Making pizza at home is actually simpler than you might expect. The secret to great pizza is fresh high-quality ingredients that make a fantastic homemade dough, and sauce and toppings that are made from scratch with fresh ingredients as well.

Makes dough for 2 pizzas, each one about 12 inches in diameter:

300 mL of warm water

500 grams flour, type “00”*

10-12 grams of fresh yeast or 3 or 4 grams of dried yeast.

3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon sugar

*A note on the flour: In Italy, “00”, or “doppio zero,” flour is the most highly-refined and finest-ground flour available. Not available where you are (or too expensive?). An all-purpose flour should work just as well!

INSTRUCTIONS

To prepare the dough for the pizza, start pouring the flour into a large mixer bowl.

• In a small bowl add luke-warm water and then add the yeast, mixing gently until the yeast is dissolved.

• Turn the mixer on with the hook mounted on medium-to-low speed and start pouring the water little by little, making sure you wait for the previous dose to be absorbed by the flour.

• Keep kneading until the dough gets smooth and homogeneous. When it gets to that point, keep kneading for about 15/20 minutes.

• Add the salt and keep the mixer running until the salt is fully combined with the dough.

• When the salt is fully absorbed, remove the dough from the mixer and knead with your hands until you get a large ball.

• Place it in a large bowl, cover with foil or a clean humid cloth, then let it rise in the oven with the light on.

• Wait until the mixture has at least doubled in volume (after 1.5 h). Ideally, you should let it triple in size (at least 3 hours).

• Once the dough has risen, transfer it on a work surface.

• Divide it into 2 equal parts and shape them as balls using your hands. Once done, cover them with a clean cloth and let them stand for 30 minutes at room temperature, before using them to make your pizzas.

Preheat Oven and Pizza Stone: Place the pizza stone on the center (or top third) rack of your oven, and preheat the oven and pizza stone to 250 C 550 degrees Fahrenheit (for at least 30-45 minutes). If your oven does not go up to 250C or 550 F degrees, heat it to the absolute maximum temperature that it can go. If it can heat to higher than 250C or 550 F degrees Fahrenheit, even better!

Assemble the Pizza: Sprinkle the pizza peel (alternatively, you can use the back of a baking sheet – but it will be harder!) with a tablespoon of semolina. Gently stretch one ball of pizza dough into roughly a 12-inch circle (don’t worry if it’s not perfectly uniform). If the dough springs back or is too elastic, allow it to rest for an additional five minutes. The edges of the dough can be slightly thicker, but make sure the centre of the dough is thin (you should be able to see some light through it if you held it up). Gently transfer the dough onto the semolina-dusted pizza peel or baking sheet.

Cover with your favourite sauce and toppings!! Tomato Sauce and Mozzarella Cheese are in my view a must. My fav is Ham and Pineapple, then apparently these are the Top 10 Toppings!

• Pepperoni.

• Mushrooms.

• Onions.

• Sausage.

• Bacon.

• Extra cheese.

• Black olives.

• Green peppers.

Enjoy!