Pizza continued: Shaping, assembling and cooking the pizza
Back to previous page: Preparing the Sauce and Toppings
Now it's time to cook. This is the tricky part: getting this absolutely right takes a lot of practice. Fortunately, it's not so hard to make a slightly wonky looking pizza that tastes every bit as good as the perfectly symmetrical offering produced by professionals. There are also a few cheats you can use to help the process along.
Before we shape the dough, we must think about how we are going to transfer it to the hot pan for cooking. The drier and firmer your dough is, the easier it will be to shape and transfer. Unfortunately, this will make it the base dense, rather than light and crisp as we want it to be. On the other hand, a wet dough tends to stick to your hands, the worktop, and the peel. The most obvious way round this is to flour everything thoroughly: however, this flour sticks to the bottom of the pizza and burns on the pan, giving a nasty acrid taste. Fortunately, there are two "magic" tricks that will enable you to get round this problem.
The first magic trick involves buying an extra gadget called a Super Peel from the nice people at superpeel.com. (I have no commercial link with superpeel.com, I'm just a happy customer.) The superpeel is like a normal wooden peel with a wide slit near the handle end. A cotton cloth is passed through this slit, folded back over the end of the peel, and clipped back to itself making a continuous look. To transfer your pizza base, you simply slide the peel under the base while simultaneously pulling back on the cloth, and the dough - no matter how sticky - will be "magically" lifted on to the peel. Reverse the process to put the base on to the hot pan, and you're done! This truly is a wonderful tool that has made a big difference to the ease with which I can make pizza; look at the video on the Super Peel site - it really is that easy in real life. The Super Peel is made in the USA, but they will ship them around the world (probably expensive, but if you make pizza every week as I do, it's a very worthwhile investment).
If you can't manage to get a Super Peel, all is not lost: there is another trick to help you avoid the sticking base/burnt flour dilemma. For each pizza you are going to make, cut out an circle of non-stick baking parchment, about 2 cm wider than the pizza is going to be. Then as you shape the base, gradually transfer it from the worktop to the parchment. The base and parchment will then easily slide on and off the peel to the hot pan. Once it is on the pan, the parchment will start to smoke and char after a few seconds (which demonstrates how much hotter the pan is than your oven would be). At this point, quickly slide the peel back under the base and parchment and remove from the pan. The base will have cooked sufficiently to stop being sticky, so you can easily remove the parchment. If it's not actually burnt you can use it again, otherwise bin it. Then slide the base back on to the pan until it is completely cooked.
Now that we know how we're going to move the base to the pan, you need to preheat your pan and grill/broiler. I always put my pan underneath the grill and turn the grill on to its maximum setting so the pan starts to warm up gradually and uniformly, just to be sure I don't cause any drastic thermal shock. Once the handle of the pan feels hot to the touch, transfer it (use oven gloves!) to the stove top and put it on a medium heat. It is actually possible to get your pan too hot, causing the base to burn on the bottom before it is sufficiently cooked through.
Shaping the base
The traditional way to shape a pizza base is by stretching it gently over the back of your fists and rotating it until you have a perfect circle which is thin in the middle, with a thicker crust, or cornichon, around the edge. When the dough is sufficiently stretched, you drop it on your peel, which has been lightly dusted with semolina flour, leaving a perfectly circular base ready for topping and cooking. This, of course, takes a great deal of practice.
An easier way to shape the base is as follows: first, gently tip the dough ball from the bowl on to the floured work top with the aid of a flexible rubber or plastic spatula. Roll it in flour until completely covered, then dust off any excess flour. Gently press the ball down into a thick disc, about 10 - 12 cm diameter. Using floured fingertips, gently make a circle of indentations about 1 or 2 cm from the edge, marking the boundary between crust and centre.
Now, taking care not to stick finger ends into the dough, lift the edge nearest to you off the worktop and, delicately holding the section that is going to form the crust, pass it round from one hand to the other, a bit like turning a car steering wheel, using the weight of the dough to stretch it until you have a thin circle about 30 cm diameter. As it gets thinner, you can let the lower edge rest on the worktop so it doesn't tear. The edge section should be 1 - 2 cm wide and around 1 cm thick, the central section should be around 3mm thick. Don't worry if you don't get a perfect circle, it will still taste wonderful. If you stretch it too thin and the dough tears, you should pull it back together to patch up any holes before cooking. With some practice, you will get to the point where you can shape the second base while the first is cooking (just make sure you keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn).
The Char's the Star!
Slide the base on to the hot pan, using whichever of the above methods is appropriate. The dough should quickly start to rise, blister, and bubble. If you have used baking parchment, don't forget to remove it after a few seconds, when it starts to smoke. As the base is cooking, keep lifting up the edge with a spatula to check how well done it is. You should be aiming for lots of small char marks where the base is really well cooked but not quite burnt or carbonised like burnt toast.
This charring is what gives the pizza its deep, complex, smoky taste so for the very best results it's important not to undercook it. As the bottom surface cooks, the top will turn darker and slightly translucent, much like you see when cooking pancakes/crepes. After a few seconds it should be dry enough to move freely on the pan, so you can move it round with a spatula to get the cooking as even as possible. If the bottom surface is cooked but the top still looks raw, do not worry - the top will continue to cook under the grill. If this does happen, try a slightly lower heat next time.
When the base is cooked, put on the toppings. First, smear a couple of tablespoons of tomato sauce thinly over the base, leaving a border of 1 - 2cm for the crust. Remember, less is more: the dough should be showing through the sauce, as shown in the picture.
Then place your cheese and other toppings on top, sprinkle a little dried oregano, grind some black pepper, grate on some parmesan if you like, drizzle a little olive oil, and slide it under the grill.
Remember if you are using garlic or basil that these toppings will cook quicker than the cheese and the crust, so cook the pizza until nearly done first, then remove it from the grill, add the garlic/basil, and put it back under until it's finished. As the cheese melts and the crust browns, you might need to turn the pizza round to get it to cook evenly as most grills have hot spots. It is cooked when the cheese is completely melted and is starting to bubble and brown. The crust should be well browned, showing signs of charring in places. If in any doubt, err on the side of more cooking rather than less.
I hope you enjoy making, and of course, eating this pizza. I'd love to hear about your results, see photos, or answer any questions you have in the forum (see link on left).