My youngest son and I are into baking lately. We have tried many bread recipes and so far our favorite is the rosemary and thyme focaccia bread. It was so good especially dipped in olive oil-balsamic vinegar mixture. For our next baking time together, we decided to make pizza. He just recently purchased a pizza stone that we thought would be good to use for making a good homemade pizza. After finding a good recipe for a thin-crust dough, we started the task of making a pizza with capicollo, diced tomato and basil as toppings. The pizza was baked on the pizza stone over high heat for ten minutes. The pizza crust came out so good, thin and crispy, just like the way we like our pizza. The toppings, especially the cheese, was just the perfect amount, not too much. We can’t get enough of this delicious thin-crust pizza, we already decided to make some again on the weekend. Yummy!
- ¾ cups lukewarm water
- 1 tsp active-dry or instant yeast
- 1¾ to 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoons salt
- 3 tbsp pizza sauce (I used tomato and basil pizza sauce)
- 9 pieces capicollo
- 2 big tomatoes, cored, deseeded and diced
- 8 fresh basil leaves, sliced
- ½ cup grated mozzarella cheese
- Combine the water and yeast in a mixing bowl, and stir to dissolve the yeast. Add the flour and salt to the bowl and mix until you've formed a dough.
- Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface along with any loose flour still in the bowl. Knead until all the flour is incorporated, and the dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. The dough should still feel moist and slightly tacky. If it's sticking to your hands and countertop like bubble gum, work in more flour, one tablespoon at a time, until it is smooth. Cover the dough with a clean kitchen towel and let rise for an hour or until doubled in bulk.
- Set the oven to 500°F and let it heat for at least half an hour before making the pizza. If you have a pizza stone, put it in the lower-middle part of the oven now.
- When ready to make the pizza, tear off 2 pieces of parchment paper roughly 12 inches wide. Divide the dough in 2 with a bench scraper. Working with one piece of the dough at a time, form it into a large disk with your hands and lay it on the parchment paper.
- Work from the middle of the dough outwards, using the heel of your hand to gently press and stretch the dough until it's about a ¼-inch thick or less. For an extra-thin crust, roll it with a rolling pin. If the dough starts to shrink back, let it rest for 5 minutes and then continue rolling.
- Spoon sauce into the center of the pizza and use the back of a spoon to spread it out to the edges. Arrange capicollo pieces evenly over the sauce, top with diced tomatoes and basil and then sprinkle cheese on top of the mixture.
- Using a bread peel or the back side of a baking sheet, slide your pizza (still on the parchment) onto the baking stone in the oven. If you don't have a baking stone, bake the pizza right on the baking sheet.
- Bake for about 5 minutes and then rotate the pizza, removing the parchment from under the pizza as you do so. Bake for another 3 to 5 minutes until the crust is golden-brown and the cheese looks toasty.
- Remove the pizza from oven and let it cool on a wire rack. Repeat with shaping, topping, and baking the second pizza.
- Let both pizzas cool for about five minutes before slicing and serving.
Dough recipe source: thekitchn.com
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