Turns out the best compromise in the family is a basic margherita.
ingredients for dough
- 400 g soft white flour
- 100 g hard wheat flour
- yeast
- 10 g salt
- 5 g sugar (optional, often I just forget and it works fine)
- 350 g water (varies with flour)
ingredients sauce
- 3-4 medium tomatoes
- olive oil
- 5 g salt
ingredients for topping
- mozzarella and other yellow cheeses ~400-500 g
- optional, but really nice, is ground boletus mushrooms
- optional, but really nice, chopped olives
preparation dough
- place the yeast in the mixing bowl. Crush it if using live yeast. Add a bit of water, until covered. Leave for 5-10 minutes until the yeast is slightly activated.
- add the flour and salt
- start mixing in the water in small batches, stirring with the flour until it's absorbed. Different flours soak up different amounts of water with different speeds, so ymmv. Watch the consistency while mixing, and adjust the amount of water until you're satisfied.
- while mixing, start forming a ball, scooping from the bottom back side and folding on top.
- then knead the dough, again pulling and folding on top. Do not break up the structure, just pull and fold for 5-10 minutes, until it is smooth, then a little bit more.
- leave it for half to one hour, until it approximately doubles in volume.
- when it rises, add a bit of flour on top and then lightly knead with more flour on the counter. Do not press it too strongly. The dough will harden a bit, as it is usually too soft at this stage.
- separate into several balls. I use the large oven-sized trays, so I only split in two. Adjust depending on your trays.
- pull each ball from all sides to start flattening, then roll thinner with a pin. You might have to add some flour to prevent it from sticking.
- place baking paper on the tray, and move the dough to it
preparation sauce
- grate the tomatoes, move them to a cooking pot, add a bit of oil and salt (and optionally a tblsp of sugar)
- cook the tomatoes until the sauce is thick enough, stirring occasionally
- once done, leave the sauce to cool for a bit
preparation pizza
- lay the sauce on top first
- add the boletus powder, if using it
- add the cheese
- add the olives, if using
- at this point if the pizza looks too dry, might add a drizzle of olive oil on top. Depends.
- season with oregano, perhaps a small amount of salt
- bake at 220℃ for ~10 minutes
I don't really have the space for an extra oven (unless my wife wins over and throws away the air fryer). My friend got a wood fired furnace at his house, and the pizzas were sublime.
Oooooh wood fired - that's on another level even.
I recently also upgraded my normal stove by just checking classifieds and ebay for a long time until I found a good oven used oven. (Amazing it has even the. microwave built in, so I could throw out one box out of the kitchen).
It took a year of reading until I found one for Eur 50.- and then I sold my old one next day for 30.- (wanted to get rid of it quickly).
The new oven goes up to 300C.
Otoh I don't have wife (anymore 😂) whom I need to discuss such things with.