Classic pizza recipe at home in the oven

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Updated: Sava

02/21/2018 Cooking time: 3 hours 0 minutes

Classic pizza is made not from store-bought puff pastry, but from homemade one. And you prepare the dough yourself, using not only regular wheat flour, but also wholemeal flour. This makes the pizza crust just right, healthier.

How to cook “Classic pizza”

1. To prepare classic pizza dough, mix wheat flour and wholemeal flour. In a separate bowl, add dry yeast in water, adding 1 teaspoon of salt and 2 tbsp. spoon of sugar. When the yeast wakes up, pour it into the dough and knead it. As you knead, add 3 tbsp to the dough. spoons of vegetable oil. It's better if it's olive.

2. Place the dough ball in a bowl. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave to rise for 2 hours.

3. Place the risen dough on the table. Divide into several parts.

4. Roll out each piece of dough into a circle. This can be done simply with your hands or with a rolling pin.

5. Place the dough in the mold, trimming off the excess edges.

6. Grease the dough with tomato sauce. The sauce can be purchased at the store or can be quickly made at home. To do this, mix tomato paste, a little water, add salt, spices, sugar. Heat the mixture in the microwave a little and stir again. You can prepare tomato sauce using a more complex method, using tomatoes without skins, boiling them until thickened, adding Italian spices, salt, and sugar. There are a lot of pizza sauce recipes.

7. Place any prepared meat, cut into pieces, tomatoes, mushrooms or other pizza toppings on the pizza. Add olives. Grate hard cheese. Place on top. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

8. Bake the pizza in the oven for 25 minutes.

A brief excursion into history

Almost all Mediterranean countries, in one way or another, claim to be the inventor of pizza. And in almost every one of them, from ancient times, flatbreads were baked, flavored with olive oil and seasonal vegetables, sprinkled with herbs and spices. The earliest mention of flatbreads using sour dough with yeast dates back to Ancient Egypt.

There are many recipes for pizza - this is a dish of traditional folk cuisine, food of the poor. And as you know, “the need for invention is rich.” Proximity to the sea gave rise to options with seafood; the presence of pastures with herds of cows and sheep made it possible to vary cheeses with different manufacturing technologies and degrees of readiness.

TOP 5 options for pizza toppings

Despite the many variations of fillings, there are classic combinations. You can remove or add something to them, but the basics remain the same.

1. Cheese

In pizzerias it is usually called “Four Cheese”, indicating the number of ingredients. But when preparing this pizza at home, you can reduce the number of ingredients even to two.

Important! One component must be soft cheese (ideally mozzarella), the other must be hard. The rest are optional. The addition of blue cheese will add some piquancy to the pizza.

Soft cheese is cut into thin slices, which are laid on top of the sauce.

Additional cheeses are cut into small pieces (cubes), which are evenly distributed over the surface.

The final chord is grated hard cheese. They cover all the filling.

2. With sausage

Mostly smoked varieties of sausages are used for this filling. But they can be diluted with boiled ham and bacon.

All components are thinly cut and laid out on the surface of the dough, greased with tomato sauce. If desired, you can add tomatoes, onions, bell peppers or mushrooms.

The cheese component can be mozzarella. In this case, it is placed under the sausage. Or hard cheese - sprinkle the filling on top.

3. With chicken

You can use both boiled and smoked poultry. The sauce can also be either tomato or creamy. But the first one is more suitable for smoked, and the second - for boiled.

Additional ingredients include pineapples (for Hawaiian pizza), mushrooms, herbs, olives, pickled onions, bell peppers, and spices.

It is better to take hard cheese and sprinkle it on top of the filling.

4. With seafood

You can choose any seafood for the filling. Creamy sauce is more suitable for this filling, as it gently emphasizes their taste.

Tomato is sharper, pulling the emphasis on itself. But it is acceptable to use it if you like this combination of flavors.

Important! Don't forget that long cooking times make most seafood rubbery.

It is better to combine seafood with mozzarella, which is placed under them in thin slices.

5. Vegetable

This filling is suitable for vegetarians and fasting people. You can choose any vegetables.

Important! Before use, vegetables (except onions, bell peppers and tomatoes) should be cooked - fried or simmered.

Tomato sauce is suitable here; creamy sauce will be too bland. The cheese is hard and preferably sharper. As an additive, you can take black olives, capers, herbs, and lettuce.

By the way! Greens and lettuce are always added to the already fully prepared pizza.

Another classic and popular filling is Margarita, but it will be discussed below.

Pizza thin

How to prepare classic Italian pizza dough is already known, and the preparation of the sauce is usually standard. Now about the filling. The thin pizza recipe uses several types of toppings, which gives it a unique taste.

You will need:

• tomato sauce – 100 g;
• ham – 70 g;
• cheese – 30 g;
• tomatoes – 2 pieces;
• olives – 30 g;
• olives 30 g;
• mushrooms (champignons) – 50 g;
• vegetable oil (for greasing the baking sheet) – 1 tablespoon.

The entire filling is laid out in random order onto the prepared piece, greased with sauce or tomato paste. Before laying out, the ham and vegetables are cut into cubes. Finally, cheese is grated on top. Bake in the oven at about 220 degrees Celsius for eight minutes.

Recipe ingredients:

Dough

• 2 and 3/4 tbsp. flour + extra for work
• 1 tbsp. l. coarse salt
• 1 tbsp. warm water (38°С-43°С)
• 2 tsp. Sahara
• 1 tsp. active dry yeast
• 2 tbsp. l. olive oil + extra for bowl

Toppings

• 2 tbsp. l. olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, grated
• 1/4 - 0.5 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1 and 3/4 tbsp. tomato puree (preferably San Marzano)
• 0.5 tsp. dried oregano
• 220 gr. grated dry mozzarella (about 2 tbsp.)

Mini pizza or “Easy as pie” pizza recipe in 5 minutes

How to make mini pizza or “Easy as pie” pizza recipe in 5 minutes
Cooking tips:

1. You can use thin Armenian lavash as a pizza base.
2. The pizza filling can be anything. The main thing is that the filling is ready for use and does not require long-term heat treatment. Cheese is a must
3. Please note: mini pizzas bake faster than classic flatbread pizzas. Baking temperature 180-200⁰С. The oven must be well heated
4. The metal mold can be replaced with disposable foil muffin cups

Foil molds for mini pizzas

Classic dough recipe

The most important thing in preparing the right pizza is the right recipe, and a special technology that will prepare the perfect pizza dough. The classic recipe can be used as a basis for preparing various types of dishes. For the test you will need:

• boiled water at 40°C – 0.3 l;
• dry or live yeast - 10 g or 0.5 packs;
• granulated sugar – 20 g;
• salt – 1 teaspoon;
• durum flour – 1 cup;
• soft flour - 1 cup;
• vegetable oil – 30 ml.

First of all, the dough is prepared. Pour warm water into a deep bowl, add sugar, yeast and add one tablespoon of both types of flour. Mix all ingredients thoroughly and leave to rise in a warm place.

After a quarter of an hour in the bowl, the yeast will dissolve and foam will form on the surface. In another bowl, mix flour, salt, butter and suitable dough. The dough is kneaded. One of the important factors affecting its quality is the correct consistency. The result should be a soft and at the same time elastic pizza dough. The classic Italian recipe involves a thin base, which is easier to roll out from pliable dough.

How to style

When placing the filling, you should follow simple recommendations:

• It is better to use no more than four ingredients for the filling (excluding cheese and sauce), otherwise the flavors will clog each other.
• The filling is placed in one layer.
• Its thickness should not exceed one centimeter.
• There is no need to occupy the entire surface of the dough - there should also be free space for the cheese.

Secrets of delicious pizza

1. To prepare thin and crispy pizza, place two baking sheets in a heated oven, with pizza on top and empty below.
2. The process of kneading dough requires a good mood; you can turn on music, but not loudly, but in the background.
3. The flour must be sifted so that the dough becomes homogeneous.
4. Fresh yeast is always better than dry yeast. But if they are missing, you can replace them.
5. When kneading the dough, add only half the flour at first, and mix in the rest gradually.
6. It is advisable to replace vegetable sunflower oil with olive oil. It has less aroma and will be invisible when baking.
7. The process of kneading the dough must be continued until it stops sticking to your hands. It must be remembered that the pizza should not tear at the stage of kneading and forming the base. The dough needs to be soft and elastic.