This is a recipe for a fluffy pizza, which differs from the ‘pizza alla romana’ in its high and fluffy texture. I use this recipe to make fried or baked pizzas, as well as all the preparations that require a pizza base, such as ‘parigina’ or ‘torta rustica’, which I like to call a cold pizza. Pizza has become a real obsession for me: I love making it and, above all, eating it. When you are the one making the pizza, using your own ingredients and tastes, the satisfaction is absolute.

Interestingly, there are many variations of pizza: everyone has their own mysterious trick that makes the pizza taste better, fantastic and so on… My only trick is to use good products, starting with the flour. It may sound trivial, but believe me, it is important to use the right flour.

I have tried many flours, but the one that I have found to be the best for this preparation is the ‘Pizza & Focaccia’ flour from Molini Spigadoro. It is a product that deserves my recommendation, even though no one pays me to say so. Another product I take care to choose is extra virgin olive oil, which must be of good quality.

This pizza recipe, as I mentioned in the ‘Pa’rigin’ article, was discovered by chance a long time ago, but since then I cannot do without it. It is a little longer than usual because it requires four reinforcing folds: three every 15 minutes and one after 10 minutes.

Ingredients

• 500g Molini Spigadoro Pizza & Focaccia Flour
• 400g warm water
• 6g brewer’s yeast
• 15g of salt
• 15g extra virgin olive oil

Directions

• Now it’s time to get your hands dirty, take a very large container and pour in the flour, the water in which we previously dissolved our brewer’s yeast (if you want to use dehydrated yeast, you don’t need to dissolve it in water), mix everything with your hands or with a spoon if we don’t want to get dirty.
• When the dough begins to form, add the salt and continue to mix, when the salt is well absorbed, add the oil and knead until the oil is well absorbed.
• Now that we have the dough, cover it with a previously wet and wrung out cloth and leave it in the oven with the light off for 15 minutes, after 15 minutes take it out and make the first fold, taking the outer side and bringing it towards the centre, then turn the container and repeat the operation 3 times, replace the cloth and leave it for another 15 minutes and repeat the fold 3 more times.
• After the last fold, leave the dough to rise for 5 hours. Then take the dough and place it on the work surface and make the last fold, called the slap and fold, by lifting the dough with both hands and folding it forward. The first thing you will notice is that the dough is no longer relaxed, but actually gains strength. Now let’s shape the dough into the balls we need and let it rest for another hour before we use it, so that it can form those bubbles we love so much.

Notes

• The folds for the pizza can either be slapped and folded or, as in the recipe, by bringing the flaps towards the centre for all sides of the dough ball.