Pizza perfection…

I was recently asked to recommend our favourite recipe for pizza dough. This is our  preferred tried and tested recipe as it works well in domestic ovens and the addition of Birra Moretti adds an extra dimension to the crisp pizza base. In fact our very own Neapolitan chef Totore told us that “Pizza without beer was like dancing without music”!  We loved this phrase so much we took ourselves off to his home town to go and see what the real pizza was all about!  I can honestly say I ate the best pizza ever in Pizzeria Brandi – one of the oldest pizzeria’s around.

Pizza alla Birra Moretti
Makes 4 pizzas
 
For the pizza dough
10g fresh yeast or 5g dried yeast
220ml Birra Moretti at room temperature
125ml tepid water
500g strong bread flour or ‘0’ flour
2 teaspoons salt
 
For the topping
400g Italian tinned plum tomatoes
1 heaped teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
 
a little semolina for dusting under the pizza
2 x 125g balls of Mozzarella, drained and sliced
a handful of fresh basil leaves
 
Add the yeast to the beer and water, then mix with the flour and salt. Knead for 8–10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Shape into a ball, put in an oiled bowl and cover with cling film or a tea-towel. Leave in a warm, draught-free spot to rise until doubled in size. After the dough has risen, split it into four even-sized balls and leave to rise until doubled in size again. Meanwhile, make the tomato sauce: put the tomatoes in a bowl and squash them into pieces with your hands or blend with a stick blender. Add the oregano, the salt and the oil, and stir well.
Bake the pizzas two at a time. Put two baking trays, spaced apart, upside-down in the oven. This gives a flat surface to cook each pizza on. Have a thin wooden chopping board or pala (a thin piece of wood or metal used for transferring the pizza to the oven) and the semolina nearby.
Preheat the oven to its hottest setting – 250–280?C is perfect. Roll out the dough on a floured surface. Scatter some semolina onto the board or pala, pull the first pizza onto it and spread over a tablespoon of tomato sauce. Top with a quarter of the mozzarella and/or other toppings. Slide the pizza into the oven and quickly pull the board or pala away so that it glides onto the hot, upturned oven tray. Repeat with the second pizza. Bake for 7–10 minutes. The bases should be golden underneath and the cheese bubbling. Garnish with the basil leaves and serve. Bake the second batch of pizzas in the same way.