When it comes to making great pizza, there’s no secret. Like most traditional Italian fare, success lies in using the best ingredients, taking your time, and keeping it simple. That’s why we’re going back to the basics, exploring the fundamentals of pizza: dough and sauce.
Here, you’ll find tips from Chef Chris Bianco of acclaimed Phoenix, Arizona restaurant Pizzeria Bianco, along with our Test Kitchen’s go-to pizza dough recipe. Read on!
Our Test Kitchen swears by Food-Processor Pizza Dough, which makes fast and easy work of a process that would otherwise require some muscle (scroll down for the full recipe). Just mix the dough in the food processor, adding a water-yeast mixture little by little, until the dough comes together, then continue processing to knead the dough. Take it out, let it rise, and stretch it out — that’s it! Here are a few more dough tips from Chris.
Work ahead. The amount of time dough takes to rise depends on the ambient temperature. But Chris likes to make the dough the night before, or early in the morning, letting it rest in the fridge and then again at room temperature. “It’s very forgiving,” he says.
Give it time. If your dough is hard to stretch, it means you may not have proofed it long enough, he says. Also: “I don’t like to use a rolling pin for something that’s worked so hard to leaven and gain aeration and cell structure,” he says. Instead, you can use your hands to stretch the dough.
Strike a balance. When it comes to toppings, don’t overload the dough. “We’re talking about an appropriate amount of ingredients that the hydration of the dough can handle,” says Chris. “What we do as cooks is put ingredients in place so they can succeed.” He recommends assembling everything in balance so they cook evenly, melt properly, and don’t become overly soupy or overly dry.
Food-Processor Pizza Dough
1 Tbs. active dry yeast
1 tsp. sugar
1 cup warm water (105° to 115°F)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.
In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the dough blade, combine the flour and salt and process with 3 or 4 pulses. With the motor running on the dough speed, slowly add the yeast mixture, allowing each addition to be absorbed before adding more. Continue processing until the dough forms a ball and cleans the sides of the bowl, about 1 minute, then process for 1 minute more.
Coat the inside of a large bowl with the olive oil and place the dough in the bowl. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 1⁄2 hours. Divide the dough in half and roll out or stretch into rounds as directed in the pizza recipe. Makes two 12-inch rounds.
You don’t need a recipe for pizza sauce. That’s because traditional sweet-tart, vibrant tomato sauces have just one ingredient: top-quality tomatoes. Peeled and crushed — and sprinkled with just a touch of sea salt and fresh herbs, if you like — they are all you need for a great Margherita Pizza. While tomatoes are in season, you can use fresh ones, but throughout the rest of the year it’s best to seek out good-quality canned tomatoes, which are packed within hours of harvest for ultimate freshness. Try the canned tomatoes Chris produces himself!
When you’re ready to cook your pizza, simply spread crushed tomatoes on top of the dough, and then add the rest of your toppings. The sauce will cook with the rest of the pizza, changing texture and flavor in the oven (or on the grill).
“My pizza sauce is cooking on the pizza,” says Chris. “My role is putting the ingredients in a place and letting them succeed. So if I crush those tomatoes, all I need to do is to get them to the next stage, and by some of the juice evaporating, and it bubbling and it cooking, and kinda getting into that dough, it will give me the desired texture I want.”
Read our full interview with Chris Bianco here.
4 comments
The recipe does not provide baking temps/times and whether or not to cook on sheet pan or directly on the oven racks etc. Could you please provide more baking info?
I’ve always had incredibly bad luck when it came to making pizza dough. This recipe is my salvation. I love how easy it is to make – just pulse everything together. The pizza results were the best I’ve had out of months of trying pre-made crusts and doughs. It has great texture, not to chewy but with a great bite to balance out pizza toppings. I’m pretty sure if I could get it thin enough it would crisp up nicely. I look forward to experimenting a little more with this recipe and pizza combinations.
Thanks for the win!
Any changes for high altitude 7,200 feet?
Hi Pam,
Yes, recipes for anything that rises (like yeast breads, quick breads, cakes and even cookies) typically require some adjustment when they are cooked at high altitude. Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all adjustment that will fix every recipe, but here are some tricks to try.
First of all, dry ingredients like flour tend to be drier at high elevation than they are at sea level, because there’s less moisture in the air. So if the pizza dough doesn’t come together in a ball in the food processor after you add yeast and water mixture, add more warm water about 1/2 to 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough comes together.
Second, because the air pressure is lower at high altitude than it is as sea level, your dough will rise faster — which might sound like a good thing, but it actually means less time for the flavor to develop. So try these two tricks. First, use a little less yeast — maybe 2 1/4 teaspoons instead of 1 tablespoon. Also, keep a close eye on the dough while it’s rising. You don’t want it to grow to more than twice its original size. Once it starts approaching double its original size, simply punch it down and let it rise a second time before rolling it out for your pizzas. (Alternatively, you can let the dough rise in your refrigerator. The cooler temperature should slow down the dough’s rising.)
Hope that helps. Let us know how it turns out!