How to make the perfect pizza at home

You can easily make a perfect pizza from scratch at home with just a few readily available ingredients — flour, yeast, salt, extra virgin olive oil, tomatoes, garlic, and ‘pizza’ cheese.

If you want to go up one notch, source some buffalo mozzarella and fresh basil leaves.

But what exactly is a perfect pizza?

The answer depends entirely on what kind of crust you like. The common belief that traditional Italian pizzas have a thin crust is not true at all.

You can get a pretty thick-crusted, bready, pizza in Sicily, a light and airy, dimpled kind in Rome, and a thin, almost droopy pizza in Naples.

The one that I like is a cross between the deservedly famous Neapolitan and the thin-crust, but crispier, pizza from New York. It is also the most common type you will find at good pizzerias in India.

What we are looking to get is a pie that has a thick outer lip, consisting almost entirely of trapped air, and a thin inner disc that is soft and foldable.

The secret to getting that consistency is developing the dough in several stages, and letting the yeast age a bit to release more acetic acid, what we know as vinegar.

Wheat flour contains starch granules, which absorb water and swell up. It also has proteins which uncurl and reticulate when they are stretched and pulled. This forms a ‘viscoelastic’ network of proteins, which we call gluten.

When yeast is mixed with flour and water, it wakes up from sleep and gets ‘activated’. The yeast eats the sugar in the starch and kind of ‘burps’ out gases.

If the dough is kneaded for a long time, more gluten networks are formed, which form a cloak to hold the yeast gases in. The gas tries to escape, pushing the cloak outwards, making the dough expand in size. This is called proofing.

Here’s how to make the dough.

TAKE 100 ml of warm water in a large bowl. When you dip your finger in it, it should feel like you are touching someone who has a fever. Mix in half a teaspoon of sugar, and then add one teaspoon of active dry yeast.

Whisk well, cover, and let it sit for 15 minutes. The yeasty mixture should become frothy.

Now add 100 grams of flour and mix well. You will get a gloopy, sticky mixture. Cover the bowl with cling film, or a disposable shower cap, place a plate on top, and refrigerate for 12-16 hours. This process is called the sponge, or sur’poolish, method. It gives that sour edge to the pizza crust.

THE NEXT DAY, take the sponge out and mix in 75 ml of water, and another 150 grams of flour. You will end up with a dough that has ‘70% hydration’.

It will be tough to knead this because it will be very sticky. So, mix it with a silicone spatula or a wooden spoon. Let it sit uncovered for 15 minutes.

Then, knead the dough for 5 minutes straight. Cover with a damp cloth and let it sit for another 15 minutes. After that, add a teaspoon of salt and work it into the dough, kneading well for another 5 minutes.

Shape the dough into a ball, stretching the sides and tucking them underneath, to get a smooth surface. Coat with a few drops of extra virgin olive oil, cover with cling film, and let it rise for 45 minutes.

Once the dough has doubled in size, cut it into two equal halves, trying to keep in as much of the air as possible. This step is crucial, so handle the dough carefully.

Shape the dough into two balls, again stretching the sides gently, tucking it underneath, and then sealing with a pinch.

Cover with cling film that’s been smeared with a few drops of oil. Let the dough balls sit for 40-45 minutes till they double in size.

In the meantime, prepare the pizza sauce.

TAKE five ripe tomatoes, and slice them in halves. Place half a garlic clove inside each tomato half, sprinkle salt on top and drizzle some extra virgin olive oil on top. Now place the tomato halves on a baking tray, and roast at 150 degrees C for 20-25 minutes.

Once the tomatoes are cool to the touch, remove the peels and mash the tomato-garlic mixture with a fork. You can use your hands to break down the tomato particles to make it as smooth as possible.

Do not use a blender or grinder. Taste and adjust the salt. Your pizza sauce is ready.

NOW preheat your oven to the highest it can go. At the same time place a wide-bottomed frying pan on the stove and let it heat for 5 minutes.

Wipe your counter clean — if you have a large chopping board use that — and sprinkle with a generous amount of flour. Place one of the dough balls on top and dust it with more flour.

Start pressing down and out with your fingertips from the centre of the dough ball, pushing the trapped air out towards the edges. This process requires a bit of practice but it is pretty easy to get a hang of it.

YOUR AIM is to stretch the dough ball outwards in a circle, making the central disk as thin as possible, while keeping the air trapped in the outer lip. Make the pizza slightly smaller than your frying pan.

Now brush off the excess flour and very carefully transfer the pizza onto the frying pan, stretching it out to cover the entire base. Be very careful not to burn yourself.

Cook the pizza base on medium high heat for 4-5 minutes. This will give the bottom the brown spots and char that a pizza oven produces.

As it cooks, spread the pizza sauce, from the centre outwards towards the lip. Cover with chunks of ‘pizza’ cheese, which you can buy from your local store.

IF YOU ARE using fresh buffalo mozzarella, drain it, cut into slices and let it sit in the fridge to dry out for an hour.

Use a flat spatula to lift the pizza base off the pan, onto a baking tray. Brush the ‘lip’ of the pizza with extra virgin olive oil and bake in the oven till the cheese melts and the crust browns evenly.

Take it out, let it cool for 3-5 minutes. Slice and serve.

You’ve got yourself the best possible pizza that you could make at home.

P.S. You could make another pizza with the second dough ball, or you can freeze it for later. Thaw it properly before using it.

Aunindyo Chakravarty was Senior Managing Editor, NDTV Profit & NDTV India. Aunindyo has been cooking since he was eight, and he believes he is much more skilled as a cook than as a journalist.