This next cooking adventure sounds ambitious — homemade pizza! Yes, everything made at home, by you. I have made homemade pizza, but I struggle with finding a recipe that I’m happy with for the dough. So for this post I’m going to invite some guests to help us out: Gordon Ramsay and his wife, Ramona. They team up to make the BEST homemade pizza. And THIS Chef Gordon Ramsay happens to be my brother, is nice, and does not yell at his kitchen help.
When I asked for their help, Ramona told me that they use a tried and true recipe from The Cook’s Bible. For your inspiration, here is what the author says about making pizza…
“This chapter is… about making a good, practical recipe that will get pizza on the table in less than 90 minutes. After all, pizza is not haute cuisine, it’s everyman’s food. It should be quick and simple, well made but not fussy.”
Ramona makes the dough, and Gordon makes the toppings and cooks the pizza. Enjoy the experience.
- Dough Ingredients:
- 1 cup warm water (50 C)
- 1 packet rapid rise yeast
- 1 tbsp. sugar
- 1½ tsp. salt
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 2-3 tbsp. Olive oil for brushing mixture
- Cornmeal for dusting
- Sauce Ingredients:
- 1 can diced or crushed tomatoes
- 1 tsp. finely minced garlic
- 1 tbsp. Olive oil
- ¼ tsp. kosher salt
- ½ tsp. sugar
- Black pepper (fresh ground) to taste
- Dough Instructions:
- Place pizza stones (if using) on bottom rack of oven and heat oven to 200 F.
- Turn oven off after ten minutes. It’s important that you DO NOT FORGET to turn oven off after ten minutes or it will be too hot for the dough. Set a timer to remind yourself, or if you aren’t concerned with adding a little more time to the process, raise the dough on the counter.
- Put warm water in the bowl of a food processor fitted with either the metal or plastic blade, and sprinkle in. the yeast and sugar.
- Pulse twice to dissolve the yeast.
- Add the salt and flour and process until the mixture forms a cohesive mass. If sticky, add 2 tbsp. of flour and briefly pulse. If dry and crumbly, add 1 tbsp. water and pulse.
- Let rest for 2 minutes, then process for another 30 seconds.
- Remove dough and knead by hand on a floured surface for 1 minute or until smooth and satiny ( it will feel a bit tough at this point but it's ok).
- Form into a ball.
- Very lightly oil a large bowl with vegetable oil and place dough inside (do NOT coat dough with oil).
- Cover with plastic wrap and place bowl in warm (but turned off) oven.
- Let rise for 40 minutes or until doubled in size. (Use this time to make your sauce. and assemble toppings)
- Remove risen dough from oven and punch down to deflate.
- Remove from the bowl, divide it in half, and shape into two balls.
- Let rest for 10 minutes.
- While dough is resting preheat oven to 500 F.
- After dough has rested, place one ball of dough on lightly floured surface and shape the dough. Gordie says that resting followed by delicate handling is the key. Do not reactivate by handling a lot. Just very gently roll it out as evenly as possible, and if you start with round balls, be sure to rest it, and be very gentle, it should be soft and not stretchy and elastic.
- Lightly dust a bakers peel or stone with cornmeal.
- Place shaped crust on stone.
- Brush with a little olive oil. Then your dough is ready for topping.
- Repeat with second ball of dough.
- Sauce instructions:
- Place tomatoes in food processor.
- Add remaining ingredients.
- Pulse until blended.
- Taste and adjust the salt, sugar, and pepper to taste.
- Top dough with sauce mixture followed by your favorite toppings. It is thin crust pizza so go light with toppings.
- Baking time will vary depending on your oven. Use 500 F oven, and it can be as little as 10 minutes if you are using stones, to 15-20 if you are using pizza pans. Check the bottom by lifting with a spatula and crust should be a nice golden colour.
*I love homemade pizza and I think I’m going to give this recipe a try! Thank you Vicki for asking your brother for his help with this amazing recipe and tutorial. I am totally inspired by his photos and the delicious looking results. 🙂
Be sure to check out some of Vicki’s other recipes here…
Mozzarella Chicken and Mushroom Bake
Do you make homemade pizza? Homemade sauce? Or do you prefer placing a call and picking one up at your favorite pizza place? 😉 Leave a comment and let me know your pizza preference!
I, too, have avoided homemade pizza because the family never liked the crust. I see some different steps here that could be the secret. Thank you. I will bookmark this and hope to give it a try soon.