Martin’s Guide to Good Pizza at Home

[Martin]

Hoi!

Yes. Good, voir GREAT pizza at home. There’s only a few hacks and tips to know!

First, and most important:

PIZZA STEEL PLATE OR PIZZA STONE

STEEL? yes. Thicker the better. Steel is better conductor than cordierite. Meaning better energy transfert. Thicker meaning more heat accumulation.

BUT, Pizza stone still GOOD. Just usually pricy.

You can get a steel plate (not inox, or galvanized) at places like Baking Steel, or better yet, contact a steel shop in your area. 1/4 thick MINIMUM. Size, well, check your oven? But it’s usually 16x14.

And then you can bake anything on it. Bread, etc….


2. Preheat the steel or stone 1hrs at max temp. Usually just above the middle rack, or the one above it. Accumulate that heat. Meanwhile, we stretch those pizzas.

3.Precook those pizzas. One at a time, cool the dough with sauce on it. Just to cook the bottom. 3-4min.

4. Remove and place on wireracks!!! Let the crust breathe under! While the other cooks, rotate the older pizza on the counter to give space on the racks for the new ones. Do that for all the pizzas.

5. Switch the oven to max broil. Top all your pizzas. Place on the peel, and cook. Once done, place on the wirerack!

Voila. Next up, the dough. And the sauce.

[Abraham Smashington]

I'm all about doing it in my cast iron. Shit is grubbin. But I look forward to your recipes.

Also for those of you that are pieces of shit like me and order out pizza, the best way to reheat it is throw a pan with foil in the oven, preheat at 460, once at temp throw pizza on pan and set a timer for 5-6 mins depending on your taste. It's the only reason we order Dominos. The pan pizza tastes better the next day with this method.

[Martin]

Bro I order out pizzas. No shame.

[Martin]

The Dough

I use a poolish method. There’s also a biga, which just has different ratio. Its basically a starter.

making great pizza takes a bit of time. But if you are nuts you can have some poolish in the fridge sleeping.

poolish:

300gr water
5gr dried yeast
5gr sugar
300gr flour.

Now. Take a larger hermetic tupperware or bowl with a lid.

mix the water and yeast. Add sugar, and let rest 2min. Add the flour and mix.

Cover. Let at room temp 1hr if you plan on using within 2 days. If not, fridge right away.

Then put in the fridge.


The day after, 18-24hrs.

Your starter will be bubbly and doubled. If it looks a bit inert, take it out a few hours. It will reactivate.


Add:

400gr water
30gr salt
700gr flour
20gr oil.

Add the water and salt. Pull your poolish with your finger and destroy it in the water. Add flour and oil. Knead for 2-3 minutes. DO NOT ADD FLOUR. Even if sticky. Put that in a bowl and cover with plastic and leave for an hour.

Le return


Your ball, if sticky, will be less so. You will need to smooth it out. How? Imagine your are cupping that big ball. As your cup it, LIFT IT. It will sag a big, on the top and bottoms of your hands, right? That’s how. You pull that skin with gravity. Keep doing it, ROTATING your angle of cupping so you go left-right, and top-bottom, to stretch that ball equally.

When smooth, you have the pizza’s dilemma.

-You can keep your big ball, ferment it, The day of the bake, split in 4-6 balls, and let rise 3 hours.

-Split right away. Pull out of fridge 2 hours before cooking.

Either way, oil the top of balls with your fingers. Cover.

When you are splitting that ball, lightly dust with flour the pan or container for those balls.

I HIGHLY recommend Vito Iacopelli’s videos on YouTube. A friend a mine introduced him as he’s also a pizzaiolo, and he’s honestly really fun to watch and uses the same techniques, so I uses the ratios in that video. Chechnout how he stretches. You can’t describe that.

https://youtu.be/G-jPoROGHGE

And yes, Cast Iron, heated as a steel plate, is also The Shit.

[Martin]

The Sauce

One can of whole italian tomatoes
1TBS garlic
Oregano
Salt
Basil
Red pepper


Heat up a deliberate amount of olive oil. Cook that garlic a bit. Add the tomatoes, crushed with your hands. Remove any basil that comes with it. I use an immersion blender, but you can crush with only your finger, depending on how you like it. Add the spices in the ratio you like. Sugar is to cut the acidity of the tomatoes. The only important thing here is salt.

Let simmer 5min. That’s it.

It’s closer to a NY sauce, as pure Neapolitan sauce is tomatoes salt and oil, uncooked. Still, my shit.

[Ingrid]

This all looks delightful, Martin!