Sicilian Pizza

(from castro15’s recipe box)

Categories: Pizza/flatbread

Ingredients

  • For the dough:
  • 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons active yeast
  • 3 1/2 cups bread flour
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • For the sauce:
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 4 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 2 teaspoons oregano
  • 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (or to taste)
  • 1 (14 ounce) can whole peeled (or diced) tomatoes
  • 1/2 teaspoon sugar
  • salt to taste
  • For the pizza:
  • 1 pound mozzarella cheese, deli sliced
  • 8 ounces pepperoni, sliced
  • 1 ounce parmigiano reggiano (parmesan) (or pecorino romano), grated

Directions

  1. For the dough:
  2. Mix the water, sugar, olive oil, and yeast in a bowl and let it sit until the yeast foams up, about 5-10 minutes.
  3. Add the flour and salt, mix to form a dough, place it on a floured surface and kneed for 5 minutes until the dough has a uniform texture that is not super sticky and not so dry that it is crumbling, before placing it in an oiled bowl, covering with plastic wrap, and letting sit, at room temperature, until it doubles in size, about 1-3 hours. (You can let the dough sit overnight!)
  4. Spread the olive oil over the bottom of a large jelly pan (about 12 inches by 18 inches), place the dough in the pan and gently spread it out with your fingers to cover most of the pan before wrapping the top in plastic wrap and letting it sit while you make the sauce.
  5. For the sauce:
  6. Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat, add the garlic, oregano, and red pepper flakes and cook until fragrant, about a minute, before adding the tomatoes, bringing to a simmer and adding sugar and salt to taste.
  7. Puree the sauce in a food processor.
  8. For the pizza:
  9. Unwrap the dough in the pan, gently spread the dough to cover the pan (if required), place the slices of mozzarella over the top of the dough, followed by the sauce, pepperoni and parmesan.
  10. Bake on the bottom rack of a preheated 450F/230C oven until the top is bubbly and the bottom is nice and golden brown and crispy, about 10-15 minutes.
  11. Option: You can use all-purpose flour instead of bread flour.

  12. Note: The dough will rise better in slightly warmer than room temperature so a well air conditioned room is not the best. If your place is cool, you can warm your oven at 200F for 5 minutes and let it sit in the now slightly warm oven (after turning it off).

  13. Option: Top the pizza with your favourite pizza toppings!

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