Pizza alla napoletana
Instructions:
- Dough
- 1 envelope active dry yeast
- 1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- Toppings
- 1 cup marinara sauce or peeled, chopped tomatoes, to taste
- 2 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded or thinly sliced, or to taste
- 2 ounces anchovy filets or strips of thinly sliced prosciutto, to taste
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil, or dried, to taste
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan cheese, or to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
- To prepare dough, dissolve yeast in water.
- On a clean surface, combine flour and salt.
- Make a well in center of flour and add the dissolved yeast.
- Blend together and knead thoroughly.
- Add oil and continue kneading until dough is smooth and elastic.
- Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl; cover and let stand in a warm place for one to three hours, until doubled in bulk.
- Flatten dough and roll out to form a 10-inch circle about one-quarter-inch thick. Place dough on a flat surface sprinkled lightly with cornmeal. (If you don\'t have an extra-wide spatula or flat lifter of some sort with which to move the assembled pizza, transfer the dough to a board or the flat side of a tray sprinkled with cornmeal so that the pizza will slide off easily into the skillet.)
- Spread tomato sauce over top of dough.
- Add mozzarella, anchovies or other toppings, as desired.
- Sprinkle with basil, Parmesan and pepper, to taste.
- Heat oil in large, heavy (preferably cast-iron) skillet.
- When oil is sizzling, transfer the uncooked pizza to the hot skillet.
- Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes until crust is golden and topping is bubbly.
- If needed, cover pizza for a few minutes toward the end of cooking to speed melting the cheese.
- Serve immediately.
- Makes 4 servings.