Buon appetito!
