When I was growing up, my grandmother lived with us and pretty much raised us. I remember when I was 4 or 5 years old and WWII was in progress. There was rationing, and Victory Gardens, every one did their share and that meant my mother had to work. The big hit in the garden was tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, beans, cucumbers, and roman lettuce, to mention a few. To look at it, it wasn’t very big (area wise), but every inch was utilized and it was prolific enough for grandma and my mom to can enough tomatoes to last us all winter. The world was in turmoil and a victory garden just made things a little easier. The highlight of all this hard work was rewarded with some really tasty meals and of course my grandmothers Sicilian Style home made pizza.
Grandma, didn’t measure anything, her method was to throw a bunch of things together and it always came out tasting great. Her recipe for making the dough was something like a 5 lb. sack of flour, a pan of warm water, (about the size of a quart pan and a little more, a handful of salt (about 1½ tablespoons), a large wooden spoon of lard, (about ½ cup). She would dump the flour in a large white porcelain pan and push the flour to the sides making a large crater in the middle of the pan. Then she would stick her elbow in the pan of water to make sure the temperature was right for the yeast. She then put in the yeast, lard and salt and stirred it together well before mixing the flour in with that big wooden mixing spoon. Yup, the same big wooden spoon that she use to whack us with when we needed to be disciplined and least expected it. When she couldn’t mix the dough with that spoon any more, then she would start kneading it. The recipe below is a smaller variation of that recipe that I have developed over time replacing only the lard and the fresh cake yeast. Of course when she made dough she made fresh Italian bread as well as pizza.
Revised pizza/bread dough recipe
Note: . This should be sufficient dough to make three (3) sheet pizza’s, or four (4) 15” round pizza’s. If you intend to make only one or two pizza’s you might want to divide the dough accordingly into 4 or 5 equal parts before starting the rising process. If so, place each segment in a plastic freezer bag and freeze until you are ready to use it. When you are ready to use the dough, take it from the freezer the day before and place in the refrigerator. On the day you intend to use it, take it out of the refrigerator in the morning and let stand at room temperature until double in size. I like my pizza dough thick, so those of you who like thin crust pizza might want to make even further revisions in the division of the dough.
6 cups unbleached high-gluten, bread, or all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon salt
2 package dry yeast
1/4 cup olive virgin oil
2 cups water, (luke warm 70°F)
Flour or cornmeal for dusting
· Stir the flour and salt together in a large mixing bowl and mix together.
· Push the flour mixture towards the edge of the bowl, creating a hole or pocket for the water making sure the water isn’t too hot, (should be warm to the touch, so as not to kill the yeast), dissolve the yeast in the water then pour the water into the pocket you made for it.
· With a wire whisk, stir the flour into the water until you can’t move the whisk through the flour any more.
· Clean the dough from the whisk and mix back into mixture with your hands. Be sure to dust your hands with flour before you start mixing and kneading the dough by hand. Knead the dough for 5 minutes. The dough should have elasticity to it and not be wet. If dough feels wet, sprinkle or dust it with a little more flour and knead it some more.
· Flour a clean dry surface and pour the dough out onto the floured surface. Turn the bowl over onto the dough and let rest for 5 minutes. This will let the gluten build.
· The dough should have a nice smooth elastic feel to it. Now knead the dough for an additional 10 to 15 minutes. The longer you knead the dough the better.
· Oil a large bowl (big enough to allow the dough ball to rise to twice its size. Dust the bowl and dough, place the dough into the bowl, cover bowl with a plastic wrap and a clean towel.
· Let rise to twice its original size (about 1 to 1½ hours) at room temperature.
The dough should now be ready to use. Divide it into four (4) equal sections and dust the cut ends with flour. The dough should feel soft, light and elastic.
· Lightly oil 1 cookie sheet (12” x 18”) For each pizza you wish to make.
· Spread or roll the dough out evenly over the sheet.
· Brush the pizza dough with olive oil, cover lightly with plastic wrap and let set for ½ to 1 hour. This allows the dough to rise again making a nice light dough.
· Once the dough has risen again you are ready to add your pizza toppings.
Your now ready to put the pizza together.
Original Toppings recipe:
1 quart (for each pizza) Fresh Tomatoes (peeled, crushed). This is approximate as it depends on your taste. There should be a nice even coating of tomatoes not to dry and not to wet.
Anchovies (flat fillet)
Salt (mix with tomatoes before hand). The tomatoes should have a salt consistency of tomato juice.
Pepper (ground)
Oregano, crushed
Onions (one large for each pizza, sliced into strips or rings.)
Mushrooms (Optional, fresh chopped and sauté in olive oil
Pepperoni (sliced thin)
Parnassian or Romano grating cheese (to taste)
Mozzarella cheese (shredded and optional)
Note: the lack of amounts, for all of the ingredients above are solely dependent on one’s personal taste and cannot be accurately measured. However the following instructions should help to clear things up a bit.
· Anchovies, (Optional) although a lot of people don’t like anchovies, the trick is to break the fillets into tiny pieces about ¼” square and push them softly into the surface of the dough. If done right most people don’t recognize there presence. Also, I drain the oil from the anchovies into a cup and mix it with the olive oil I use to brush the dough with. A lot of people who don’t like anchovies, rave about my grandma’s pizza.
· Tomatoes (Crushed and preferably fresh) Spread the crushed tomatoes over the dough. (I salt and taste the tomatoes before spreading over the pizza. They should have salt consistency comparable to tomato juice.) Canned crushed tomatoes can be used in place of fresh – approximately on can per pizza.
· Oregano: Oregano has a strong flavor to it, so use it lightly. Pour the oregano into the palm of your hand and crush it as you spread it lightly over the pizza.
· Mushrooms: (Optional) use fresh mushrooms for a great flavor. Chop clean fresh mushrooms into mushroom bits and sauté in olive oil. Drain and set aside to cool before spreading on pizza. Here too I drain the mushroom flavored olive oil into the cup of brushing oil.
· Black pepper: Sprinkle over pizza to taste.
· Onions: (Optional) Slice the onions into strips or rings (thin) and spread over pizza
· Pepperoni (Optional – sliced thin) spread evenly over pizza.
· Parnassian or Romano grated cheese. Romano is a little stronger than Parnassian in flavor so I prefer the Romano, especially if I’m not using shredded mozzarella. My grandmother never used mozzarella on her pizza, so if I feel like going original Sicilian style I leave it off. Believe me, there is plenty of flavor and the shredded mozzarella only tends to take from the flavor. So even if I do use it, I use it lightly.
Well that about does it, but of course you’re not limited to the ingredients listed above. I’ve seen recipes that call for anything from pineapples to marshmallows, but if you want a great pizza that everyone will rave about, I wouldn’t mess with it to much.
