Pizza Margherita
- 1 batch pizza dough (see preceding recipe)
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup marinara sauce (see page 108)
- 4 ounces fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon extra- virgin olive oil
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Place a pizza stone on a rack in the lower third of the oven.
- Divide the dough in half, then form each half into a flat round and let it rest on top of your knuckles on both raised fists.
- Use your knuckles to pull out and stretch the round into a thin circle.
- Place the dough circle on your work surface, and press it out as thin as you can with your fingertips.
- Place the dough circle on a flour-sprinkled pizza peel-paddle (or, if you do not have one, on the parchment-covered back of a baking sheet).
- Spread about half of the sauce on the dough, using just enough sauce to dot about half of the pizzas surface, leaving a lip around the edge.
- In the spaces where you havent dotted sauce, lay half of the cheese.
- Drizzle with half of the olive oil.
- Slide the pizza off the pizza peel or the baking sheet with parchment onto the pizza stone.
- Bake the pizza until the cheese is melted and bubbly and the crust is browned and crisp on the bottom, about 10 minutes.
- Remove from oven, and repeat with remaining dough, sauce, cheese, and olive oil.
- A pizza stone, as it is called, is usually a rectangular tablet made of stone or terra-cotta that you place in your oven.
- It helps make good crusty pizza and focaccia because it heats to high temperature and disperses the heat evenly over the bottom of the pizza, cooking evenly and crisp.
- A pizza stone should not be washed, since it is porous; you just scrape and brush off any remaining debris.
- If you do not have a stone, baking the pizza on a baking sheet or in a cast-iron skillet will work, too.
batch pizza, marinara sauce, mozzarella, extra virgin olive oil
Taken from www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/pizza-margherita-385234 (may not work)