THE ULTIMATE PIZZA MARGHERITA (pakko jakaa teillekin, taa on niin jumalaista!!)
(Makes 2, each serves 2)
May be freezed, Preparation 1,25 hours, including rising times, Cooking 15 min per pizza.
FOR THE PIZZA DOUGH
350G strong white flour (100g = 2,10 dl)
25g semolina + extra for sprinkling (=mannaryynivanukas, makeaa)
1,5 tsp salt
7g sachet fast-action dried yeast
1 tbsp olive oil (NOT extra virgin) + extra for drizzling
275ml tepid water
FOR THE TOPPING
400g chopped tomatoes (ma lisasin 400g tuoreita, ei tullut liikaa!)
2 plump garlic gloves, chopped
2 tbsp tomato puree
2 balls buffalo mozzarella (about 140g each)
2 small handfuls basil leaves, roughly torn (ehdottomasti pitaa olla tuoretta, ei jauhettua)
parmesan shavings to serve
1. In a bowl, mix flour, semolina, salt and yeast. Make a dip in a middle, pour in oil, water, then stir and squeeze everything together (hands are easiest for this). The dough should feel very sticky. When it is mixed, cover and leave for 15 min.
2. Tip the dough on to a lightly oiled work surface and rub your hands and the inside of the bowl with oil. Knead the dough about 12 times only, giving it a quarter turn each time you knead. Tuck the ends under so it is the shape of a ball and lay it in the bowl, seam side down. Cover and leave for 10 min. Repeat the kneading and leaving for 10 min again, then knead and leave for 15 min, oiling the surface and your hands each time.
3. In between kneadings make the sauce for the topping. Drain the tomatoes and tip them into a bowl. Snip them into small pieces with scissors. Stir in garlic, tomato puree and seasoning (=mustapippuri ja suola). Set aside. Brush a baking sheet with oil and sprinkle with a little semolina. Heat oven to 240C/ fan 220C.
4. When the dough is ready, cut in half and put one half onto a lightly floured surface. Knead 4-5 times to squash out any air bubbles, then roll it out. At the point where it just keeps springing back, brush off the flour from the work surface and rub on a little oil. This makes it easier to roll Continue to roll out until you have a 28cm circle, pulling it into shape as well. Lift it onto the baking sheet (it¿s easier if you drape it over a rolling pin).
5. Drain the mozzarella, then pat dry with kitchen paper. Brush the dough with olive oil, then spread half the sauce over, almost up to the edge. Scatter over half the basil, then tear up one mozzarella ball and scatter over the basil. Grate over some pepper and drizzle with little olive oil. Bake for 12-15 min until the topping is bubbling and the dough is going brown. Repeat with the remaining dough and toppings. To serve, scatter with parmesan shavings and drizzle with oil.
PER SERVING: 593 kcalories, protein 26g, carbohydrate 74g, fat 24g, saturated fat 10g, fibre 3g, sugar 4g, salt 3g.
Angela Nilsen discovers an unconventional way to create the perfect pizza Margherita at home:
GOING THE TRADITIONAL ROUTE
I began by running through some traditional dough-making techniques with Ursula. ¿Use a strong white flour and olive oil¿, she advised, ¿not extra virgin as it is too heavy. Add enough water so you have a soft dough. If too dry, it will be heavy.¿ We began with kneading. ¿Get into a rhythm, with one foot in front of the other to get your body involved. Watch the amount of flour on the work surface; too much and dough will be dry ¿ it should feel tacky.¿ We compared a slow-rise dough against the fast-rise one. The slow had everything, a good texture, easy to work and a well developed flavour. The fast version was fine, but it was still too lively, more spongy, so kept bouncing back while being rolled out. The winner wasn¿t in doubt - but six hours rising time was impractical. I needed a different method, so I contacted Dan Lepard, the baker, who has some radical bread-making techniques.
EMRACING THE UNVENTIONAL
Dan¿s dough was even stickier and kneading was minimal. He believes it is hydration of the water with the flour over a period of time, rather than kneading, that activates the gluten to produce stretchy, resilient dough. I tried a variation of Dan¿s method with an adaptation of Ursula¿s recipe, including her idea of mixing in semolina to enrich and strengthen the dough. Despite a short rising time and hardly any kneading, the dough had a great texture and flavour, and was golden and crunchy from the semolina ¿ but it wasn¿t thin enough. It just kept on bouncing back as I rolled it out. I pulled it, prodded it, even tried throwing it up in the air ¿ nothing helped. Until I recalled that Dan oils the work surface first. Immediately it rolled out like a dream.
SORTING OUT THE TOPPING
The topping ingredients for a Margherita pizza mirror the colours of the Italian flag ¿ green, red and white. ¿It¿s about balance¿, Ursula said. ¿You shouldn¿t taste one ingredient more than the others.¿ Then the officialdom crept in again. ¿The sauce should officially be smooth so it spreads easily,¿ she added. ¿You could make a cooked sauce and puree it, or use passata and ladle it on ¿ convenient but lacking flavour.¿ I made up a cooked sauce and kept it chunky. It tasted good, but should I have pureed it? Anna Venturi came up with another solution. ¿Just use undressed tomatoes straight from the tin, there¿s no need to cook with onion.¿ I loved the speed and freshness of this topping, but missed the flavours of my cooked version. So I chopped in some garlic, squirted in a bit of tomato puree, and had flavour as well as speed. Ursula had another trick; ¿Always hide the basil under the mozzarella ¿ to protect and keep it¿s flavour.¿ She also told me that the government guidelines allow only the use of Buffalo Mozzarella ¿ I was happy to comply. Grating the cheese meant it could be evenly distributed, through slightly messy to do, so I tried ripping it, and preferred the definition this gave.
GETTING A CRISP CRUST
Without a wood-burning oven, how could I get an authentic crisp, dark crust? The reason a pizza comes out so crisp from a wood-burning oven, said Anna, ¿is that the oven is closed with a wooden door, the sealed, making it completely dry.¿ Intensity of heat helped give authenticity in my domestic oven, as long as the dough was really thin. When thicker, the cheese burnt before the dough had time to cook. Now I have the oven temperature and dough just right, the base was cooking quickly and evenly without heating the baking sheet first and, sprinkling semolina on the sheet helped to stop the dough sticking. ¿The semolina acts like ball bearings,¿ Ursula told me, ¿so the pizza just rolls off.¿ As my latest test glided off, I knew that my unconventional methods would never win me official pizzaiola status ¿ but they¿ll encourage me to make pizza more often.