Welcome to Buona Domenica, a weekly newsletter of Italian home cooking and baking. I’m a journalist, cooking teacher, occasional tour guide, and author of eight cookbooks on Italian cuisine.
This week’s newsletter features a recipe for Sicilian-Style Veggie-Loaded Pizza, including the recipe for Sicilian-style pizza dough, from the new cookbook Pizza Night: Deliciously Doable Recipes for Pizza and Salad, by Alexandra Stafford. For paid subscribers, I am giving away a copy of the book—out just a couple of weeks and already a New York Times bestseller! (Details on the giveaway are below in the body of the newsletter.)
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Gabriella Marchetti made good homemade pizza. She did this several times a year, though I wish it had been more. She would start the dough in the afternoon, coating it in olive oil and letting it rise in a bowl on the stove top.
The dough was simple: flour, water, salt, and active dried yeast. Her sauce was equally simple—raw puréed tomatoes, olive oil, a crushed garlic clove, and salt. As afternoon turned to evening, the bready perfume of the rising dough traveled through the house, along with the alchemic aroma of the marinating tomatoes, garlic, and oil. By the time the pizza was in the oven, we were all ravenous.
Besides her basic tomato pie, which was topped with mozzarella cheese and a generous sprinkle of Parmigiano cheese, our mom also made a “white” pizza (no sauce) that was spread with a layer of deeply caramelized onions and (again) lots of Parmigiano cheese; and one with thinly sliced tomato, rosemary and (yep) Parmigiano. And one with potatoes and parm.
(Here I must pause to thank my sister, Maria, who, when I called to ask her, remembered many more of these pizza topping details that I did.)
Our mother’s pizza was not perfect. Often it was slightly underdone in the middle, and the rim didn’t bubble up bodaciously or char seductively. But the crust was light and the bottom crispy from olive oil, and whenever she made it, it was a treat.
It’s fair to say that the bar for great homemade pizza has been raised significantly since my mom was turning hers out in her central New Jersey kitchen. There are special pizza flours; there are special pizza tools, and techniques like the slow, cold rise of the dough in the fridge; there are portable pizza ovens. I make pizza every couple of months, and while I’ve worked intermittently to improve my game, mostly by playing around with types of flour, flour-to-water ratios, and quantity of yeast and rising times, I have not (with one exception) given pizza the attention it deserves.
Lucky for me, and for all pizza lovers,
has. Her new book, Pizza Night: Deliciously Doable Recipes for Pizza and Salad, is all about making great pizza at home, no matter your arsenal of pizza-making equipment (or lack thereof) or your skill level.Ali is the creator of the popular recipe blog Alexandra’s Kitchen and the author of the cookbook Bread, Toast, Crumbs. She also writes the newsletter
here on Substack. What I love about Pizza Night is how flexible and accessible the recipes are.“Pizza, at heart, is a simple food: dough, topped in various ways, baked in a hot oven,” she writes in the first chapter. She lists a variety of tools that can improve the process—dough-proving containers, baking pans, a baking steel or stone—but in the end, she says, it comes down to ingredients. “If you start with bad flour, neither a three-day ferment nor a fancy pizza oven will make your pizza taste any better.”
The book is organized seasonally, and for each pizza recipe there is also an accompanying salad recipe, a really clever touch. Four types of dough are featured: “Neapolitanish,” for that classic, round, bubbly-crust pie; thin-crust dough, for Roman, New Haven-style, and grilled pizza; pan pizza dough for Sicilian, Detroit-style, Grandma-style, and cast-iron pizzas; and dough for gluten-free pizza. Within each dough recipe there is lots of wiggle room. Got time? Let the dough ferment for three days in the fridge. Pressed for time? Increase the amount of yeast and your dough can be ready in a few hours. Do you keep a sourdough starter? There are instructions for converting the dough recipes to sourdough. I love how Ali has laid all of this out so clearly in her instructions.
I am tempted by so many recipes in Pizza Night: Grilled Pizza with Oven-Dried Tomatoes, Mascarpone, and Basil Pesto; Puttanesca Pan Pizza; Grandma-Style Pizza with Potato and Rosemary; Clam Pizza with Garlic, Olive Oil, and Pecorino; and, as a former Detroiter, Detroit-Style Pepperoni Pizza. But the one that I wanted to try first was the Sicilian-Style Veggie-Loaded Pizza, a large sheet-pan pizza with a tall, tender crust with a focaccia-like texture, and a topping of tomato sauce, cheese, mushrooms, bell pepper, and red onion. That’s the recipe I’m sharing here.
Apparently, I was really looking forward to this book because I pre-ordered two copies, which I did not realize until both arrived on the same day, in separate deliveries. Rather than return one, I am using the opportunity to give away a copy to a paid subscriber. To enter, just leave a comment telling me something about your favorite pizza. It can be one you made, a pizza you had at a restaurant, a slice that you had once on the street. Whatever your pizza story, I want to hear it. Comments are open to everyone—I’d love to hear from all of you—but only paid subscribers will be entered into the giveaway. The winner will be announced in next Sundays’ newsletter.
“As I get older, I love pizza more and more,” Ali writes in the book’s introduction. “Pizza is what I find myself dreaming about before bed, a subject I never tire of reading about, and the one food I plan trips around. Because time has proven, pizza is worth it.”
Amen to that.
RECIPE: Sicilian-Style Veggie-Loaded Pizza
This is an appropriately indulgent pizza, meant to be shared and enjoyed till the last cheesy, veggie-packed bite is gone. The crust is tender and high and full of bubbles, like focaccia, with lots of flavor—especially if you give it the full, slow rise in the refrigerator. The recipe calls for low-moisture mozzarella or a mix of mozzarella, Monterey Jack, and cheddar. I used a combination of low-moisture mozzarella, smoked mozzarella, and cheddar and my family and I loved it.
A baking steel or pizza stone is not necessary to make good homemade pizza. But if you have one, you’ll want to use it. They are excellent conductors of heat and, when preheated in the oven, quickly transfer heat to the pizza as it bakes, causing the dough to “spring” and produce those lovely pizza bubbles. You can find out more about baking steels here. I recently bought an Emile Henry pizza stone and love it. It’s lighter than a baking steel and most other pizza stones and I’ve found it conducts heat well.
If you have any leftover pizza, store it in a tightly lidded container in the fridge. To reheat, place the pizza on a baking sheet and bake at 350° F for about 10 minutes, until heated through (no need to use a baking steel or pizza stone to reheat).
Recipe from Pizza Night: Deliciously Doable Recipes for Pizza and Salad, by Alexandra Stafford.
Makes one sheet-pan pizza, to serve 6 or more
INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus more as needed
1 (1,050-gram) ball Sicilian-Style Pizza Dough (see recipe below)
Toppings
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
8 ounces button or baby bella mushrooms, sliced
Kosher or fine sea salt
1 bell pepper (any color), diced
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced (1 cup)
1 heaping cup Simple Tomato Sauce (I used my standard recipe); or your favorite
12 ounces grated cheese, such as low-moisture whole-milk mozzarella or a mix of Monterey Jack, chedder, and mozzarella (about 3 cups)
1/2 cup thinly sliced pepperoncini (pickled banana pepper slices)
1/2 cup black, green, or purple olives, sliced or cut in half
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Prepare the dough. Grease a 12- x 16-inch grandma-style pan or a 13- x 18-inch rimmed baking sheet [I used the latter] with the softened butter. Pour the olive oil into the center of the pan. Place the dough ball in the oil. Turn to coat it if you’re able to; otherwise lightly oil the top of the dough. Let it rest, uncovered, until doubled in volume, 3 to 4 hours.
2. Stretch the dough. Lightly oil your hands and use your fingertips to dimple and stretch the dough to fit the pan. If the dough resists, let it rest for 30 minutes, then stretch it again using the same technique. Repeat the stretching and resting until the dough fits the pan.
3. Prepare the oven. If you have a baking steel or pizza stone (see headnote), place it on a rack in the middle or lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 500° F. (You can also use an overturned sheet pan in place of a steel or stone.)
4. Parbake the dough. Using oiled hands, dimple the dough one last time, taking care not to dimple the perimeter, which will help the dough bake more evenly. Transfer the pan to the oven (and place on the baking steel/stone/heated sheet pan if using) and bake until evenly golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven. Leave the oven on and lower the temperature to 475° F.
5. Prepare the toppings. In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over high heat until it shimmers. Add the mushrooms and let set undisturbed for about 1 minute. Season with salt, then stir and cook until the mushrooms are beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.
Add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil to the skillet and stir in the bell pepper and onion. Cook until slightly softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Season with salt and transfer to the bowl with the mushrooms. Toss to combine. Taste and adjust with salt if needed.
6. Top the pizza. Spread the tomato sauce evenly over the dough all the way to the edges. Top with the grated cheese. Spread the vegetable mixture over the cheese along with the sliced pepperoncini and olives.
7. Bake the pizza. Return the pan to the oven and bake until the cheese is melted and just beginning to brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and let the pizza rest for 5 minutes in the pan.
Run a knife or spatula around the pan’s edges and carefully remove the pizza from the pan to a cutting board. Use a serrated knife to cut the pizza roughly into 20 squares.
RECIPE: Sicilian-Style Pizza Dough
This dough produces a thick, focaccia-like crust with lovely air holes and a tender-chewy texture. As with most pizza dough, this is best if given the time to rise slowly in the refrigerator over a couple of days to develop its flavor. If, however, you would like to make the dough and pizza on the same day, follow the instructions in the NOTE at the end of the recipe.
Recipe from Pizza Night: Deliciously Doable Recipes for Pizza and Salad, by Alexandra Stafford.
Makes one large (13- x 18-inch) Sicilian-style pizza crust, or two Detroit- or Grandma-style pizzas (recipes for pizzas using those crusts are in the book).
INGREDIENTS
550 g (about 4 1/4 cups) bread flour or all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting [I used half King Arthur bread flour and Hayden Flour Mills pizza flour]
15 g salt (about 2 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt)
2 g (1/2 teaspoon) instant yeast (not rapid-rise; I use SAF Gold Instant Yeast)
485 g (a heaping 2 cups) cold water (about 60° F)
Extra-virgin olive oil
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Mix the dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and yeast. Add the water and use a spatula to mix until the water is absorbed and the ingredients form a wet, sticky dough ball. Cover the bowl with a towel and let rest for at least 15 minutes and up to 30 minutes.
2. Stretch and fold. Fill a small bowl with water. Dip one hand into the bowl of water, then use your dry hand to stabilize the bowl while you grab an edge of the dough with your wet hand, pull up, and fold the dough towards the center. Repeat this stretching and folding motion 8 to 10 times, turning the bowl 90 degrees after each set. By the end, the dough should be smoother and more cohesive, though still very wet. [Note: I did this step twice, letting the dough rest 30 minutes after the first folding and stretching before repeating.]
3. Let the dough rise. Pour about 1 teaspoon olive oil over the dough and use your hands to rub it all over. Cover the bowl tightly and let the dough rise at room temperature until it has nearly doubled in volume, 6 to 10 hours. The time will vary depending on the time of year and the temperature of your kitchen.
4. Shape the dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Using flour as needed, form it into a ball by grabbing the edges of the dough and pulling them towards the center to create a rough ball. Then flip the ball over, cup your hands around it, and drag it towards you, creating tension as you pull. Repeat this cupping and dragging until you have a tight ball.
5. Refrigerate. Place the ball in a large (2-quart) airtight container and put it in the fridge to rise slowly for 1 to 3 days.
* * *
NOTE: For same-day pizza, mix the dough in the morning, let it rise all day at room temperature, shape it into a ball, and use it 1 hour later.
For a 3- to 4-hour timeline: Use lukewarm water instead of cold when mixing the dough, and increase the amount of yeast to 4 grams. Let the dough rise in a warm spot for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, turn it out, form it into a ball and proceed with the recipe.
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Alla prossima,
Domenica
My Grandmother’s birthday was in July. To celebrate, the family gathered in the backyard at our home and enjoyed sheet pans of Sicilian pizza with various toppings. For the cousins, this was heaven and there was a crush of excited kids swarming the dads returning with the pizza.
Even when I have lived in the US for almost 30 years I still dream about pizza in Argentina. Its crust is high, airy and the amount of mozzarella they put there is just ridiculous, so a strand of it always gets in your chin. One of the most spectacular ones is called fugazetta, which has onions as the only topping and the mozzarella is tucked in two layers of pizza dough; divine!! I love many pizzas in the US and Italy but Argentina takes it to the next level.