homemade caprese pizza

If you want to make an authentic Italian pizza, you can't miss the recipe brought to us by Rosa, author of Pemberley, Cup&Cakes . It is based on the recipe and advice of the well-known Simili Sisters to make a homemade caprese pizza that is finger-licking good. Time to get your hands dirty!

It is well known that a pizza usually marks the beginning of something good; the advance of that unmistakable aroma, your family or friends gathered around, a good chat, perhaps a movie... Even so, today we take the experience to a higher level, because if it is also a good homemade pizza, success is completely guaranteed.

I am aware that if we are going to face the experience for the first time, the fact of forming our own dough and kneading it at home may perhaps seem a bit intimidating, but believe me when I tell you that it is nothing that is not within everyone's reach.

In this case, I wanted to follow the recipe from the Simili sisters' book, Italian Bread and Sweets , for the preparation of the thin dough base , perfectly explained and with all the details that we need to take into account to enjoy a homemade pizza like few others.

And in reality it is not only a relatively simple and accessible task, but it can also be tremendously fun and stimulating, especially if we have the collaboration of some of the most willing diners (who if they are children, will enjoy it and remember it with even greater enthusiasm) when it comes to choosing and composing our homemade pizza with our favorite ingredients.

In addition, we will quickly see that as we become more familiar with the task (and I warn you that it can be highly addictive), the result will only get better. I am convinced that after the first one, there will be a second one and many more to follow, because once you see how simple and comforting it is to make your own pizza, you will find it difficult to keep your hands off the dough.

So what, are you joining me?

Pallarès bread knife , Le Creuset ceramic stand and T&G acacia wood board

Ingredients (for 1 large or 2 medium pizzas)

Ingredients for the dough:

• 500gr of wheat flour
• 10g of salt
• 25gr of fresh yeast
• 250g of mineral or filtered water (at about 20ºC in summer, 30-35ºC in winter)
• 50gr of extra virgin olive oil

Ingredients for the base (“sole”):

• 800gr of whole peeled tomatoes (natural or canned)
• Salt
• Ground black pepper
• Oregano
• Oil

Additional Ingredients:

• 500g cow or buffalo milk mozzarella
• 100gr of dried tomatoes in oil
• 120gr of feta cheese
• 100gr of black olives (I used the “Kalamata” variety)
• Fresh basil leaves
• La Tourongelle pizza oil (optional)

Elaboration

1. If kneading by hand, place the flour in a mound on the work surface and make a hole in the center, like a volcano. (See below in the "Notes" section how to knead with an electric mixer.) ).

2. On the edge of the volcano on one side, we make a small hole and place the salt.

3. In the center of the volcano we crumble the yeast, add almost all the water (about 200 g approx.), dissolve the yeast in it together with a little flour from the inside of the ring and let it rest so that it absorbs well for about 5 minutes. .

4. Next, add the rest of the flour, now with the salt, add the oil and begin to mix the ingredients until everything is well combined (add more water if necessary). For this task it is very useful to have a baker's scraper (if not, you can use a large flat silicone spatula ).

Paderno oiler and Bérard flour spoon

5. Once the ingredients are more or less integrated, we begin the actual kneading process. We fold the dough over itself towards us, place what would be the “heels” of our hands on the seam and press gently in the opposite direction to us, stretching it again. We turn the dough ¼ and fold, stretch and turn again as many times as necessary until we obtain a dough with a soft and elastic texture (about 8-10 minutes). During the kneading process it will not be necessary to grease our hands or add more flour, as this is a dough that is quite easy to manipulate.

6. Next, shape the dough into a ball, cover it with a large upside-down bowl or a clean, damp cloth and let it rise in a warm place away from drafts for about 1 ½ hours or until it doubles its initial volume.

7. Meanwhile, drain the tomatoes in a large colander over a large bowl (if necessary, use your hands to drain them to remove excess water), chop them without overdoing it (just mashing them with the prongs of a fork is enough) and set aside.

8. Preheat the oven (electric and without air) to 240ºC (or 250ºC if your oven allows it) and place the oven rack in the central position.

9. I have chosen to make 2 medium-sized pizzas**, so once the dough was ready, I divided it into 2 equal parts (always cutting it with a very sharp knife; never with my hands). I have used the non-stick pizza pan from Le Creuset , because it leaves the pizza base crispy just the way I like it and thanks to the quality of its non-stick coating, there is no need to grease it.

10. Next, without manipulating it too much to prevent the gluten from developing further (which would leave us with an overly elastic base), we stretch the dough with the help of a rolling pin , giving it a circular shape (always working from the centre outwards) until achieving a thickness of approximately 0.5 - 0.75 cm, we gently roll it on the rolling pin without tightening it and unroll it onto the pizza tray.

11. Once the tomatoes have been drained, discard any water they have released, transfer them to a large bowl, season with a little salt and ground black pepper to taste and spread them in a thin layer over the rolled out dough, uncovering a few areas of the dough with your fingertips, thus forming a series of holes for the steam that the tomato will produce during cooking in the oven to escape.

12. Place the tray with the pizza base in the oven at medium height and bake for 7-8 minutes. After this time, open the oven, turn the tray so that the side that was in front is now behind and vice versa and bake for another 7-8 minutes until the dough is well done and golden. This is what the Simili sisters call “sole”. At this point, we can continue with the process or, once cooled, freeze it (up to 3 months and always well wrapped in cling film first and aluminium foil afterwards; it will not be necessary to defrost it before baking, although we will have to extend the subsequent baking time by about 5 minutes).

13. Meanwhile, cut the mozzarella into slices, drain the oil from the sun-dried tomatoes and crumble the feta cheese with your fingers into cubes that are neither too large nor too small.

14. Next, we spread the additional ingredients (except the basil) over the entire surface of the base, season with oregano, sprinkle with a little more oil and return to the oven for another 6-7 minutes.

15. Once we remove our pizza from the oven, we transfer it to a rack , spread a few fresh basil leaves over the surface and let it cool for a few minutes before cutting and serving.

Le Creuset non-stick pizza pan , Pallarès bread knife and Le Creuset ceramic stand

Grades

• If you use an electric mixer to knead the dough, start by adding about 200 ml of water to the bowl. Then, mix in the fresh yeast and let it dissolve. Next, add about 440-450 g of flour (about ⅞ of the total), the oil and salt, in that order, and mix gently until combined. Continue kneading, always with the hook attachment, for another 5-6 minutes gently. If necessary, add the rest of the water or flour little by little and without stopping kneading until you have a soft, well-bound dough. Even so, it is advisable to knead it by hand for the last time to make sure that your dough has acquired the correct consistency and to add the air that cannot be incorporated with the mixer.
• ** If we are making a single large pizza, we can use the oven tray directly. We will add a splash of oil in the centre of the tray (spread it lightly with our fingers or a bit of kitchen paper but without reaching the edges), we will stretch the dough slightly with the rolling pin to flatten it a little, we will place it on the oven tray without kneading it any more and we will finish spreading it with our fingers until covering the whole surface.
• It goes without saying that the additional ingredients can be varied and combined according to our personal preferences, but if we add raw foods (meat, bacon, vegetables, etc.), we will have to cook them before adding them to our pizza.
• If you like to give your pizza a spicy touch, before serving you can drizzle a little La Tourongelle spicy oil on top, it's delicious!

And how do you like your pizza? Now you have no excuse…

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