Backyard oven pizzas
Packed up our pizza oven on the 4th and made pizza for our close childhood friends while the kids spent the day in the pool.
Makes
6
Level
Grown-up leads
Kids cook with a grown-up. Hot ovens, boiling water and frying are grown-up jobs, and sharp knives need a grown-up’s hands too.
Ingredients
Bread flour or 00 flour: 4 cups (500 g)
Water: 1 1/4 cups (300 g)
Fine sea salt: 2 teaspoons
Instant yeast: 1/4 teaspoon
Crushed San Marzano tomatoes: 1 cup, lightly salted
Fresh mozzarella: 1 pound, torn into pieces
Pepperoni: 3 ounces, thinly sliced
Guanciale: 3 ounces, sliced thin
Gruyere: 4 ounces, grated
Yellow onions: 2 large, sliced
Sun-dried tomatoes: 1/4 cup, chopped
Prosciutto: 3 ounces
Aged balsamic vinegar: a drizzle
Olive oil: 3 tablespoons
Method
Stir the flour, water, salt and yeast into a shaggy dough. Knead for about 10 minutes until smooth.
Cover the dough and rest it for 1 hour. Cut it into 5 equal pieces and shape each into a tight ball.
Set the balls in a lightly oiled covered container. Chill them in the fridge for 72 hours.
Take the dough out 2 hours before baking so it warms up and relaxes.
Cook the sliced onions in 2 tablespoons of olive oil over low heat for about 40 minutes, until deep golden. Crisp the guanciale in a dry pan.
Heat the pizza oven as hot as it goes. A grown-up handles the hot oven and the peel. In a home oven, heat a pizza steel at 500°F for 45 minutes.
Stretch one ball by hand on a floured peel into a round about 8 inches wide.
Margherita: spread tomato and dot with mozzarella. Pepperoni: add pepperoni on top. Guanciale: add guanciale on top.
White pies: skip the tomato. Top one with mozzarella and sun-dried tomatoes, and the other with gruyere and caramelized onions.
Slide each pizza into the oven. Bake 60 to 90 seconds in a pizza oven, or 6 to 8 minutes in a home oven, turning once, until the crust is blistered.
Lay the prosciutto over the sun-dried tomato pie and drizzle with balsamic. Slice and serve right away.
