Chez Nous
Pizza Dinner

Sicilian Pizza

Spencer Reynolds

Directions

Cooking Instructions:
Combine flour, salt, yeast, and 2 tablespoons olive oil in bowl of stand mixer. Whisk to combine. Add water to mixer and mix on medium speed until it comes together and no dry flour remains. Increase speed to medium-high and mix until the dough is stretchy and smooth, about 6 minutes. The dough should is usually pretty sticky. Might need a spatula to get it out of the mixing bowl and onto the pan.** if you don't have rapid rise yeast, activate the yeast with 1/4 of the water, warm in a cup for 5 minutes before adding with the rest of the warm water.

Pour 4-5 tablespoons olive oil into rimmed baking sheet and spread over entire inner surface with hands. Transfer dough to the oiled 13- by 18-inch rimmed baking sheet, spread the dough out a bit. Cover the baking sheet with plastic wrap, or just throw it in a trash bag(the cheap kind that don't have anti odor =) ) and allow dough to rise at room temperature until it has spread out to touch a couple edges of the rim of baking sheet, about 2 hours.

Instructions for the sauce while waiting: 
Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat until shimmering. Add garlic, oregano, and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring, until softened and aromatic, about 1 minute. Add tomatoes and juices from the can. Using a pastry cutter or a potato masher, break up tomatoes into fine chunks. Stir in sugar. Bring to a bare simmer and allow to cook for about 15 minutes to let flavors meld. Season to taste with salt. Set aside and allow to cool slightly.


30 minutes before baking, adjust oven rack to the bottom (Getting it closer to the heating element gets a nice crispy bottom... just don't burn it) and preheat oven to 550°F. Carefully remove plastic wrap from pizza dough. Using oiled hands and being as gentle as possible to maintain air bubbles, push and stretch the dough into the corners of the pan by pressing out from the center and lifting each corner and stretching it beyond the edge of the pan. It should pull back until the pan is just filled with dough. If needed, allow to rise for another 30 mins.

Top pizza as desired and bake until bottom is crisp and top surface is bubbling, Usually just under 15 mins, but depending on the oven it could go a hair longer. Allow to cool at room temperature for 5 minutes.

Reference material
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/07/basic-square-pan-pizza-dough-recipe-sicilian-recipe.html

Ingredients

Dough
Sauce:
Toppings