New York Pizza
Freshly proofed dough with hints of garlic and fresh cracked black pepper to create the perfect thin crust base for a bed of sun-dried tomatoes and pizza marianna. Where fresh mozzarella and ricotta (optional) is placed on top and cooked to perfection until the cheese bubbles and cracks to a light golden brown for fresh basil to be garnished on top is, the perfect Margherita Pizza.
Margherita Pizza originates from Italy when the queen decided to dedicate a national food to represent their country flag colours ( red, white and green). Not only is it one of the most delicious and popular type of pizza in New York and Italy, but it is the most affordable. So here is my recipe with a slight twist by adding a few extra ingredients to have a New York style thin crust pizza at the comfort of your own home.
PIZZA DOUGH:
Is one of the easiest things to make and I bet you have the ingredients already in your kitchen. This dough makes enough for two large pizzas, feel free to half it and freeze the other one to use for another time if you only want to eat one pizza. These are thinner crust pizza's so two large pizzas is good for 3-4 hungry people or for two people with leftovers for the next day.
You will need:
1 cup of warm water
1 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp sugar
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 tsp salt and pepper
2 tsp garlic powder
To start preheat oven to 390 F
Combine in a separate bowl the warm water, yeast and sugar. Whenever you are activating yeast make sure you have sugar to help feed the yeast. Water temp has to be WARM, if its too hot or too cold it will not work. Wait 5 mintues
In a food processor attach the dough blade (you can roll the dough by hand as well) add flour, salt, pepper, and garlic and combine. Slowly add the liquid yeast while the dough is on the dough/pate setting on the mixer. (If using by hand combine flour and liquid in a large bowl, mix with a spatula then kneed out with hands on a clean surface)
In a new bowl add olive oil to oil the bowl, make sure dough is lightly greased with oil and put in a warm place. (I put it in the microwave because its a dark area and its dry) Let it rise for an hour.
After it has risen, flour a clean surface and the top of the dough and separate into two equal parts. Dough should be airy and fluffy.
Time to form the dough into large circles. Instead of tossing it in the air and having an uneven dough, my FAVOURITE & EASIEST way to get the shape is to roll the dough out with a rolling pin. For a size reference you can use a pizza pan, or just use your best judgement to see how big you want it. Big enough so you get a thin crust without stretching or creating holes in the middle of the dough.
Roll out using a rolling pin then use your hands to help soften the edges to form a circle. Its okay if the edges aren't even, we are going to fold the edges in to form a crust. Make sure you form your dough big enough to create that crust.
From there we will add the sauces...
SAUCES:
As rewarding as it can be to make my own sun-dried tomato pesto and pizza sauce, I save so much time and money just buying it. The sauce on the left costed me $2.50 and the pesto was $3.50 By making these sauces homemade you will be reducing tomatoes, buying all the ingredients sepertately resulting to $$$, your electric bill will be higher, more labour and time consuming, plus the ingredients end up costing more than those two sauces up there. These sauces are sooo TASTY! Never feel guilty for buying some extra help.
So now we are going to add a thin layer of the sun dried tomato pesto, then add a medium layer of pizza sauce.
NOW its time for the real goods. Get fresh mozzarella and slice into medium pieces. Place around the pizza and drop pieces of fresh ricotta everywhere. MAKE SURE you use FRESH mozzarella & ricotta not shredded, not bocchinni, it must be fresh! Salt and crack fresh black pepper everywhere. Then drizzle olive oil everywhere, make sure you drizzle some on the crust so the crust can get crispy.
Bake until the crust is golden brown and the bottom is golden brown. Took me about 20 minutes to bake. It should look like this...
Tear up some fresh basil everywhere on the pizza. TA - DA!! You've just made the most amazing pizza ever! Now you can enjoy your own pizza instead of drooling at these pictures... You're welcome
