Make your own pizza: The basic recipe for the perfect pizza dough

Step 1

Put the flour and salt in a large bowl and make a well in the center. Sifting the flour for your pizza into the bowl will make the dough even smoother.

Mash the yeast in the water with a fork and then pour the mixture into the well. (Mix the dry yeast with the flour and salt before adding the water).

The mixture can now be worked by hand or with a wooden spoon to form a soft and uniform dough. If the dough is sticky, you can add some more flour.

Then knead the dough on a floured countertop for about ten minutes until smooth. (If using a food processor or hand mixer, take the dough hook and knead for about five minutes).

Then shape the dough into a ball and place in a bowl lightly greased with olive oil.

Cover the bowl with a tea towel and place in a warm place where the dough can rise for about 1 hour The volume should approximately double.

Then flatten the dough by hand and roll it out with a rolling pin on a floured countertop. The pizza crust should be about half an inch thick. Then place the pizza base on a baking tray with oil and baking paper.

Now you can spread the pizza sauce and toppings on your pizza - for example, a pizza with anchovies. It is important to leave a margin of 1-2 cm.  

Step 2

A pizza dough as circular as at the Italian restaurant - that's what many would like to have in their homemade pizza. This requires a bit of practice. Here we show you two possibilities.

With a small rolling pin: The best way is to take the smallest rolling pin possible and roll out the pizza dough from the center to the edge. 

With gravity: Grasp the dough with both hands at the edge and lift it up. In doing so, it pulls down thanks to gravity. Now turn the dough by gripping it around a few times - as if you were constantly gripping a car steering wheel around a bend. Italian pizza makers (pizzaioli) do it much the same way. Except they pull the dough over the back of their hand and quickly turn it horizontally in the air.

By the way, there is no difference in taste between a round, square or cloud-shaped pizza. The eye always eats with you, but the right recipe and good ingredients are much more important. This attitude is particularly appreciated in Italy. Just like a cool beer with pizza or other carbonated drinks. So the original Italian pizza should not be accompanied by wine! At most a white sparkling wine. Cin cin!

Step 3

The basis of a good pizza is a good yeast dough. On top of it belongs a spicy pizza sauce made from tomatoes and the pizza topping - classically made from olive oil, tomatoes and mozzarella. Of course, there are countless variations of pizza with fish, meat and vegetables. Just be careful not to take too many ingredients for your pizza topping. That way, each ingredient comes out better and the dough doesn't get mushy. There should not be more than five ingredients. In the recipe for pizza with anchovies, these four are enough: tomatoes, mozzarella, anchovies and provolone cheese.