If you haven't picked up a copy of "The Elements Of Pizza" yet, I highly recommend you do. This book elaborates on the idea that the pizza we make at home will always be better than anything we'd get from the pizzeria. Of course, I strongly agree! You just need to gather quality ingredients, curate some of the best tools available, and bam, what? Awesome pizza at home! The at-home pizza possibilities are endless, especially with our secret weapon, the Baking Steel. And, after glancing through the book, it appears Mr. Forkish strongly concurs.
The book provides a glimpse at the history of pizza and like its predecessor, "Flour, Water, Salt and Yeast". This read does not disappoint! So far, I love what I'm reading and today I'm going to share one of Ken's secrets to great, crisp homemade pizza. It's not a dough recipe, but rather a cooking technique using our Baking Steel. Just when I thought I had tried them all, this technique offers an amazing solution to replicate the texture of a pizza you would find in Naples, except with a crispy crust, all done in a home oven!
Pizza Margherita
Ingredients
1 pizza dough
2 oz. no cook tomato sauce
2 oz. fresh mozzarella
4-5 basil leaves
grated pecorino ramono
Procedure
1.Preheat oven with Baking Steel on top rack for 45 minutes at 500F.
2. Switch oven to broil for 10 minutes. As you stretch or roll out your dough to a 12 inch cylinder, place on lubricated pizza peel...
3. After 10 minutes, switch oven back to bake.
4. Launch your pizza dough with tomato sauce onto the Baking Steel and bake for 3-4 minutes. Remove and distribute fresh mozzarella and basil on top. Drizzle olive oil on top. Switch oven back to broil and cook for 1-2 minutes or until desired doneness..
5. Remove from oven, slice and serve.
