[0 - 2] Hey guys, welcome back to Basics with Babish where this week
[2 - 5] we're taking a look at pizza. Not only is it the very lifeblood
[5 - 7] of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
[7 - 10] it is the very lifeblood of New Yorkers and Tinder
[10 - 13] profiles everywhere. And I want to show you how you can make a better
[13 - 16] pizza pie out of this home oven than
[16 - 19] anything that can be delivered through that door.
[19 - 20] Let's get down to basics.
[35 - 38] Alright, so first off we have to make pizza dough.
[38 - 41] Now, you can use the store-bought, refrigerated stuff
[41 - 45] but the easiest way to make it at home is Jim Layhey's overnight no-knead method.
[45 - 49] We're going to start by measuring out five hundred grams of bread flour,
[49 - 51] sixteen grams of kosher salt,
[51 - 54] and one gram or a quarter-teaspoon of active dry yeast.
[54 - 58] We're then going to whisk those together, make sure that they are thoroughly combined
[58 - 60] before adding three hundred and fifty millilitres
[60 - 63] (or three hundred and fifty grams if you've still got your bowl on the scale)
[63 - 66] of water. Use a wooden spoon to roughly combine
[66 - 69] into a shaggy dough, this should only take a few minutes
[69 - 71] and don't worry about how messy it gets
[71 - 74] Once it just barely comes together and no big clumps of dry flour
[74 - 78] remain, simply cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature
[78 - 80] for eighteen to twenty-four hours. That's it.
[80 - 83] In the meantime, we're going to make a simple pizza sauce.
[83 - 87] Start by bringing some extra virgin olive oil to a shimmer over a medium heat,
[87 - 89] adding some roughly chopped garlic and sautéing
[89 - 92] for one minute or until fragrant. Add some red pepper flakes
[92 - 95] let that mingle with the garlic for another ten or fifteen seconds
[95 - 99] before adding a twenty-eight ounce can of whole San Marzano tomatoes.
[99 - 102] Give this a good stir and start breaking up the tomatoes a little bit
[102 - 105] but you don't have to worry about it too much because we're going to purée the sauce.
[105 - 110] And, for that sort of New York pizza parlour flavour we're going to add a little bit of dried onion powder
[110 - 114] and a little bit of dried oregano. Stir a little bit to combine and
[114 - 118] let this guy simmer gently over a medium-low heat for about thirty to forty-five minutes.
[118 - 123] Just to let these flavours get to know each other. Then we're going to simply dump our sauce into a blender
[123 - 127] and purée for just ten or fifteen seconds, we just want to break up the major tomato solids
[127 - 130] and make something nice and smooth that we can spread
[130 - 132] on our pizza. Speaking of which, it's dough time!
[132 - 135] We're going to start by generously flouring our work surface and
[135 - 141] then retrieving our pizza dough which you can see has both grown in size and become uniform in texture.
[141 - 146] The slow overnight ferment is also going to make for better flavour and browning down the line.
[146 - 149] We're going to divide our dough into four pieces - that's four pizzas,
[149 - 153] cover the other ones with plastic wrap while we work with our first ball of dough.
[153 - 155] We're going to evenly coat it in flour and
[155 - 158] start gently patting it down into the general shape of
[158 - 161] a pizza. Don't worry too much about getting it perfectly round and don't roll it
[161 - 164] out with a rolling pin. We're just sort of gently coaxing,
[164 - 167] suggesting what shape this dough should result in.
[167 - 171] Now we're going to pick it up and using our knuckles, passing it knuckle over knuckle,
[171 - 176] stretch it out into a larger and larger pizza pie. Accidentally drop it down on the counter top,
[176 - 179] stretch it back out, make some final corrections to sort of get it
[179 - 183] generally into the shape that you want, we're going to have one more chance to make revisions
[183 - 185] before we throw this guy into the oven. First we need
[185 - 188] to dust our pizza peel with cornmeal or semolina flour
[188 - 191] this is going to act like little ball-bearings to help the
[191 - 194] pizza slide off easily into our waiting five hundred degree
[194 - 197] oven that we've been pre-heating for at least an hour. And now,
[197 - 199] you guessed it - it's sauce time. We're going to ladle a few
[199 - 205] ladle-fulls of sauce onto our pizza one at a time, spreading them out, getting it all the way to the edge.
[205 - 210] The placement of the sauce and the cheese are really what are going to determine the shape and size of our crust.
[210 - 214] And now we're topping with some shredded, low-moisture mozzarella -
[214 - 216] Not pre-shredded - that stuff is coated with potato starch
[216 - 219] and will result in the nasty, un-melted pieces of cheese
[219 - 222] that you might be used to if you've ever made pizza at home before.
[222 - 225] We're also going to top with a couple of leaves of basil. And now pick up the pizza
[225 - 229] and give it a shake, and see if it's sliding around freely on your pizza peel.
[229 - 233] If it's sticking anywhere just lift up the corner and dust it with a bit more cornflour.
[233 - 236] Now slide it onto your pizza stone in your pre-heated oven
[236 - 239] and bake for seven to nine minutes until it looks like
[239 - 242] a pizza. I know it doesn't seem feasible but try to let this
[242 - 245] cool for a few minutes before cutting into pieces
[245 - 247] and serving. Your mouth will thank you for it.
[247 - 250] Your mouth will also thank you for putting this pizza inside of it
[250 - 253] because it's really, really very good. I can't tell you what kind of
[253 - 255] difference a slow-fermented dough like this makes and
[255 - 258] as long as we have four pieces why don't we try some variations?
[258 - 263] I have some spicy sopressata that I'm going to put on top of a little bit of cheese and red sauce,
[263 - 266] a little bit of freshly torn basil, and this time I've pushed the sauce
[266 - 269] truly all the way to the edge. This is going to give me
[269 - 271] a darker crust with more caramelized
[271 - 274] tomato sauce. And now I'm going to top the whole thing with some
[274 - 277] fresh creamy burrata cheese. Burrata is like a little
[277 - 280] sack of mozzarella that is filled with sweet cream
[280 - 282] and it is off-the-charts delicious. Now, you can obviously
[282 - 286] top your pizza however you want, you can put pineapple on there for all I care.
[286 - 289] But what about different form factors? How about a calzone?
[289 - 292] This time I'm just going to spread sauce on one side of the dough,
[292 - 295] top with the requisite mozzarella cheese, or you know, the cheese of your choice,
[295 - 298] and I'm also going to throw some chopped-up ham in there
[298 - 301] I think that'll be fun. And how about some nice sauteed spinach?
[301 - 303] To be honest, I'm just throwing stuff in there that I have in the fridge.
[303 - 306] This is a great way to use up leftover ingredients from other recipes.
[306 - 310] Simply fold the dough over on itself, crimp with a fork
[310 - 314] and if you want you can trim away the excess dough for a cleaner presentation.
[314 - 318] Same deal as the pizza, make sure that it is sliding around freely on your peel.
[318 - 321] For a browner, slightly glossier crust I'm going to
[321 - 324] drizzle this and brush it down with a little extra virgin olive oil
[324 - 328] and throw it into the oven for ten to fifteen minutes or until deeply browned.
[328 - 330] Normally you want to let this guy cool off for a little bit
[330 - 333] but I'm trying to get that porny, steamy cross-section
[333 - 336] which we can take a look at now. Serve with some extra sauce
[336 - 338] on the side for dipping or just dig in as-is.
[338 - 341] I hope you guys try this yourselves, it's easier than it looks and
[341 - 345] we can cook it together, next week during the livestream on Twitch.