Margherita Pizza

Margherita Pizza
by Matt Robinson

Makes four 11-inch pizzas.


Pizza Dough
Ingredients
•	500g very strong Canadian flour, plus extra to dust
•	2.5g of dried yeast
•	295g lukewarm water
•	10g sunflower oil
•	5g white sugar
•	10g salt
•	Semolina to dust
Directions
1)	Combine the flour, salt and sugar for the dough in a large bowl and stir to mix.
2)	In a larger bowl, combine the water, the yeast and the oil. Stir briefly to dissolve the yeast.
3)	Being careful not to spill, pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredient bowl.
4)	Immediately start to mix, mixing well to form a dough using a spoon until the dough is too stiff to stir.
5)	Remove the dough from the bowl and knead by hand until the dough is smooth.
6)	Split the dough into 4 equal portions.
7)	Shape each portion of dough into a ball, making sure to fold the dough over the cut areas.
8)	Place each dough ball in its own lightly oiled, airtight container and rest for 6-8 hours.
9)	Knead each piece again until the dough is smooth, then shape into a ball. Cover with damp cloth and allow to rise for 1 hour.


Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
•	28.6g extra virgin olive oil
•	4 cloves garlic, slightly crushed
•	Peeled plum tomatoes (tin)
•	700g tomato passata
•	4.7g brown sugar
•	16 fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
•	4.8g dried oregano
•	4.7g salt
•	1g ground black pepper
Directions
1)	Add the oil and garlic to a medium sized pot and fry until browned and fragrant.
2)	Hand-crush the plum tomatoes in a bowl until all large chunks are removed.
3)	Add the plum tomatoes and fry for 2-3 minutes to remove bitterness.
4)	Add the tomato passata, sugar, herbs, and spices (excluding basil) and mix.
5)	Let simmer over medium-low heat for 27 minutes.
6)	Add basil to sauce and allow to simmer for a further 3 minutes.
7)	Take off the heat and let cool down.


Baking and Assembly
Ingredients
•	Mozzarella
•	Parmesan cheese
•	4 basil leaves
Directions
1)	Place pizza stone(s) in oven around 6 inches below the broiler and pre-heat to highest setting for 60-80 minutes.
2)	Sprinkle a little flour on a clean work surface and, using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a circle roughly 11 inches in diameter and 0.25cm thick.
3)	Press fingers in to dough around the outside to create a crust.
4)	Coat a pizza peel or cardboard with semolina and place pizza bases on them.
5)	Drizzle extra virgin olive oil in a circular pattern over each pizza base, apply more oil on the crust.
6)	Using a spoon and starting from the middle, cover each pizza base with the tomato sauce.
7)	Starting from the middle, sprinkle parmesan cheese and arrange hand torn mozzarella over the pizza.
8)	Drizzle extra virgin olive oil in a circular pattern over each pizza.
9)	Use the pizza peel or cardboard to launch the pizzas in to the oven.
10)	Bake pizzas in oven on pizza stone until base cooked and cheese melted. Ensure that cooking is consistent and move pizzas around the oven if necessary.
11)	Sprinkle chopped basil over each pizza for presentation and season to taste with salt and pepper.