How to Make the Most Authentic Italian Pizza
Pizza is one of the most popular Italian foods, and is said to have originated in the late 1800s. The first ever pizza in the history was made by an Italian baker Raffaele Esposito, and was very lightly topped, unlike the customized pizzas available today. The only difference between an authentic Italian pizza and a common pizza lies in the topping. The former does not include any meat or vegetables, and is topped only with pizza sauce, chopped onion, garlic and a few herbs.
Preparation Time: 2 hours 20 minutes
Cooking Time: Nil
Baking Time: 8 to 10 minutes
Total Time: 1 hours 30 minutes
Yield: 8 servings
Utensils: Food processor, rolling pin, pizza stone, mixing bowls, measuring cup, measuring spoon
Ingredients:
– Flour: 2 ½ cups
– Salt: 1 ½ salt
– Extra virgin olive oil: 2 ½ tbsp
– Lukewarm Water: ½ cup
– Instant dry yeast: 1 sachet
– Fresh tomatoes: 2
– Onion (chopped): 1
– Garlic (chopped): 1 tsp
– Oregano: ½ tsp
– Parsley: 1 tsp
– Basil leaves: ½ tsp
– Shredded Mozzarella cheese: ½ cup
Instructions
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1
Start by making the pizza dough. Take half a cup of lukewarm water in a small mixing bowl and add 1 ½ tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, 1 ½ teaspoon of salt and the sachet of dry instant yeast to it. Stir this mixture well with a spoon and set aside for five minutes to allow the yeast to rise.
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2
Sift 1 ½ cups of flour in a medium sized mixing bowl and add the yeast mixture to it. Again mix the ingredients thoroughly before you add a second cup of flour. Agitate and knead the mixture with the palms of your hands to thoroughly combine the wet and dry ingredients.
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3
Transfer this mixture to a clean surface dusted with flour and knead it into a smooth dough. Work the mixture for five to seven minutes, while adding extra flour, if required, to make sure the dough is a bit hard and stretchy, not sticky.
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4
Shape the dough into a ball and move it to a large bowl lightly coated with oil. Apply a small amount of oil to the top of the dough, cover the bowl with a plastic sheet and allow it to rise for one hour in a dry, warm place.
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5
After one hour, move the dough to a lightly floured surface and roll it out into a ¼ inch thick crust. Set the dough in the pizza pan and let it rise again for about an hour.
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6
While your dough is rising in the pan, preheat the oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit and prepare the pizza sauce and the topping.
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7
To make the pizza sauce, add tomatoes, one tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and pinches of salt and black pepper to the bowl of the food processor. Grind the ingredients until they are smooth.
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8
Spread this sauce generously on the top of the pizza dough.
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9
Top the pizza with chopped onion, garlic, basil leaves and parsley. Also sprinkle half teaspoon of oregano and cover the pizza with shredded mozzarella cheese.
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10
Bake the pizza in the preheated oven for eight to ten minutes or until the crust is slightly golden brown and the cheese starts bubbling.
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11
Remove the pizza from the oven, slice as you desire and serve immediately.
: 1
- Garlic (chopped): 1 tsp
- Oregano: ½ tsp
- Parsley: 1 tsp
- Basil leaves: ½ tsp
- Shredded Mozzarella cheese: ½ cupNext%20stop%3A%20Pinterest "Pin It")
