Pizza.
Pizza – one of the famous dishes in the world. But not everyone knows that to cook pizza at home is pretty quick and easy. Today I’ll tell you how to cook pizza. Everything, including dough, sauce and topping ingredients. Here are three kinds of pizza below: “Margherita”, “Four Cheese” and “Prosciutto-Arugula”. You could even organize a pizza-party.
           Ingredients:
For dough (for 3-4 pizza):
500 g (4 1/5 cup) white bread flour (type 00)
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoon olive oil
7 g dried east
300 ml (1 1/5 cup) of warm water (35-40°С)
For tomato sauce (for 4-6 big pizza):
2 x 400 g (1Âľ pound) tin of plum tomatoes
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon large sea salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 bunch of fresh basil
For pizza “Margherita” (2 servings):
150-200 g (1/3-1/2 pound) pizza dough
3-4 tablespoon of tomato sauce
120-150 g (1/3 pound) Mozzarella cheese
1-3 tablespoon of fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
3-5 leaves of fresh basil
For pizza “Four Cheese” or “Quattro Formaggi” (2 servings):
150-200 g (1/3-1/2 pound) pizza dough
2-3 tablespoons of garlic olive oil or extra virgin olive oil
1 medium red onion finely chopped
100 g (½ cup) Gorgonzola cheese piled cubes
100 g (½ cup) grated Mozzarella semi-hard cheese
100g (1 cup) grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
100g (½ cup) grated Provolone cheese
Fresh basil and thyme to taste
For pizza “Prosciutto-Arugula”:
150-200 g (1/3-1/2 pound) pizza dough
3-4 tablespoon of tomato sauce
150-200 g (1/3-1/2 pound) grated Mozzarella semi-hard cheese
100-150 g (1/3 pound) Prosciutto
1 tablespoon pine nuts (fried on a dry pun)
8-10 leaves of arugula for decoration (washed and dried with paper towel)
6-8 cherry tomatoes (washed and cut in a half)
1-2 tablespoon of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
           Let’s get started!
- In a large bowl mix flour with salt. In a medium bowl or cup mix warm water, yeast, olive oil and sugar. Leave for 10-15 minutes and add to the bowl with flour and salt. Using a spoon or fork and circular movement well mix flour with the water. When the dough becomes too hard to mix with spoon, flour your hands and begin to form it into a ball. Place dough on a lightly floured table. Knead the dough for 10 minutes until it become a smooth, springy, soft. Dough shouldn’t stick to the hands and table. Flour a big bowl and place there our dough. Cover bowl with a fresh kitchen towel or plastic wrap and leave in the warm place for 1,5-2 hours – your dough should double in size.
- Smash peeled cloves of garlic with flat side of the knife and finely chop. Pick the basil leaves and lightly chop. Grind salt with pepper in a mortar. Heat a saucepan on a medium heat and add olive oil and the garlic. Stir gently until the garlic starts to turn golden (don’t let the garlic burn!), then add the tomatoes and the basil leaves. Bring to boil, reduce the heat and cook gently for around 20 minutes. During the cook mashing the tomatoes up with a spoon or spatula until it’s smooth. Remove saucepan from the heat and thoroughly wipe the sauce through a sieve. With the silicone spatula carefully collect the tomato puree from the reverse side of a sieve. Place your sauce back to the saucepan. Place it in the medium-low heat and simmer gently stirring 10-15 minutes or until thick. Remove from the heat and cool down.
- Let’s come back to our dough. Carefully place it on a flour table and slightly knead. Divide dough on three or four parts. If you don’t want to cook pizza now or want to use just a part of the dough – place the rest in the plastic container and freeze. Better to roll dough just before baking. Don’t leave dough to stay on the table for hours. Take a piece of the dough, dust your surface and the dough with a little flour and roll it out into a rough circle about 0,5 cm (ÂĽ inch) thick. Preheat the oven with the oven-tray up to 250°С (482°F). . Carefully (not to burn yourself!) take oven-tray out of oven. You might place rolled dough directly on the tray or place some baking sheet before. At this stage you can apply your favorite toppings.
- Pizza “Margherita”. Spread the tomato sauce over the base of your pizza, leave free 1-2 cm (½ -¾ inch) at the edges. Sprinkle with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Tear over the mozzarella cheese by hands on pieces and place on top of the sauce with few basil leaves. Bake pizza for 7 to 10 minutes, until the pizza is golden and crispy. Serve it immediately.
- Pizza “Four Cheese” or “Quattro Formaggi”. Drizzle base of pizza with the garlic oil. Place the chopped onion on top of the oil. Mix Gorgonzola, Provolone,  Parmigiano-Reggiano and Mozzarella in the bowl and spread mix of cheeses on the onion. Cook for 7 to 10 minutes. Decorate with fresh basil leaves or thyme if desire and serve immediately.
- Pizza “Prosciutto-Arugula”. Spread the tomato sauce over the base of pizza. Place grated mozzarella cheese on top of the sauce. Bake pizza for 7-10 minutes until golden and crispy. Tear the prosciutto and scatter on top of the crispy cheese with tomatoes, arugula and pine nuts. Decorate with basil leaves and sprinkle with grated parmigiano-reggiano. Serve immediately!
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