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Making the most of basic ingredients: water, flour, yeast, salt and oil.

The secret of a good pizza is in the simplicity of a well risen dough, well kneaded and cooked. There are 5 stages to learn to make the perfect pizza:
1. Ingredients
2. Recipe
3. Kneading
4. Rising
5. Cooking

1. Ingredients

To get a quality pizza, the choice of ingredients is very important. Ingredients must always be fresh and well preserved and must have the following characteristics:
- Water must be drinkable, containing not too much calcium
- Yeast can be used fresh (check it has a light colour and a brittle consistency, otherwise it is better not to use it) or dry (available in sachets, when using it should be dissolved in water at 38°C)
- The recommended salt is Sea Salt, which helps the dough to rise better
- The best flour to use is the Italian flour type “00”, in alternative you can use Strong White flour found in every supermarkets
- Toppings are entirely your choice; the original pizza recipe involves simple and basic ingredients such as tomato puree and mozzarella

2. Recipe

For a good dough use:
- 125ml water
- 250g strong white flour
- 7.5g of fresh yeast (or 4g of dry yeast)
- 6g of sea salt
- 1 tbsp oil
Quantities may be increased or decreased as needed, as well as the yeast is decreased when the ambient temperature is above 23-25°C (eg. in summer).
This recipe is enough to prepare 2 pizzas.

3. Kneading the dough (+10min)

If you use fresh yeast:
To prepare the dough, divide the flour into 2 separate bowls. Divide the water into 2 containers, dissolve the salt into one and the fresh yeast in the other; then add in each bowl half of water, and 1 tbsp of oil in the bowl containg the salt and water. Knead from the 2 bowls separately until the dough become consistent, then knead the 2 balls of dough together until it becomes smooth and consistent.
Before letting the dough rise, you should keep it in a refrigerator at 2-6° C, this will allow the dough to mature (for 24 hour if kept at 2° C or 6-8 hours if kept at 6° C).
If you use dried yeast:
When you use dried yeast you do not need to worry about separating the salt from the yeast. You can mix every ingredient in the same bowl at the same time, and knead until the dough becomes smooth and consistent.

4. Rising of the dough

Let the dough rest for about 3 hours before cooking at a constant temperature (23°C). When the dough will be ready, oil lightly the pan where it will be cooked then knock it back using your fingers (or a pizza rolling pin) to obtain a homogeneous layer that reaches the sides of the pan.
At this point the base should be spreaded with the tomato puree or oil (depending on the type of pizza you are making) and let stand for a further hour prior to cooking.

5. Cooking

In a home oven the average cooking temperature should be 250°C for a time ranging between 12-15 minutes. The oven must be preheated before cooking the pizza.
Cooking should be done in two different stages:
- Bake the pizza base for about 8-10 minutes, either with tomato sauce on top or just coated in oil.
- Remove the pan from the oven, stuff your pizza according to the recipe you are following, then put the pan back in the oven and finish cooking for the remaining time.
Pizza must be eaten immediately after cooking, for a better taste.

Easy shortcut: if you are running out of time, after kneeding the dough for at least 10 minutes, divide it into two balls; you can let it rise from 1 to 2 hours (at least 1 hour) in a warm place (you can cover with blanket if you want to), until it doubles in size. It is a satisfactory alternative and the dough will be ready to be knocked back onto a floured surface.