Italian chef Antonio Zambarelli, founder of ReccoLab in Sydney, Balmain, has revealed the key to making the perfect pizza.
Antonio developed his pizza recipe after years of studying in Naples and Bologna, and has shared his top tips with that’s life!
He also revealed the major ‘dos and don’ts’ for making pizza at home.
Ingredients
Dough
500g Italian flour 00
250ml water
7g fresh beer yeast
1 spoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
Half a teaspoon of sugar
Preparation
Put the lukewarm water in a large bowl and crumble the fresh brewer’s yeast together with the sugar and add the extra virgin olive oil.
Melt the yeast completely then start mixing the flour, stirring first with a spoon and then with your hands in order to obtain a homogeneous mixture without lumps.
Knead for about 10 minutes then transfer the dough into a well-oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in the oven OFF but with the light on for about 1 hour and a half until the dough is doubled in volume.
Remove the dough from the bowl and roll it on a greased baking sheet or with parchment paper without changing its shape, but only flatten it with your hands.
Let it rise for another 30 minutes then season with tomato.
Turn on the oven at 250 ° static and, when it is hot, cook the pizza in the lower shelf of the oven.
Cook for 10 minutes then add the diced mozzarella, move the pizza on the middle shelf of the oven and continue cooking for about 5 minutes until the mozzarella is completely cooked.
Advice
The water where you melt the yeast must be slightly warm, too hot will kill the yeast while too cold will not do the job.
You can substitute the sugar with honey or malt.
You can replace fresh and dry brewer’s yeast, it will only take half of the dose.
You can decrease or increase the dose of yeast, in this case the rising times will increase or decrease.
If you prefer a thinner pizza you can split the dough for fast pizza in two pans.
When making the ideal dough, Antonio suggests avoiding these common mistakes:
-Using too much flour
-Don’t knead the dough too much
-Don’t overheat the oven
-Don’t forget to let the dough rest
-Don’t leave the mozzarella wet
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