Pizza Margherita

Stir the yeast into the lukewarm water and leave it for 5 minutes. Put 500 g of the flour in a large bowl, add the yeast water and mix to a rough dough. Add 10 g of the salt and knead on a lightly floured surface for 10–12 minutes, until the dough is smooth, elastic and springs back when pressed. It starts sticky: resist adding much flour, since a soft, slightly tacky dough gives the lightest crust. Shape it into a ball and return it to the bowl.

• wheat flour500 g
• water325 mL
• yeast1 tsp
• salt10 g

Cover the bowl and leave the dough at room temperature for 1½–2 hours, until it has doubled in size and is full of bubbles. Tip it onto a work surface dusted with a little of the remaining flour and divide it into four pieces of about 210 g each. Shape each piece into a tight ball by tucking the edges underneath. Place the balls well apart on a floured tray, cover them and leave for 45–60 minutes more, until they have puffed up and feel soft.

• wheat flour50 g

At least 45 minutes before baking, put a heavy baking tray or pizza stone on the top shelf and heat the oven to 250 °C, or as high as it goes. Crush the tomatoes in a bowl with your hands, removing any hard core, and stir in 2 g of salt. Do not cook them: the sauce cooks on the pizza. Tear the mozzarella into small pieces and pat them dry with kitchen paper, since wet cheese makes a soggy centre.

• San Marzano tomato400 g
• mozzarella300 g
• salt2 g

Work one ball at a time, on a well-floured surface. Press from the centre outwards with your fingertips, leaving the rim untouched, then lift and stretch the dough over your knuckles to about 28 cm wide and thin in the middle. Do not use a rolling pin: it knocks out the air that makes the crust puff. Spread about 90 g of tomato over the base, leaving a 2 cm rim bare, and scatter with about 75 g of mozzarella.

• San Marzano tomato400 g
• mozzarella300 g

Slide the pizza onto the hot tray or stone and bake at 250 °C for 6–8 minutes, until the rim is puffed and spotted with brown and the cheese is bubbling and just starting to colour. Take it out, scatter with torn basil leaves, and drizzle with a little olive oil, about half a tablespoon. Bake the remaining pizzas the same way, one at a time. Let the oven recover its heat for a minute between pizzas, and cut into slices when they are no longer too hot to handle.

• fresh basil10 g
• olive oil2 tbsp