What are the 6 essential elements to make pizza at home as in a pizzeria? Let’s see them together!
If I say Pizza, what happens? International like Sofia Loren and sincere like Totò, abroad everyone knows it and everyone tries to reproduce it with local ingredients; from ninja turtles to Joey Tribbiani in Friends, pizza can be seen everywhere and it’s appreciated by everyone, from adults to children.
If I say “Pizza” and you’re Italian, it makes your mouth water and you immediately think of your favorite pizzeria. Yes, because in Italy everyone likes a different pizza, it’s one of those dishes that brings together and divides at the same time. Yet, in front of a slice of pizza an emotion always emerges, throw the first stone who dares to remain emotionless.
In recent years, pizza has been enriched with different dough, long and short leavening, mother yeast and crunch, but the philosophy is always the same: pizza is a dish for everyone, it is a POP dish. And we saw it especially in 2020, the year in which we all tried to make it at home and even the most reluctant eventually gave up, posting their pizza on social networks.
So let’s get to the heart of the matter, the must-haves to prepare an excellent homemade pizza.
FLOUR
It is essential to choose excellent flour, being the raw material at the base of the dish. It’s not really a tool, but if you make a bad choice, there is no tool that can save you. So choose wheat flour type 0 or 00, because they’re rich in gluten, they guarantee elastic dough and allow you to follow your recipe, always obtaining the same excellent result. For each preparation, its own flour.
WATER
And now we move on to water. I understand that you do not want the list of ingredients, but these two tips must always be strictly observed. Consider that the dough must reach a maximum temperature between 21 and 24 degrees and whether you work by hand or mechanically you will overheat it. If you do so during the hot months, the temperature of the room will also affect, so I recommend using cold water, to avoid overheating your dough too quickly. I also recommend starting from 60% hydration and then increase.
ELBOW GREASE
And now that the main ingredients are clear, let’s move on to the equipment that will guarantee you an excellent result. Among these is the elbow grease, which is not really an ingredient but a choice. Kneading by hand is very challenging but also very satisfying; it gives you the opportunity to understand how your dough develops and to experience it both by touch and by sight but also by smell. Then of course you can move on to the kneading machine, but it will always be your memory to judge your dough.
TOOLS
Two almost unobtainable tools can certainly help you: a scale and a dough cutter scraper to portion your pizza. Nothing simpler, but it’s best never take anything for granted. Dividing your dough into loaves of the same weight will ensure homogeneous leavening and uniform baking.
THE CONTAINER
If you can, get a container with a lid that is suitable for maturing in the fridge, like the pizza dough white boxes used by pizza makers. Some of them are also suitable for a home kitchen and will guarantee an excellent preservation of the dough in an environment such as the refrigerator, which tends to dry them. They are also suitable for transport.
THE REFRACTORY STONE
And finally you get to the baking. By now we have super ovens that help us to reach high temperatures, even though we will never reach those of the pizzeria oven. For this reason there are refractory stone tiles available on the market, which allow increasing the temperature once inserted inside the oven. In this way your pizza will be tastier, crisper and perfectly baked, just like in a pizzeria.
And now you know what? Six tips are neither a few nor many; they are the right number to increase your awareness and the necessary stimulus to equip yourself a little bit. And then, keep in mind one thing: the best pizza is the one that comes from the heart and you alone are gifted with this tool.
