Don’t forget – pizza is bread. It might be bread with a topping but basically it’s a bread and can only be as good as its base. That’s why you have to be lucky to get a good pizza out, impossible in a supermarket.
Wood-fired ovens are all very well but they can’t compensate for a poor dough. Waste of time a pizzaria advertising “wood-fired oven” on the shop window when there’s frozen dough in the kitchen. But it’s the oven that grabs the punters’ attention.
On the domestic front you’ll hear that it’s impossible to bake good pizza without a pizza stone. Oh really? Gave up mine years ago when I discovered I could get just as good results in a pizza tin.
This base is 80% hydration sourdough, fermented 48 hours in the fridge, scaled at 200g, stretched and pressed out on the pizza tin and given an hour to rise and recover.
The topping: home-made tomato sauce, a layer of tuna, Aldi’s roasted artichoke hearts, a sprinkle of capers, black olives, piquillo chiles, anchovies.
Baked for about 15 minutes at 250C (I have no ambitions to be able to produce a pizza in 90 seconds).
And don’t forget to brush the rim with garlic olive oil when it comes out of the oven.
Also, don’t forget to donate a little dosh to help keep this site running: paypal.me/partisanbaker
