Franco Manca Pizza Dough

Makes 6 x 10” pizzas

Ingredients

1 litre/1¾ pint tepid water (25C)

1.650kg/3lb 9oz strong white flour

14g/½ oz fast action dried yeast or

28g/1 oz fresh yeast*

40g/1½oz salt

30ml/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

* If you have a sourdough starter, use 70g

This is a two-stage recipe. Time it perfectly by making the first stage, the “poolish”, the night before, then taking it from the fridge in the late afternoon of the following day so you can have pizza for supper.

• Put the water, 1kg/2lb 4oz flour and half of the yeast in a large bowl and mix to a wet batter. Transfer this batter to a sealed container and refrigerate for 12-16 hours — this helps the dough “ripen” and develop slowly.

• Remove poolish from the fridge and leave at room temp for 1 hour.

• Add 40g/1½oz salt and the remaining yeast (if using sourdough add 7g dried yeast/14g fresh yeast at this stage) then add 600g/1lb5oz of flour and knead by hand for 4-5 minutes, adding the olive oil towards the end. Leave in a warm (about 25C) place covered by a damp cloth for 1 hour.

• Cut dough into pieces (a good size is 200-250g) and mould into balls on a lightly floured table. Place the balls on a tray leaving 6-7cm gaps, and cover.

• After 1 hour these are ready to be shaped. Preheat the oven to the highest temperature — about 260C or more. Flour the table; take a ball of dough and flatten it with both hands, pushing it out to a 6in circle. Further stretch the dough by pushing it into an oblong shape, turning it and pushing it out into a circle. This is called “opening” the dough.

• You can use a rolling pin but this is the more authentic way. You can also try flipping it from one hand to the other, opening it as you go — this is the professional method.

• Once the dough is open, smear with a little canned, puréed tomato seasoned with salt.

• Follow with mozzarella, a sprinkling of oregano, then other ingredients if adding. “White” pizza is made by smearing the dough with mashed buffalo ricotta in place of tomato.

• Flour the peel or baking tray and slide the pizza on to it. Bake for about 10 minutes or until the edges of the pizza are puffed and light brown, and the underside is crisp.