Homemade Pizza Marghertita

[private]Created by: Chef Keith Snow
Active Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
Servings: 8
Recommended Beverage: beer or wine

Description:

Homemade Pizza pizza is so easy to make you really need to try it yourself. Marghertita is the famous pizza of Naples Italy where San Marzano tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and basil are used. The greatness of this pizza is the simplicity and quality of the ingredients.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups ap/flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 package yeast
1 tbs honey
1 tsp kosher salt
3 tbs extra virgin olive oil
7 large fresh basil leaves
1/2 ln fresh mozzarella cheese
1 cup Harvest Eating Tomato Sauce
kosher salt to taste
fresh black pepper to taste

Directions:

Pizza Dough:

1. Add the packet of yeast and honey to the warm water and stir through. Add 1 Tbsp of kosher salt.
2. Place the A.P. flour in a food processor fitted with a dough blade. Pulse it briefly to loosen up the flour.
3. While running the processor, slowly add the water & yeast mix. Note that you might not need all of the liquid. The dough will start to form into a ball when ready. After the ball forms, let the machine knead the dough for another minute or so.
4. Remove the dough. Start making a round ball by turning the dough in upon itself. Close off the bottom hole / seam by twisting.
5. Add some olive oil to a bowl and spin the dough in the oil to coat evenly. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and place it someplace warm to rise for an hour or two if using right away or refrigerate it overnight.

Preheat your oven (with pizza stone) to 450 degrees.

1. Break off a piece of dough, roughly the size of a baseball or softball. Spread some flour on your work surface and begin to flatten and stretch the dough with your fingers. Roll with a rolling pin to flatten further. Be sure to keep the shape round. Further stretch with your fingers by pressing and turning on your work surface. Alternately, if you’re adventurous, you can stretch it up in the air on your knuckles by lightly tossing and spinning. Form a crust by pressing a lip around the edges.
2. Flour a pizza peel and place the dough on it. Add a light coating of tomato sauce.
3. Top with some slices of fresh mozzarella cheese, fresh basil leaves a touch of kosher salt, and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and grate some Parmesan oregano on top.
4. In the oven, carefully shake the pizza peel until the pizza slides off onto your preheated pizza stone. Cook the pizza until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is melted, about 6-10 minutes depending on your oven.

Chef’s Notes: Get creative, this recipe shows a basic pizza, go ahead and put on your favorite toppings; mushrooms, sausage, peppers, onions, ham, pineapple, pepperoni etc.. Make it your pizza.[/private]