Pizza!

Everyone loves pizza. If you really thoroughly think about it, is there even someone in the whole world who dislikes it? I'm pretty sure that the answer is a loud and clear NO.

Now the thing is, what do people mean by saying "pizza"? People all over the world, especially out of Italy, have a different idea regarding which characteristics a proper pizza should have. We Italians have some kind of basic rules which define a pizza, for example about the thickness or the toppings. Personally I like each and every kind of pizza, but someone claims it has to follow those basic rules.

Everybody usually goes to Italian restaurants or Pizzeria places to eat pizza. Ever since I was very little, I was lucky enough to have a father who loved to prepare it - he was and still is really good at it. So when my Erasmus friends asked me to prepare pizza margherita for them, I had to use my father's recipe.

Ingredients

For the pizza dough

• 4 cups flour
• 1 ounce yeast
• water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons olive oil

For the topping

• Mozzarella
• Tomato sauce
• Salt
• 4 teaspoons olive oil

Directions

Put the flour on a dish and shape it like a small volcano, with a hole in the middle. Like the one in this picture:

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Put the oil and 5 tablespoons water inside the volcano and start to knead the dough. Do not worry if it looks heterogeneous, it has to be this way for the moment. In the meantime, put the yeast in a glass of boiling water until it melts completely. When it has melt, stir the water-and-yeast mix in the dough you already have slowly, while kneading it. Do this until you get a smooth dough, like the one in this picture:

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Place it in a large bowl and cover it with a humid cloth. Let it rest, possibly close to a heating source - like a fireplace, or a radiator. If you have worked the dough well, it should expand and become at least as big as the bowl it is placed in.

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If you've worked the dough really well, it may expand at the point where it becomes bigger than the bowl itself.

Sever the dough in four pieces - so you're going to get four pizzas - knead all the pieces again a little bit and then cover three of them. Take one piece and start flattening it with your hands, then go on flattening it with a rolling pin. Give it a round shape. For those of you who are familiar with preparing pizza doughs, take the dough with your hands and twist it while making it float in order to flatten it even more. If you're not one of those amazingly talented people just go on flattening it with the rolling pin - that's what I did. When the dough is thick enough, work on the edge to make it a bit thicker - the crust has to be thicker than the middle.

Now, with a tablespoon, spread the tomato sauce on the dough. Add salt and a teaspoon olive oil. Take the mozzarella and grind it to very small pieces, then place the mozzarella shreds homogeneously on the pizza.

Preheat the oven at 210° Celsius - 410° Fahrenheit - and when it has warm up put the pizza inside. After more or less 10 minutes take it out - the magic has happened! You have prepared a pizza.

Suggestion: If you wish to give it a special touch, place a couple basil leaves in the middle or all around it.

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I bet you have a sudden lust for pizza now. So go and prepare it and if you like, let me know if my father's recipe worked out for you!

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