The Most Amazing PIZZA Ever! (Pizzaria Style Pizza)

Dough
½ cup warm water
½ tsp yeast
1 ¼ tsp sugar
¾ cup cool water
1 ¼ tsp salt
1 ¼ tsp olive oil
3-4 cups flour

Dissolve yeast in ½ cup warm water. Mix in sugar to dissolve. Add ¾ cup cool water. Add about 1 ½ cups flour to make thick batter. Mix in the salt and olive oil. Work in the rest of the flour to make a stiff dough. Knead in by hand the last ½ cup or so of flour. Amount of flour will vary depending on humidity, and temperature of dough and type of flour used. The dough should be very firm, but not unyielding like a rock. It should relax but not lose shape.

Oil or spray dough ball and put it in a zip lock bag and refrigerate for 2 or more days, untouched. By doing it ahead and letting it rise low and slow, it develops a little bit different taste in the dough. Or if you don't plan ahead, let it rise until double (2 hours or so).

Sauce (this makes about 4 cups)
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 6 oz can tomato paste

*(I only had diced tomatoes and tomato sauce, so I tried those instead and it worked fine. The sauce was just a little thinner.)

The spices can be adjusted to your taste. The spice amounts listed are for 1 cup of sauce, so if you want to do the whole batch at once, times the amount by 4, or use less if you don't like your sauce as spicy. (The full amounts of red and black pepper give it quite a kick.)

¼ - ¾ tsp salt
¼ - ½ tsp sugar
¼ - ½ tsp black pepper
1/16 – 1/8 tsp red pepper (cayenne) (don't multiply)
1/16 – 1/8 tsp garlic powder
¼ - ½ tsp basil leaves (if using fresh, use 3x the dry amount)
1/8 - ¼ tsp oregano leaves (if using fresh, use 3x the dry amount)
1/16 – 1/8 tsp fennel (optional)

Mix tomatoes and paste together. Slightly heat the sauce so the spices can blend flavors. Start with a small amount and taste between each spice so you can see if you want to add more. Crush the basil, oregano leaves, and fennel in your hands before adding. You can let the sauce blend for a day while the dough is rising, but you may need to add more seasonings after is has been sitting. Just warm it a little, taste it, and add more spices if needed.

Cheese Blend (I have used straight Mozzarella before and it turned out great)

Equal amounts of mozzarella and monterey jack. Smaller amounts of other cheeses. You can add muenster, parmesan, and romano. Or if you like stronger cheese, use asiago, white chedder, provolone, etc. Either grate all of the cheese or put it in the food processor until crumbled. Mix all cheeses together before placing on pizza.

Assemble the Pizza

Put pizza stone* on the bottom shelf of oven and pre-heat oven and stone to 550 degrees. (If it doesn't go that high, put it as high as it will go.)

**If you do NOT have a pizza stone: Preheat oven to 425 degrees and follow baking times at the bottom of the recipe.

Place dough on counter top. You can use corn meal on the bottom of your pizza if you would like that effect. Place palm centered on the dough and press down firmly. From the outer area of your palm print, start pressing outward with knuckles. Work to about ½ inch from the edge. Don't flatten the edge. Thin out close to the edge by gently stretching around the circumference of the pizza. Pick up the dough and slap it from hand to hand, gently stretching toward your elbow. You should rotate the dough with each slap. (About 5-6 slaps is usually enough.)

If you want to show off and twirl the dough, put the dough over your hands and put your right hand at 10 o'clock and your left hand at 4 o'clock and toss it upward in a clockwise motion. Be careful not to let the dough get too thin in the middle.

Lay the stretched dough on your screen*. Stretch to make fit if necessary. Don't push it into the screen or it will stick in the holes while cooking.

**If you do NOT have a pizza stone: Shape dough into circle on lightly oiled cookie sheet, or round pizza sheet.

Spread the sauce on the dough (1 – 1 ½ cups for a 16” pizza, more or less if you desire.) Spread it out to ½ inch of edge. Make sure it isn't too thick in the center.

Put any desired toppings on.

Place pizza on stone (or place cookie sheet in oven) and bake for 3-4 minutes. If you get air bubbles, prick them with a long handled fork and push toppings back into place. Rotate the pizza and check the bottom for browning. Bake for another 3-4 minutes and check the bottom for browning again. Depending on the thickness the total cooking time should be 7-10 minutes.