Perfect Pizza

It's taken me a few years to perfect my pizza crust. Well, perfect for me. I like my pizza crust on the thin side, more crispy than chewy. My favorite toppings are prosciutto/brasaola and cheese. But i also really like my father's red pepper, red onion, olives and anchovies.

Here's my recipe for the crust:

3.5 cups flour
1 cup warm water
2 tsp instant yeast
1.5 tsp sugar or honey
1.5 tsp salt

I combine all of the ingredients in a mixer with a dough hook, usually adding the salt last. Then, once the dough is a cohesive ball and no longer sticks to the sides, I remove it from the bowl and grease the bowl with olive oil. I place the dough back in the bowl and cover it in plastic wrap. I let it sit for an hour or two at room temperature and let it rise before use, though sometimes if i'm in a time crunch i've been known to roll it out immediately and skip the rise. But normally, after the dough has doubled in size, I preheat the oven to 250C, then I turn the dough out onto a floured surface and roll it out to the size of my pan which is lined with baking paper. I like it thin so I roll it out as flat as I can and cut off any excess and make a baby pizza out of any extra dough. I then dock the pizza dough (poke holes w. fork) and put it in the oven on the bottom rack for 4-5 minutes.

I then remove the semi baked dough from the oven and assemble my pizza. At first I made my own pizza sauces with garlic, peppers, onions, tomatoes, etc, but now I find that I really just like the crushed tomatoes out of a can or a good bottle of passata, ragu, conserva, what ever you have on hand, I spread a layer of it onto the pizza and then place my other non-cheese toppings, and last the cheese. As far as toppings go, I really recommend that you bake and test many pizzas with many different combinations until you find your favorite..my family loves to participate in these tests :)

I like to drizzle olive oil on the pizza before I place it back in the oven for an additional 12 minutes.

This pizza is best served with beer. But if you don't like beer then I recommend lemon soda!!