Cheese and Pears

Thin crust light pizza (pizza sottile e leggera)

Posted on Apr 12, 2009 08:16:07 AM

There we go with another thin crust pizza. Before you start, if you haven’t taken the test “are you Italian when you go to a pizzeria? in the thin crust pizza do it now.

Why light? Because it contains a part of rice flour, which has hardly any gluten (=less elastic after kneading) but a lighter taste.

Why thin? Because it’s a lighter way to enjoy pizza: lighter means less dough. The ingredients here are for 500g of flour. If you have a normal oven this means two batches, so if you feel one is enough, stick half of the dough in the freezer and use it the following Friday (which is the best day to make pizza at home).

• 350g (2 ½ cups) strong flour
• 150g (1 cup) rice flour
• 15g (1 tbsp) fresh yeast or 7g (½ tbsp) dry yeast
• about 300ml (10 fl oz) lukewarm water + 60 ml (2 fl oz) to spare
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 teaspoons salt

For the topping, basic stuff:

• 1×400g tin (about 1 pound) of chopped tomatoes
• salt and pepper
• oregano
• 2 balls of fresh mozzarella cheese
• 125g (4 ½ oz) diced bacon

Put the 300ml water in the microwave for 30 seconds, then add the yeast and the olive oil. Stir until it bubbles.

Sift and mix the flours in a bowl and add the salt. Make a hole in the middle and add half of the liquid mix. Using a fork, start mixing drawing circles from the centre outward. Then add half of the remaining water and keep using the fork, or one hand if it’s too hard.

Now it’s time to balance flour and water to obtain a kneadable dough. Make sure you’re picking up all the flour at the bottom of the bowl, and add some more flour if it’s too sticky, or some extra water if it’s too dry.

When the dough is solid enough to be kneaded, transfer it to the working surface.  The basic kneading technique is to use the part where the hand meets the wrist to stretch the dough and roll it back on itself. Then turn it 90° and repeat. Now, I’m not a kneading master, but I’ve added an extra step which I think is useful. After stretching the dough, before rolling it back, turn it upside down: the even side which was touching the working surface will be now on the top, and the rugged side will be at the bottom. Now roll it back.

After 10 minutes of hand kneading, the dough should be elastic enough. Put it back in the bowl, cover with clingfilm and let it raise for about 45-60 minutes. The basic rule for bread is to let it raise until it’s doubled in size,which takes more than one hour, but I tend to be a little impatient with pizza.

Preheat the oven to 250°/500°F/gas 9.Make sure the baking tray is inside.

In a separate bowl mix all the ingredients for the topping apart form mozzarella, which you’ll tear in pieces and put aside.

Roll half of the dough with a rolling pin until it ½ cm thick, place it on a piece of oven paper and spread half of the tomato mix on it. Put it on the baking tray and bake for about 5-7 minutes, until the edges are a bit golden.

Take out the half-baked pizza and add the mozzarella pieces and the bacon. Put it back in the oven and bake until the cheese is melted and the edges are darker.

Needless to say, enjoy it with a beer, not wine.

Here are more pizza recipes, and check also this nice website where some people really live for pizza.

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2. Homemade Pizza Recipes: a Recap This is a recap of my homemade pizza recipes...