Pizza at home is normally thought of as a frozen disc cooked in the oven. There is a better way! Below you will find the easiest way to make a crispy crust pizza with plenty of flavor in your home oven or toaster oven. The most difficult part of pizza at home is the baking of the pie. A true pizza oven is cooked at 700-800F (400C). This process cooks and crisps the dough before the toppings burn. Slow cooking at lower home oven temps 350-400f will burn the toppings before crust is done. The trick is to use a pre-heated pizza stone or even better a thick metal sheet. This will require a preheat at max temp for 45-60 minutes. Only then will the crust cook faster than the toppings.
Procedure:
Pizza Sauce: Canned pizza sauce is available but its simple to make.
1 can San Marzano whole pealed tomatoes (not san marzano style). Breakup the tomatoes by hand into small chunks. Add garlic powder, salt, onion powder and a bit of sugar.
Pizza Dough: Use only 00 type flour. The ratio of flour to water is critical. For a 13 inch pie the ratio is 100gm warm water (with a dash of yeast) to 180 grams of flour with a dash of olive oil and salt. For other sizes and styles, see this calculator. Kneed the dough by hand for 10 minutes then cover in floured bowl for 2 hours (or more depending on ambient room temp) NOTE: do not make a dough larger than your pizza peal or you will regret it!
Assembling the Pizza: on a floured wood surface press the dough into a flat round shape. Pushing from the center outward to your desired size. This part requires much practice to perfect. To prevent sticking of the dough to the wood or pizza peal, sprinkle some semolina flour under the dough. Coat the dough with pizza sauce, salt, oregano (lots), pepper, basil. Then sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the dough. Next a coating of Mozzarella cheese. Best is whole milk cheese. Then another coating of oregano. If the stone or metal sheet is fully at temp for 45-60 min, slide the pizza peal under the dough and slip it into the oven. Again this part takes some practice. Wet or sticky dough will be trouble.
Cook the pizza for 10-13 minutes or until the cheese surface is just starting to turn brown. Remove when done and let cool a bit before cutting
