Experienced pizza makers - the Italian pizza makers - always roll out the pizza dough into a thin cake to create a delicious crispy crust. The Neapolitans even demanded that the European Union pass a special law prescribing certain standards for pizza. This law states that the thickness of the cake itself should be no more than three millimeters.
A proper Italian pizza should have a thin base prepared according to a special recipe. Pizzaiolo dough is made from special flour, to which flour from durum wheat, rich in gluten, is added. Italians never use ordinary "soft" flour for pizza. You can find the special blend in Italian grocery stores, or you can mix the two flours yourself. One standard pizza (the diameter of which, according to the same law, should be 35 centimeters) requires 250 grams of flour. The dough also contains yeast (2 teaspoons of dry yeast), salt to taste, 125 grams of water and 10 grams of olive oil.
Italians do not impose such strict requirements on the filling of pizza as they do on the dough. You need to choose fresh products and a special pizza cheese - mozzarella.
Pizza dough is prepared only in water, do not try to make the dish tastier by kneading the dough in milk or kefir. Take clean filtered water, dilute olive oil in it. You need cold water, so the dough will turn out to be elastic. The oil must be first pressed or Extra Virgin. 250 grams of flour must be carefully sieved to make it tender and crumbly. A little salt is added to the flour. Real Italian pizza dough is always yeast-leavened; pizza makers usually work with sourdough, but dry yeast can also be used - it is easier and faster at home. Two teaspoons of yeast will be enough, they are mixed with flour. The yeast must be fresh, otherwise the dough may smell bad.
Water and olive oil are gradually added to the flour, and not vice versa (so the dough will not stick to your hands). The dough must be kneaded thoroughly, achieving the desired consistency - it must be soft and elastic enough, not tear when stretched and not shrink back. After kneading, it should be kept at room temperature for about an hour, covering the dishes with a damp towel.
The finished dough must be rolled out into a thin cake. Pizzaiolo do it by hand very dexterously and quickly, holding the cake in weight, rotating and even throwing it in the air, but non-professional chefs will find it easier to use a rolling pin. Although in this case, one important component of real pizza is lost - a thick crunchy edge. However, after rolling out the dough, it can be formed manually.
This edge of the pizza is greased with garlic oil (olive oil infused with garlic), and the filling and cheese are not placed on it.
Try to roll out the dough as thin and even as possible. Don't put a lot of toppings on the pizza, the thin base should be able to support the weight of the ingredients. In the oven, the cake rises slightly, acquiring the desired thickness - about three millimeters. Remember that pizza is cooked at the maximum temperature: in a real pizza oven, the heat is so strong that the base is baked in one and a half minutes, and in an oven at 275 ° C it will take about 8 minutes. The dough becomes crispy in high heat, as befits a real Italian pizza.
