pizza, updated
Fine, as usual I am talking about me, me me, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t hope you have it this good. Walking around the city on these three off-days of the year when all the sidewalk-cloggers had the good sense to scatter elsewhere is a dream. You can make pretend, once again, that the land is yours alone, and you’ll put your house right there and your boat tied to that pier and when you’re hungry for a snack, you’ll climb into the cave at Murray’s and whittle yourself a little something to schmear on a tear of a Balthazar baguette. You won’t have to share the swing set with any short people and when you go the Union Square Greenmarket, you won’t be knocked into even once. At 4 p.m., good tomatoes will remain.
All too fitting with this holiday weekend theme, the New York Times ran an article a few weeks ago about Mario Batali’s vacation home in northern Michigan replete with a pizza oven from Italy installed outside. They included what he said was his pizza dough recipe, but for the life of me, I cannot fathom why he’d be using 6 packets of dry yeast (1.5 ounces, he says) unless he meant cake yeast, and even then, 3 cups of flour makes for a seriously thick pizza dough that is nothing like his famed Otto pie…
Sigh, Otto. We went there in late June for a large group dinner with unlimited wine included in our party’s prix-fixe which led to… well, a staggering hangover but also the absolutely best pizza I have ever had. Ever. And although I have been pretty pleased with my pizza results in the past, this made it clear that there was significant room for improvement. I just couldn’t figure out where.
So, I lined Batali’s recipe up to my standby and adjusted things I just assumed were wrong (like the size of the dough and the crazy amount of yeast), and realized that the only differences between our two recipes are a tiny bit of honey and his replacement of some of the water with white wine. And so I did the same, topping it with a small of fresh tomato sauce from four roma-shaped heirloom tomatoes (shh, we are all allowed some spoiling sometimes) that was so good, I still can’t believe I made it, torn up buffalo mozzarella and some basil from the Greenmarket and oh my god.
I know it’s mainly the peak-season tomatoes that made the difference, but that difference will put all earlier sauces to shame. The hint of wine and sweetness in the dough doesn’t hurt, either. So I’m not saying that if you’ve been using my old recipe and non-heirloom tomato sauce, you need to ditch them immediately for the following recipe. I’m only saying that if you do, you will never go back.
Still Looking for Something to Bring to that Labor Day Barbecue?
- Coleslaw City: Blue Cheese Coleslaw, Napa Cabbage and Sesame Seed Slaw, Spicy Radicchio Slaw with Pecans, Pickled Coleslaw, Not Your Mama’s Coleslaw, Green Onion Slaw
- Potato Salads: Roseanne Cash’s Potato Salad, Dilled Potato and Pickled Cucumber Salad
- Other salads: Pearl Couscous with Olives and Roasted Tomatoes, Israeli Salad, Mediterranean Eggplant and Barley Salad, Zucchini Carpaccio Salad, Black Bean Confetti Salad, Salsa Fresca
- Barbecue Standards: Ina Garten’s Barbeque Sauce, Hot and Smoky Baked Beans, Corn Bread with Cheddar, Jalapeño and Green Onions
- Meats I Actually Like: Tequila Lime Chicken, Pork Riblets
- Some new stuff the grill: Smoke-Roasted Bell Peppers Stuffed With Garden Vegetables, Grilled Spicy Citrus Ribs Recipe and Grilled Bacon-Wrapped Stuffed Hot Dogs [at SimplyRecipes.com]
- And too many desserts to list.
Pizza, Updated
A slightly gussied-up version of my standby.
Yield: One small, thin-crust pizza. Can serve two with a big salad.
Dough
6 tablespoons warm water (may need up to 1 or 2 tablespoons more water)
2 tablespoons white wine
3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 cups flour
Assembly
Cornmeal for sprinkling
Flour for dusting counter
1/2 pound torn-up buffalo mozzarella
Few leaves of torn-up basil
Whisk wine, water and yeast in a medium bowl until yeast has dissolved. Add honey, salt and olive oil and stir. Add flour and no matter how dry it looks, work it with a spoon and your fingers until it comes together as a dough. Add more water one tablespoon at a time if you need, but in my experience, this is almost never necessary.
Sprinkle some flour on the counter and knead the dough for a minute or two.
If you’re like me and always trying to reduce the number of dirty dishes left at the end of the night, wash the bowl you made the dough in, dry it and coat the inside with olive oil. Put the dough in, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rise for an hour or up to two, until it is doubled.
[Easiest way to tell if a dough has risen enough? Dip two fingers in flour, press them into the dough, and if the impression stays, it's good to go. If it pops back, let it go until it doesn't.]
Meanwhile, make some sauce [recipe below].
Preheat your oven to its highest temperature. If you have a pizza stone, sprinkle it with cornmeal and put it in the oven. Otherwise, sprinkle a baking pan with the same.
Once the dough has doubled, turn it out onto a floured counter and gently deflate the dough with the palm of your hands. Form it into a ball and let it rest on a floured spot with either plastic wrap over it (sprinkle the top of the dough with flour so it doesn’t stick) or an upended bowl. In 15 minutes, it is ready to roll out.
Do so on the floured counter until pretty darn thin, then lift it onto a cornmeal-sprinkled baking sheet or pizza paddle. Add the sauce, torn-up mozzarella and slivers of fresh basil.
Slide the pizza from the paddle to your preheated pizza stone, or just put the baking sheet in the oven as is.
Bake for about 10 minutes, checking at 7. Slice and serve immediately.
Moderately Easy Tomato Sauce
A more involved, seasonal update of the Basic, Awesome stuff.
Makes enough for one small/medium pizza.
4 roma tomatoes
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
Pinch of red pepper flakes
Splash of white wine
1/2 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
Bring medium pot of water to a boil. Poach the tomatoes for one minute only, and then drain them. As soon as they are cooled off enough that you can touch them, peel them. The peels should come right off. If they don’t, make a slit in the skins. This always does the trick.
Drain and dry the pot. Put it back on the burner over medium heat. Pour in olive oil and let it heat completely before adding the garlic and stirring it for a minute with a wooden spoon. Add the red pepper flakes and stir it for anther minute. You do not want the garlic to brown. Put the peeled tomatoes in the pot, along with the wine, sugar and salt. Break the tomatoes up with your spoon.
Let the sauce simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes break down. Carefully taste without burning your tongue and adjust seasonings, if necessary.
I’ve had your pizza recipe “clipped” forever – and I can’t wait to have the time to use it (with these revisions). Your description of New York this weekend is kind of like I felt every summer living in a college town – when the students were gone – heaven.
Happy Labor Day!
Mmmmm…. Otto. We haven’t been there in a while. Maybe we can squeeze that in on our next visit. Sounds like you’re enjoying the holiday weekend….
Ha, I looked at that recipe and did the exact same thing you did- checked it against my standard. I usually use a tbl of honey (the yeast needs something to feed on after all), so I just shrugged it off as being basically the same, except using a bit of white wine for the water. I didn’t even clip the recipe.
So, thank you for pointing out that this is worth a second look, and for figuring out that nonsense about the yeast (I didn’t even think about it when I read the recipe). I see my favorite eggplant pizza in the near future, made with this crust. It’s still perfect weather for those early evening dinners, a homemade pizza, a glass of wine, and the sun just setting in the distance.
I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve never added honey to my pizza dough. But now I’ll try your recipe, because honestly, looking at those photos, it does look like the best pizza ever.
Your blog continues to be wonderful – I so enjoy reading it! I just have a question…I’m sort of an a 100 percent whole wheat flour and bread kick. How would I make your pizza crust with that change? Using whole wheat pastry flour? More water? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated :)
I definitely understand the part about the joys of having a normally hectic city emptied out. It´s almost like a free vacation, love it.
Now this is something I´m willing to try, I had never in a million years considered using either honey or white wine in a pizza dough, very interesting indeed. Now that I think about it, I´ve made beer bread, but never beer pizza dough, I need to work on that. Have you tried it?
Even though I usually like to wing it when it comes to pizza dough, it´s good to follow recipes sometimes… i mean, there must be a reason why people take the trouble to try and record tons of recipes and do all the work for me.
Great looking pizza and terrific story about Otto’s. Love your writing, photos and your blog in general!
BZ
http://www.mulliganstewme.blogspot.com
That photo is making me hungry!
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! I look forward to reading your blog almost daily, and it makes me sad that I’ve no time to cook. I’m eating vicariously through you, and you never let me down.
Strange coincidence – I was near Batali’s Michigan vacation home when on-line reading the article about it and it made me not feel so bad about moving away from New York and to this part of the world. I am so jealous of his pizza oven – I’m dreaming of building one of those myself one of these days. So wine and honey make a really big difference? I’m on that one, ’cause pizza is on the menu this week.
Wow. That looks fantastic. It’s 10:00 on a Sunday night and all I can think about is where can I get my hands on some fresh roma tomatoes at this time of night… I might have to make this for brunch tomorrow. Thank you for this yummy treat on a lazy holiday weekend.
Were we in the same city? I was jostled as usually at Union Square and had to fight throngs crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, not to mention the interminable waits when we crossed. I long for the city you mention but I didn’t see it yesterday!
That looks amazing… I am going to check and see if I have all the fixing’s in the (under renovation) kitchen and give it a go…Otherwise, it will be made once the reno’s complete!
Yum!
Your photography is just wow wow gorgeous on this post. You definitely make pizza sexy. I have my own favorite pizza recipe, but I’m game to give yours a try. Never get stuck in a recipe rut!
So I just got home from having some incredible pizza at Pepe’s in New Haven, and I’m stuffed. I was just thinking a few minutes ago “man, that pizza was good, but I ate so much I won’t even be able to think about pizza again for some time.”
But now I’m sitting staring at your pictures and printing out your recipe. You’re that good at this!
Interesting! I saw Emeril put honey in his dough also and I thought that was odd. I guess that is the secret ingredient though!
For the first time in eons we actually went away for Labor Day. It was amazing to come home from a weekend in the country to the hubub of the city, and I know it was a quiet day, too. I kind of miss that weird slowness that NYC gets on a holiday weekend, but I’d trade it for a porch, a bottle of wine and a sunset just about any day. Your pizza however, I’d do just about anything to try. Maybe I’ll have to bring you some homemade mozza and then you’ll make it for me??
Can you freeze this dough? It would be great since 2 hours too long to wait for dinner :o)
and oh my god.
Yeah, that came to mind as I looked at the shockingly delicious-lookin’ photos. Gotta say, that’s one of the loveliest pies I’ve ever seen, and I need to get on making this recipe post-haste!
I will try your Basic, Awesome tomato sauce but I have to say that speaking of Batali, I never got the results I wanted from fresh-Roma tomato sauce until I did his Basic Tomato Sauce. The grated carrots gave the right kind of rich sweetness to take the acidity down. Something about our black sandy northern Indiana soil makes for tart Romas here…
MMMmmmmmm. Pizza. Did you know that Alexis & Molly are on my roof right now smoking the second rack of ribs and making salads? I am so lucky. I feel like Bill Paxton from Big Love…maybe those Mormons are onto something. It would be great to have multiple wives!
If you and your husband decide one day to have kids, may I suggest you adopt a 30-something mother of three? I’m available…and hungry.
;)
Made the pizza and sauce last night. Wonderful! I doubled the recipe, threw everything in the mixer and let it go. It DID look dry (just like you said), but I left it alone and it came out perfect. I used Early Girls from my garden for the sauce. Unbelievably good. Super easy. Loved it!
We had this pizza for dinner last night. I used my homemade tomato sauce and topped it with thinly sliced eggplant (roasted in the oven during its preheating), fresh basil and some leftover cooked bacon.
Shayna – to answer your question: I made the dough on Sunday, let it rise and then froze it in a ziploc bag. On Friday morning before I left for work, I threw the bag on the counter and let the dough thaw all day. Worked great.
One modification I have made to all my pizza-making: I roll my dough out on a square of parchment paper. Then I just trim off any extra paper from around the edges and slide the pizza onto my peel and into the oven. It’s not authentic and I feel like I’m cheating a little but the pizza never sticks to the peel.
Just made this today in preparation for some US Open watching. I doubled the crust and sauce recipes and made one margherita and one with chopped kalamata olives. . I think I didn’t roll the dough thin enough for the first pizza. It was still delicious, but a little doughier than I prefer. Second one was thin and crisp and nicely toasted on the edges. Everyone raved about the sauce (I used heirloom tomatoes from the Prospect Park farmer’s market–not sure what they were called, but the long, thin red ones that look almost like peppers). My only complaint is that it was so good there are no leftovers to take to work tomorrow! Thanks for the recipe!
perhaps he meant 1.5 packets of yeast? I am a newcomer to your blog and enjoying it.
Thanks
I just made the pizza sauce: it’s so amazing I can’t stop eating it. Right out of the pan. The white wine I used was a pretty good quality (I use whatever I’m drinking at the moment in recipes), and that really made a difference. The sauce practically sparkles! Thanks so much!
Deb, I have had ZERO luck with most pizza dough recipes and have been a regular comsumer of the Trader Joe’s pizza dough. But, I ran out and gave this recipe a shot. I was sure the recipe was perfect, but expected the worst from myself. But I did it, and holy, Deb, this stuff is outstanding. We made it Friday night and it is truly one of the best pizza doughs I’ve ever had, much less made.
This was my first time making tomato sauce, and it turned out superb! It had way more “true” flavor than any store-bought brand I’ve tasted (and my mom’s homemade stuff too–just hope she never reads that!) and was a cinch to put together.
I used red wine as that’s all I had on hand. I also accidentally threw too much red pepper flakes in, so in a panic, I threw in a half-can of diced tomatoes with garlic to balance it out again. Turned out fabulous! I went pretty easy with it on my pizza, and totally regretted it in the end. Good thing I have some left over to load on next time.
thanks forthe post!
-amanda
WOW! This was so great! The sauce was phenomenal. I just added some dried basil to it since I didn’t have fresh stuff. I topped with preshredded mozzarella in a sack and it was still great. I like really thin, crisp pizzas, so I rolled mine out to ALMOST fill a cookie baking sheet. Each batch as described in this recipe seems to serve 2 very hungry people. I’ll have pictures and all on my blog soon, but until then THANK YOU!
Interesting idea. I like the idea of sweetening things that aren’t normally sweet and saltifying things that aren’t normally salty. This sounds worthy of further experimentation! Thanks.
- The Peanut Butter Boy
On a recent trip to NYC, I waited in line for the one restroom at the back of Grimwaldi’s pizzeria for 15 minutes. Crazy, eh? Yes, but it afforded me an undistracted opportunity to spend 15 minutes watching their crew put together pizza after pizza….probably about 20. After seeing this I had to try it myself, and was thrilled to find that your recipe followed their routine to the letter. Unbelievable…..and the final product was very close to the original. Thanks a heap.
i just spent all night making this and going to the store for fresh mozzerella, and then just now that it’s popped out of the oven i realize i can’t eat it or i might ingest toxins!
a few months ago i read in a julia child cookbook to get unfinished ceramic tile to cook french bread on in the oven. lowe’s and home depot didn’t have any, so i bought porcelain tiles that looked similar. i’m such a dummi, i realized they have a slight glaze on them! heating them up past 500 degrees and then eating the food on it just sounds like an awful idea. so it’s going to waste but it sure looks great. i like the way you transcribe your recipes.
just made this for the second time with fresh mozz, fresh basil, and pizza sauce and grilled chicken italian sausage from trader joe’s. this is hands down my favorite pizza dough recipe – a perfect blend of crispness with soft tender bread-i-ness.
perfection.
thank you!
I made this over the weekend with 1 c. whole wheat flour and 1/2 c. white flour. It was amazing! The honey made the whole wheat dough so tasty with a touch of sweetness. This will definitely be my go-to whole wheat pizza dough recipe.
I had some leftovers screaming pizza and you convinced me to try this crust. WOW. How could such little changes make such big moves. Totally Fab. I topped it with pesto, leftover grilled chicken (shredded off the bone) with a nice smoked paprika rub, some grilled onion, peppers and zuchinni thin a smidge of fresh amish jack cheese. And it beat the Heck out of delivery options here in central Indiana!
Thanks!!
I tried this for dinner and it was so, so good! I was hoping to use a Mario Batali pizza recipe, but it called for fresh yeast (which I don’t happen to have lying around). This pizza was so delicious and so simple! Thank you!
Thank you for this recipe and the pictures. This was the first time I made pizza and it turned out great, some of the best pizza I’ve ever had. Warning for other unexperienced bakers, if you use parchment paper, trim the excess around the pizza. I didn’t. Due to the high heat of the oven, the paper not under the pizza turned black and started smoking after 7 minutes. I should have known better. Luckily, the pizza survived. Yum, yum.
Wow- I’ve made this twice in two weeks, and for my money it is the best ever! I have made many different pizza doughs before, but I hated that they were always a little gooey on top under the sauce. Not so this, rolled very thin and baked on parchment on a stone. Mine barely took 7 minutes. The dough has so much flavor, and the sauce, too. Fed it to friends who also loved it, including a 10-year-old boy with a notoriously selective palate!
help?
I’ve tried pizza recipes from the site twice now – the first one was the super simple, and the dough did not rise! barely at all! I kneaded it up again and rolled it out, and it was still pretty tasty, but was difficult to roll out.
The second time, last night, I made one dough all white flour with the wine/honey, and one 2 parts white flour to 1 part wheat flour, and the white flour one rose pretty well, and was much more elastic, but the wheat one didn’t rise at all and would not roll out very much. Maybe my climate requires more water? I’m not sure. How ’smooth’ and soft should the dough ball be when it’s ready? My wheat one was almost completely dry, and the white was more moist, but still not very.
Kimberly, the same thing is happening to me. Maybe I’m a little early to be panicking, but it’s been almost an hour and my dough hasn’t moved a centimeter. Maybe I killed the yeast? I can’t imagine how. I didn’t use overly hot water. My dough is also really dry, even after adding 3T water. I don’t attribute my problems to the recipe at all. I have this weird problem where yeast commits seppuku upon seeing me, it’s really a bread curse. I’m keeping my fingers crossed on this pizza dough tonight. I’m hungry!
Although I used a store-bought dough last night (I was in a rush) I did make the sauce. I cooked the sauce for about 1 hour as the tomatoes were not at their peak. I was very suspicious as to how the sauce would turn out because I’ve never been successful with italian recipes, especially sauces. Result? Superb!! My husband and I were both stunned at the depth to the sauce. I’m going to make it again tonight and can’t wait! Tomorrow (Saturday) I will make the dough and am very excited about it!
I used this dough recipe for family lunch today and cooked our pizzas on the grass grill. Best dough recipe I’ve used yet. Thanks!
Okay, this recipe is amazing. I’ve probably made homemade pizza recipes before but this is my new favorite dough. I don’t know whether it was the wine or the honey — neither of which I’ve used before in pizza — but it was amazing. Perfect chewy texture without being too bready or too crispy, with a nice snap to the crust and beautiful color. I doubled the recipe and added about a 1/2 tsp. of dried oregano to the dough too, because I normally do. After I mixed and kneaded the dough, I let it rest/rise in the fridge for about 2 hours. I topped it with my usual tomato sauce, mozzarella, fresh sliced tomatoes and mushrooms sauteed in roasted garlic and olive oil — I topped it with whole basil leaves from my garden when I took it out of the oven. After I rolled the dough out on my pizza pan, I brushed it with olive oil and baked it at 500 degrees for about 3 minutes — I don’t like my crust to be soggy at all and this is my failproof way of preventing it. Then I added my toppings and cheese and baked it for another 5-8 minutes. It was one of the best pizzas i have ever made. Thank you!!!
Also, my dough didn’t rise a huge amount (it didn’t double in size, more like 50%) either, but I rolled it pretty thin and it rose a lot in the oven during my pre-bake, and the final product wasn’t dense at all.
This pizza is amazing. I’ve made it twice now. I doubled it both times.
My question for all of you is this, could the sauce tripled, quadrupled or more, using fresh tomatoes and then frozen. It also seems it would be a great sauce for pasta.
Thank you so much for the recipe!!!!
I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. Everyone says the sauce is amazing but mine looks nothing like the picture. More like tomato soup. It’s very, very runny. Should I be de-seeding the tomatoes before they go in the pot?
If your tomatoes are particularly juicy, they might need to be cooked longer before they’ll thicken up. Make sure you’ve broken up the tomatoes — a lot. If it’s getting annoying to do it with a spoon, try an immersion blender. Hope that helps.
So I just tried this, again, after several tries at the dough. The dough came out awesome by now using bread dough instead of all-purpose, but on a brand new pizza stone, everything stuck. I used corn starch, but to no avail. Should the pizza stone be at cooking temp b/f placing the completed, ready-to-cook dough on it? Overall tasted great, but would like to eat it without having to scrape it off the stone. Any input would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks!
Cornmeal, not cornstarch, should keep it from sticking. Pizza stones definitely work even better when they’re already hot, but it is not a requirement to use them.
I did use cornmeal…mis-spoke. I’ll give it another go with a little more cornmeal on a preheated stone and hopefully that’ll do the trick! Thanks!
Deb.. I tried to made pizza dough from another recipe a while ago.. It came out pretty awesome considering it was my first time. but the recipe was for 3 pizzas and i ended up making a 13×9 pan pizza… way too much dough.. I want to try your recipe but it doesn’t say at what temp the oven should be.. Thank you so much for all your wonderful post..
I myself am an avid cookie baker!.. i make tons and tons of cookies for all occasions.. I love your cookie recipes.. some take me back to reminisce and others make you indulge!.. you’re the best!
Sarah — You are to bake it at your oven’s top temperature, however hot it goes. (6th graph) Professional pizza ovens run ridiculously hot, 900 and more degrees. Our best chance of recreating that at home is to let our ovens fully preheat as hot as possible.
I just made the sauce tonight to be used for the pizza tomorrow. I tasted it and it just seems really salty to me. Did anyone else think so? I have checked some other recipes just for comparison sake and most of the other recipes use less salt to a greater proportion of tomatoes. Perhaps once it is baked on the pizza it won’t taste so salty? Is it just me? Can I mix a can of plain tomatoes with it to tone down the salt?
An update from my previous post above: I did add one can of plain petite diced tomatoes to the sauce (drained, I had doubled the recipe)…and then made two pizzas, one “turkey” pepperoni and one onion and bell pepper…and they were wonderful! My husband gushed over it…so when the husband likes it, it’s a keeper! And I think next time I will not add the canned tomatoes, but just cut back a tad on the salt, maybe to 1/2tsp, but over all we thoroughly enjoyed the end product! I have been trying to master the pizza sauce to make it taste “authentic” like what the pizzerias produce…and this is it! Very very good, very easy…we won’t be buying pizza out nearly as much!
THANK YOU! I made this for dinner (topped with roasted zucchini, garlic and mushrooms) and it was exactly what I have been searching for. :)
I know it’s been a long time since you posted this recipe, and the comment thread is long since dead, but that won’t stop me. I just wanted to let you know that I make this recipe every single week because i love it so much! I always double it and make two pizzas – one of which my husband takes for lunch the next day. Seriously – best pizza ever.
Not dead! Glad you’re enjoying it. It’s still one of the two doughs we use again and again.