I love renting a car and searching out the next adorable village with its local charm, churches, and of course restaurants. It’s in these small towns you find some of the best home-cooked meals. And believe it or not the pizza is different from Northern to Southern Italy.

Pizza obsession

I met a gentleman in Italy who once told me that it takes years in school to learn the art of making pizza. You can tell by the love and passion of the chefs as you watch them throw the pizza dough, place the sauce and ingredients, and insert the pizza in the wood-fired oven.

Someday I will have a wood-fired pizza oven in my backyard. But for now, my quest is to continue to perfect the authentic Italian pizza dough, the base of every great pizza.

What makes the perfect pizza?

The dough is essential. It needs to be crispy on the outside and not doughy on the inside. You need to be able to fold the pizza in half as you take your first bite. It’s simply heaven.

So my quest began trying to recreate the perfect authentic Italian pizza dough. Below is what I’ve is my best attempt so far, but I’m not giving up to improve it. Maybe I need to live in Italy for years to learn their secrets.

Ingredients you’ll need to gather

The amounts listed here are for one, 12- to 14-inch pizza. You can make more and freeze it to use another time.

• 150 ml water or about 2/3 cup
• 1/2 tsp of sugar
• 1/2 tsp of active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• 1 3/4 cup of 00 flour (00 is the most highly-refined and finest-ground flour available) You can find it here or substitute regular flour.

Here’s how to make your authentic Italian pizza dough

First measure 50 ml of warm water in a small dish. It shouldn’t be hot and it shouldn’t be cold, just warm. It’s the kind of water the yeast thrive in.

Next, dissolve the sugar in the warm water. Once the sugar is dissolved, add the yeast, stir and let set. You’ll see the yeast starting to foam on top of the water. This means it’s working!

While your yeast is setting, make a volcano of flour on your counter or wherever you’re going to make your dough. create a dip in the center, just like the volcano.

Add your olive oil, salt and yeast-sugar-water mixture to the center of the volcano. Gently start to mix the flour and wet ingredients together. Knead the dough for about 10 to 15 minutes or until it is smooth and elastic. You may need to add more flour to your work surface as you knead. Just don’t add too much.

Form the dough into a nice ball shape and place in a lightly-oiled container. I used a glass container you see in the photo. Cover with plastic or a wet towel and let the dough rise for four to five hours until it has risen twice its original size.

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees F. for about 45 minutes. If you’re using a pizza stone, make sure you put it in the oven when it’s cool and preheating.

Remove the dough from the bowl and place it back onto the floured surface. Punch it down, getting rid of any bubbles. 

Roll the dough into a 12- to 14-inch pizza. You can decide how thick you want your crust. I like mine thin so I made mine a little larger and thinner. Place the dough on a pizza peel with a little cornmeal sprinkled on it so it doesn’t stick.

Add your sauce and toppings

Use your sauce sparingly. Italians do not use a bunch of sauce or ingredients like we do in the U.S. I used a home-made red sauce, capocollo, prosciutto and red peppers. Dress it up as you like and place it on the pizza stone. Be careful, the stone is extremely hot.

Bake the pizza for 5 to 7 minutes and then finish it off under the broiler to char it a bit.

There you have it, pizza the Italian way without the wood-fired oven.

Enjoy!

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