Thin crust pizza

I had been stuck in a rut with the last pizza dough I used. It was fine but the topping would save it and do a lot of hiding the-not-so-thin-and-crispy base underneath. In a quality pizza restaurant it was always a different story; everything so delicate and fine. I thought this was down to having a really hot pizza oven, which in part it probably is but I'm getting some good results from a domestic oven using the new method below (tweaked a bit from the last pizza recipe on here).

Use too much dough for an individual pizza and it will be a flop. You can easily get 4 pizza from this amount of dough. I also  used instant yeast that doesn't need hot water and goes straight into the flour and added a little bit of cold water to the flour, which worked perfectly. Adding honey and olive oil to the dough mix gives it a richer and more delicate texture.

I also added a fool-proof tomato sauce recipe that works really well in pasta dishes.

Ingredients:

For the dough:
500 grams of plain flour (ideally 00 or wheat flour)
1 tsp quick yeast
Half tsp salt
100ml cold water
50ml olive oil

1 tbsp Semolina

Topping:

Tomato sauce:2 shallots
3 garlic cloves
3 tbsps olive oil
3 tins of chopped tomatoes
Handful of fresh basil or oregano
1 tbsp granulated sugar
2 tsps mushroom ketchup
1 tsp Tabasco
Pinch of sea salt

150g mushrooms, such as Portobello
Fresh Oregano
Tallegio

Small Mozzarella ball
Small handful fresh basil
Half a red onion


Make the dough way ahead of time. Early afternoon or mid-day. If you have a processor with a dough hook you can sieve the flour in there and add the liquid. The good processors do the molding without having to goop your self and the kitchen with dough. Otherwise, sieve the flour and yeast into a large mixing bowl with the salt. Then add the water and oil; folding it together with your fingers along the side of the bowl until you have a fully-formed dough ball. Add a little more flour or water depending on the texture. It should be firm and springy.

Turn it out on to a lightly floured surface. Give it a quick kneed with the base of your palms. Roll it up into a ball. Rinse out the bowl you just mixed the dough in and lightly brush with olive oil, sit the dough inside and cover tightly with cling film.

Leave in a warn place for an hour or so to rise. Take it out and bash it about again on a floured surface. Separate into 4 even sized dough balls, place them on a plate and cover with a clean, damp tea-towel for an hour or so more until they have swollen in size again.

About an hour before you intend to eat begin to make the tomato sauce. Peel and finely chop the shallots and garlic. Heat the oil in a medium sized pan over a low heat and add the shallots and garlic, for a couple of minutes, to soften. Add the tins of tomatoes and stir together. Roughly chop the oregano or basil (both if you have it) and add this to the sauce. Bring to the boil as soon as it starts to bubble add the mushroom ketchup, Tabasco, sugar and salt. Immediately reduce to a low simmer and leave for 5 minutes; stirring from time to time.

Pour the tomato sauce into a large bowl and place a sieve over the pan you were just cooking in and sieve the sauce back into the pan. Leave the pan on a low heat whilst you do this so the sieved sauce is already starting to reduce down. Remember to scrape the underside of the sieve to get all the fine juices from there into the pan as they cling easily to this bit. Keep going until you have a small amount of mush left in the sieve – the action that gets quickest results here is grinding the back of the spoon over the inner meshing of the sieve and the sauce will push through quickly.

Leave the tomato sauce on the hob for a good 10 minutes more until it begins to thicken. This may seem like a lot of effort but it is quick, easy, and is well worth it for the amazingly tomato sauce.

Pre-heat the oven to 220 C / 374 F. Roll the dough on a floured work surface. Turn from time to time until you get a large thin surface. The dough should be only 2 mml thick. Cover a large baking sheet or pizza stone with the semolina and lay the dough on top, drizzle with olive oil and rub over the base of the dough with kitchen paper. Pre-bake in the oven for 7 minutes.

Whilst this is baking prepare the rest of your topping to your own preference so you're good to go when the dough is ready. Wrap the remaining dough balls individually in cling film and refrigerate. They will keep for up to 1 week.

Spread the condensed tomato sauce over the whole base, leaving a rim for the crust and then arrange your topping over the top. 

Return to the oven, turn the temp down to 175 C and bake for a further 15-20 minutes until the edges and cheese are a nice golden brown. Season with a little more sea-salt and serve.