Pizza: easy recipe of a made in Italy food
When it comes to food and Italy, it’s impossible not to think about pizza! The first news of pizza margherita, the pizza par excellence, dates back to 1889.
It is said that the pizza maker Raffaele Esposito of the Brandi pizzeria, in via Chiaia in Naples (pizzeria that still exists today and outside of which there is a commemorative plaque on the birth of pizza margherita), invented a special pizza in honor of Queen Margherita of Savoy. Until then, in fact, the word pizza throughout Italy indicated a sort of sweet cake and only in the Neapolitan city did it indicate a dough with flour, water and salt and seasoned with tomato. On the occasion of the Savoy’s visit to Naples, Esposito prepared a new pizza using the ingredients he had available and which had the same colors as the Italian flag: tomato, mozzarella and basil.
Since then, we have come a long way: pizza is a famous and widespread food all over the world and is prepared with the most disparate ingredients. Pizza lovers will surely have tried the gourmet pizzas, a “new version” of the more sophisticated and elaborate pizza. The gourmet pizzas have a soft and hydrated dough, made with mother yeast and left to rise for a long time. Maximum attention is paid to ingredients that must be of the highest quality, in season and often at 0 km. Among the most “strange” pizzas that can be tasted around the world are pizza with pineapple, smoked reindeer, French carbonara pizza and, since it is now known that insects are the food of the future, pizza with cicadas. In July 2019 a “guinness” pizza was made in Bologna. 30 Neapolitan pizza makers made 500m of pizza with ingredients from all twenty regions of Italy.
Pizza is a food that satisfies everyone a little, a food that tastes of party and that you enjoy preparing at home. If you have never tried it, follow our advice and you will be able to make a soft and tasty pizza.
Ingredients: (for 2 pizzas)
500 g. of 0 ‘or 00’ flour.
1 sachet of dehydrated brewer’s yeast
1 teaspoon of sugar (used to activate the yeast)
250 ml of warm but not hot water (about 30 °)
1 tablespoon of salt
1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
To fill pizzas
You can indulge yourself and use the ingredients you like best. We recommend that you always use a layer of tomato sauce seasoned with salt, oil, oregano and a pinch of sugar as a base.
Preparation
- In a large bowl put the flour, baking powder and sugar. Pour the previously heated water. Stir lightly and add the salt (be careful never to put the salt immediately after the yeast because it would block the leavening) and the oil. Knead vigorously with your hands for 5-10 minutes. That’s the fun part! You have to get a solid but elastic dough, if necessary add a little water. Let it rise in a warm place (for example inside the oven that is turned off but with the light on) for at least 3 hours. The longer it rises, the softer and lighter the dough will be.
- Once the necessary time has elapsed, start rolling out the dough in the trays previously greased with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Roll out the pizza more or less high, as you prefer.
- It’s time to stuff them. For the classic margherita pizza, add the tomato and mozzarella sauce with the help of a spoon.
- A simple but very tasty variant is pizza with potatoes. Cut the potatoes into thin slices. Add oil, salt and rosemary. If you want, halfway through cooking, you can add the mozzarella.
Cooking: 180 ° for 20-25 ‘
Enjoy your meal and have fun !!!
