Homemade Pizza

A tradition in our family is to make homemade pizza. We've refined our methods over the years, and we finally think we have a crust that's as good as, or better than, most pizza places in town. If we had a wood-fired or even just a commercial oven, we might get even better results.

This pizza dough recipe is adapted from Jamie Oliver's Jamie's Italy cookbook.

• 1 3/4 lb all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups semolina flour
• 1 tablespoon fine sea salt 

• 2 cups + 2 tablespoons lukewarm water
• 1 tablespoon berry (aka caster or superfine) sugar
• 1 package (8 g) yeast

Combine the first three ingredients and create a mound on a clean surface. Dig out a well about seven inches in diameter. In a small bowl, stir together the next three ingredients and let sit for about a minute. Pour the liquid into the well and gently stir with a fork until the dough become too hard to stir. At this point, switch to your hands and then eventually knead the dough for ten minutes. Sprinkle with flour and cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel for about fifteen minutes.

When you are ready to roll out the dough, separate it into six or eight balls, depending on how large you want your pizzas.  It's best to roll out the dough about fifteen minutes before you put them in the oven. We use a pizza stone and bake in a 500 F oven for about seven minutes.

Jamie Oliver has a lot of great recipes and other ideas for toppings in his cookbook. His tomato sauce is wonderful! The photos and narrative are a notch above other cookbooks, and we encourage you to check it out.

Currently, there are three types of pizzas we pretty much always make:

• caramelized onions, olives and anchovies
• seasoned ground beef with tomato sauce
• garlic and olive oil

This time we also made pepperoni with zucchini, once with tomato sauce and once with caramelized onions.

Pour yourself a nice glass of Nero d'Avola or Chianti, kick back, and enjoy Italian street food at its best.