SERVES 4

1 kg Slow yeast pizza dough

200 g Tomato sauce

350 g Buffalo mozzarella cheese

½ bunch fresh basil, leaves picked

30 ml Extra virgin olive oil

SLOW YEAST PIZZA DOUGH – Best prepared 48 hours prior to baking

1 kg Molino Caputo Tipo 00 flour or if you can’t find this brand, use bread flour

6 g active dry yeast

650 g filtered water

25 g Table salt

TOMATO SAUCE

200 g tinned tomatoes

½ bunch fresh oregano, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced

15 ml Extra virgin olive oil

Pinch of pink salt

½ bunch fresh basil, leaves picked and chopped

METHOD

Begin making your slow yeast pizza dough 48 hours prior to baking.

Start by mixing the yeast and flour in a large bowl. Warm a small amount of the water to dissolve the salt in a separate bowl. Then add the salty water to the filtered water.

Now add the combined water to the flour in a large mixing bowl and mix for 2 minutes.

Rest the dough for 15 minutes in order for the gluten to relax so it is not too tough when you mix again. Repeat as below.

Mix for 2 minutes

Rest for 15 minutes

REPEAT

Mix for 2 minutes

Rest for 15 minutes

REPEAT

Mix for 2 minutes. Roll into a ball and place in a lightly oiled bowl covered with a tea towel and place straight in the fridge.

When the dough mix has doubled in size, tip it onto the bench to deflate. Roll it into a ball and place back into the bowl covered with your tea towel and place back in fridge.

Allow the dough to double again, roll into a ball again and put in the fridge and allow to prove overnight.

The next day, tip dough onto the bench, form a ball and allow to rest for 30 minutes. Then divide the dough into quarters and roll them into balls (if you want smaller pieces divide the dough into 6 or 8 depending on how many pizza’s you want).

Roll each piece of dough into a tight ball, place the balls on a tray and place in the fridge for at least 3 hours or until next day.

For the tomato sauce, blend the ingredients in a large bowl with a stick blender. Don’t worry about making it too smooth, it’s nice to be rustic.

Now you are ready to make your pizza!

Preheat your oven on full blast with your pizza stone on the bottom shelf for 30 minutes.

Remove your pizza dough balls from the fridge and stretch them out one at a time with the back of your hand so the dough is thin in the middle and naturally forming a thicker rim from rotating in a circle.

Dust the back of a thin steel tray with flour, place the dough on the tray and spread the centre with your pizza sauce.

Top your pizza with torn pieces of mozzarella and slide onto the baking stone and bake in the oven on its highest temperature until crispy. Or at 375°C if in a wood fired oven.

Remove from the oven and scatter with fresh basil and drizzle with olive oil and a pinch of salt.