PIZZA

Ingredients

• For the pizza dough

• 1 1/2 cups (355 ml) warm water (105°F-115°F)
  1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
  3 3/4 cups (490g) bread flour
  2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (omit if cooking pizza in a wood-fired pizza oven)
  2 teaspoons kosher salt
  1 teaspoon sugar
  For making the pizza and toppings

• Extra virgin olive oil
  Cornmeal (to help slide the pizza onto the pizza stone)
  Tomato sauce (smooth or pureed)
  Firm mozzarella cheese, grated
  Fresh soft mozzarella cheese, separated into small clumps
  Fontina cheese, grated
  Parmesan cheese, grated
  Feta cheese, crumbled
  Mushrooms, very thinly sliced if raw, otherwise first sautéed
  Bell peppers, stems and seeds removed, very thinly sliced
  Italian pepperoncini, thinly sliced
  Italian sausage, cooked ahead and crumbled
  Sliced black olives
  Chopped fresh basil
  Baby arugula, tossed in a little olive oil, added as pizza comes out of the oven
  Pesto
  Pepperoni, thinly sliced
  Onions, thinly sliced raw or caramelized
  Ham, thinly sliced

Directions

Place the warm water in the large bowl of a heavy duty stand mixer. Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let it sit for 5 minutes until the yeast is dissolved. After 5 minutes stir if the yeast hasn't dissolved completely. The yeast should begin to foam or bloom, indicating that the yeast is still active and alive.

Make and knead the pizza dough:
Add the flour, salt, sugar, and olive oil, and using the mixing paddle attachment, mix on low speed for a minute. Then replace the mixing paddle with the dough hook attachment.

Knead the pizza dough on low to medium speed using the dough hook about 7-10 minutes.

If you don't have a mixer, you can mix the ingredients together and knead them by hand.

The dough should be a little sticky, or tacky to the touch. If it's too wet, sprinkle in a little more flour.