Pizza Margherita

Preparation

1. Step 1

   Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Place a pizza stone on a rack in the lower third of the oven.

   Step 2

   Divide the dough in half, then form each half into a flat round and let it rest on top of your knuckles on both raised fists. Use your knuckles to pull out and stretch the round into a thin circle. Place the dough circle on your work surface, and press it out as thin as you can with your fingertips.

   Step 3

   Place the dough circle on a flour-sprinkled pizza peel-paddle (or, if you do not have one, on the parchment-covered back of a baking sheet). Spread about half of the sauce on the dough, using just enough sauce to dot about half of the pizza’s surface, leaving a lip around the edge. In the spaces where you haven’t dotted sauce, lay half of the cheese. Drizzle with half of the olive oil. Slide the pizza off the pizza peel or the baking sheet with parchment onto the pizza stone.

   Step 4

   Bake the pizza until the cheese is melted and bubbly and the crust is browned and crisp on the bottom, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven, and repeat with remaining dough, sauce, cheese, and olive oil.

2. notes

   Step 5

   A pizza stone, as it is called, is usually a rectangular tablet made of stone or terra-cotta that you place in your oven. It helps make good crusty pizza and focaccia because it heats to high temperature and disperses the heat evenly over the bottom of the pizza, cooking evenly and crisp. A pizza stone should not be washed, since it is porous; you just scrape and brush off any remaining debris. If you do not have a stone, baking the pizza on a baking sheet or in a cast-iron skillet will work, too.