Margherita Pizza

Instructions

• At this stage, your dough should be on your pizza peel and your oven should be preheated as outlined in the Yeasted Neapolitan Pizza Dough recipe. Dollop crushed tomatoes in the centre of dough, and, with the back of a spoon, gently spread the sauce in a circular outward motion, leaving 1 1⁄2 in. of uncovered dough around the edges for the crust. Be careful not to apply too much pressure so you don’t damage the dough.

• Break up mozzarella with your hands and disperse it evenly over sauce. Drizzle pizza with 1 tbsp olive oil.

• Take the peel and insert it into the oven at a slight angle until you reach the back of the pizza stone. Give the peel a little shake to allow the pizza to start sliding off it—it should look like you are draping the pizza from the back of the stone to the front. Bake the pizza for 8 to 10 min, until centre has set and crust has formed nice golden blistered bubbles. Note that every home oven heats a little differently. You may want to experiment with switching to a broil setting for the last couple minutes of cooking to mimic the doming effect of a wood-fire oven and achieve a leopard-like charred pattern. (If you don’t have a pizza stone, bake your pizza directly on an inverted baking sheet for the first 8 min, then finish cooking it directly on the rack until the dough is nice and crisp.)

• Use peel to remove pizza from oven (or use tongs to grab the edge of the pizza) and transfer it to a cooling rack. Let rest for 1 min.

• Drizzle pizza with olive oil, transfer to a cutting board or pizza pan, cut into slices and top with a few basil leaves.