Roman-style pizza
For pasta
1 kg Italian “00” flour or all-purpose flour
30 g fresh yeast
500 ml water
20 g salt
10 g sugar
For the dressing
300 g mozzarella cheese
7 Leaves of basil
500 g canned tomatoes
80 g desalted caper
20 anchovy in oil
salt
extra virgin olive oil
Step 1
Make a mound of flour on the working table and pour the yeast you have melted in a little water in the centre.
Start kneading, add the salt. Knead until you have a smooth dough that is elastic in texture. Set aside for a few minutes, then separate into small rolls and allow to leaven.
Step 2
Once the dough has leavened, roll out into regular-shaped disks.
Step 3
Spoon the fresh tomato sauce onto the disks, raw and pureed, season with salt, pepper and basil.
Step 4
Sprinkle diced mozzarella on the disks and drizzle some olive oil over them.
Step 5
Drop anchovies and capers evenly over the disks, in oven at 220°C.
Step 6
Remove from oven when outer surface of the dough is crisp and golden.
Chef’s Tips
The quantities to prepare the dough here indicated could slightly vary according to type of flour you will use. So keep some extra flour and water aside, in order to add them to the dough when necessary to gain the right consistency, which is a smooth and elastic dough, easy to clean off the hands and the working table.
Food History
Pizza is an ancient dish: the Etruscans, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans all made their version of flat bread, pizza’s ancestor. In addition, there are records showing that risen dough was cooked in various ways, served with both sweet and savory ingredients, throughout both the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
However, the recipe that made pizza famous throughout the world comes from 17th century Naples. In fact, in 1730 tomato sauce was added to the typical Neapolitan flat bread, making it one of a kind. From that moment forth, small shops began opening around the city that serves pizza with tomato sauce. This dish was a hit among all social classis, from the peasants to the kings.
Queen Marie Caroline of Bourbon, for example, consort of the head of the Kingdom of Naples, loved pizza so much that she commissioned for a pizza oven to be built in the palace of San Ferdinando so that the court cooks could make pizza. Only at the beginning of the 20th century did Neapolitan pizza being to spread throughout Italy and, thanks to Italian emigrants, throughout the rest of the world. This is how it arrives in the US, especially in the cities with a high number of Italian Americans, like New York, San Francisco and Chicago, Over the course of just a short time, it became one of the most well-known and loved Italian foods in the world.
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