Rustic Pizza for Busy People

Who likes great pizza?  COOL!  Me too!   (I take that back.  I LOVE pizza.)  Don't ya just love that crispy, crunchy crust with the chewy middle and that gooey cheese?  And don't ya just hate WAITING eons for something not entirely like that to arrive from the dude with the noisy car with the magnetic sign on the side?  Yup, me too!

Unfortunately, I don't have boatloads of time to make it.  And though I'm not A.D.D., I am a geek and really hate waiting around for things like "proofing".  So, I went on a quest to make great pizza but not spend more than 15 minutes at a time doing any one step.  

This ible is all about saving time, but still making pizza worthy of a full bore Pizzeria like Regino's (Norfolk, VA) used to be.  Oh, and if you're a dough purist, stop now.  I'm about to suggest  using a bread machine ::shudder::  for making the dough and freezing it!!!  (the dough, not the bread machine) 

Anyhow, this ible will take you a total of about 30 minutes of prep time and 10 minutes of cook time but spaced over a day... ish.   So what are the steps and how long for each?

Day 1
Making the dough starter  (5-10 mins.)
Making the dough (5-10 mins.)
Wrapping the dough to freeze (5-10 mins.)
Thawing the dough (30 secs. - 5 mins.)
Day 1 or Day N
Making the 'Zaa (10-15 mins.)
Cooking the 'Zaa (10 mins.)

It may look like a lot of steps, but it goes really fast.  I make the dough one day, freeze it, and make the pizza some other day.  The routine at our house is to make the dough on a Thursday, but make the pizzas on Sunday and Monday night for dinner.  Heck,  I've even gone so far as to make enough dough for 5 pizzas over several days and served pizza to 4 adults, 6 teens and a toddler in one night.  


Tips:
Use a bread machine to make the dough.
Use a parchment paper to cook the pizza on even if you use a pan and not a stone.
Use a baking stone or tiles if you have them.
Preheat your oven with the baking stone in it to 500F for 30 mins.  
Use a pizza peel or an inverted baking sheet to remove the pizza from the baking stone. 
Use the best ingredients you can.  I prefer organic when I can get them because of flavor and handling in the recipe.

Step 1 The dough

This step takes about 15 minutes in three five minute shots over several hours.  And you'll want a bread machine if you've got it.  I usually start the dough in the morning before work and finish it when I get home at night.  At which point, you may either use it or freeze it for later.

The dough is really the core of the pizza.  Bad dough = bad pizza, right?  So, I worked for a national Dine In/To Go/Delivery pizza joint one summer and learned how to make pizzas really fast, but not so good.  They tasted just like they came from a national Dine In/To Go/Delivery pizza joint.  Eh.  Why bother making that one at home?

How do you make good rustic Italian dough using a bread machine?  I'm glad you asked.  This is a two part process involving the starter (5-10 mins) and the dough (5-10 mins).

The Starter: (5-10 mins)

1 1/2 C. water
2 C. All Purpose Bread flour
1/4 tsp yeast.

Put this in the bread machine and start on the dough cycle.  Let it sit for 3 - 9 hours before the next step.  It's best the longer you let it sit.

The Dough: (5-10 mins)

Using the well proofed Starter in the bread machine, add:
1/2 C. water
2 C. All Purpose Flour (or 1 C. All Purpose Flour & 1C. Whole Wheat Pastry Flour)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. yeast.

Start up the bread machine on the dough cycle again.  This time, it's very important to listen to the beep when it's done.  It will attempt to take over the bread machine, then the counter and the kitchen if left too long.

Wrapping it up.

If you don't want to make pizza immediately, freeze the dough.  This makes about 2 lbs of dough which is plenty for two fairly substantial 15 inch pizzas.  But, you need to wrap it up and freeze it.  Get out a large cookie sheet (or a clean counter) and dust it with flour.  Turn out the dough and lightly cover the outside with the flour.   Divide it in half and wrap in plastic wrap to freeze it.  Make sure the dough is completely covered by the plastic wrap or the exposed portion may freezer burn.

Oh yeah, fair warning, this makes an intentionally sticky dough.  Dust it liberally with flour.

Comments

[bbelova35]

Вид пиццы обалденный.Воспользуюсь вашим рецептом.Посмотрим,что получиться у меня.

[Ruettiger]

Where did you get that super stone?

[sguarnieri]

Amazon. It's from Red Sky Grilling Products and it's 15.5in x 21 in. and shaped like a big letter D. Awesome for pizza and bread baking. We leave it in the over all the time now.

[Ruettiger]

forgot to thank you for the great instructable. need to make some pizza soon and will be using this instructable.

[Ruettiger]

sweet. thanks for the recommendation, been looking for one of these.

[jessyratfink]

This sounds awesome! Looks fantastic too. :D

[sguarnieri]

Thanks. We make at least one a week now. Lately, I've been tweaking on the recipe and am using 1 1/3 cup Whole Wheat, 2/3 cup white and 2 cups of high gluten flour for the starter/sponge.

[Computothought]

Looks good. Your pizza if a little thicker could be called focaccia. Allegedly, there is a no rise pizza yeast now. http://www.pizzacrustyeast.com/new_pizza_yeast.html  But then that takes all the fun out of it. I love the way the kitchen smells with the dough rising. 

[moxiepurple]

Is that active dry yeast?

[sguarnieri]

Yes. I've used Red Star, Fleischmann's and some others with success. It doesn't seem to matter if you use normal or fast rising on the final result. I think that would only change the time it takes to "crash" the starter. I've not tried any exotic yeasts for this one yet. I've got a friend with some sour dough yeast that I might get brave enough to try. :-)