Nancy’s Scuola di Pizza

Preparation

1. Step 1

   Choose which pizza(s) you want to make and prepare all of the necessary ingredients.

   Step 2

   Remove the oven racks from the oven and place a pizza stone on the floor of the oven. A pizza stone absorbs and distributes heat evenly, which helps you achieve a crisp crust. Buy a quality stone that will not crack from extreme heat. In a pinch, use the underside of a thick baking sheet.

   Step 3

   Preheat the oven and the stone to 500°F, or as hot as your oven will go, for at least 1 hour.

   Step 4

   Create a pizza station that includes bowls full of olive oil, kosher salt, and the ingredients necessary to make the pizzas you have chosen.

   Step 5

   Have a bowl of flour ready for dusting your countertop.

   Step 6

   Have a bowl of semolina ready for dusting your pizza peel, a tool with a long handle and a large, flat metal or wood surface for sliding pizzas in and out of the oven.

   Step 7

   When your dough is ready, generously flour your work surface and place one round of dough in the center of the floured surface. Dust the dough lightly with flour. (If you haven’t already, right about now you will want to pour yourself a glass of wine.)

   Step 8

   Using your fingertips as if you were tapping on piano keys, gently tap on the center of the dough to flatten it slightly, leaving a 1-inch rim untouched.

   Step 9

   Pick up the dough, ball both of your fists, and with your fists facing your body, place the top edge of the dough on your fists so the round stretches downward against the backs of your hands, away from them.

   Step 10

   Move the circle of dough around your fists like the hands of a clock so the dough continues to stretch downward into a circle.

   Step 11

   When the dough has stretched to about 10 inches diameter, lay it down on the flour-dusted surface.

   Step 12

   As instructed in the individual recipes, brush the rim of the dough with olive oil and sprinkle kosher salt over the surface of the dough.

   Step 13

   Dress the pizza according to the recipe you have chosen, making sure to leave a 1-inch rim with no sauce or topping around the edge.

   Step 14

   Dust a pizza peel with semolina and slide the pizza peel under the pizza with one decisive push. You are less likely to tear or misshape the dough with one good push of the peel than several tentative pushes. Reshape the pizza on the peel if it has lost its shape. Shake the peel gently to determine whether the dough will release easily in the oven. If it is sticking to the peel, carefully lift one side of the dough and throw some more semolina under it. Do this from a few different angles until there is semolina under the entire crust.

   Step 15

   Open the oven door and slide the dough onto the preheated pizza stone. Again moving decisively, pull the peel toward you to leave the pizza on the stone.

   Step 16

   Bake the pizza until it is golden brown and the cornice, or rim, is crisp and blistered, 8 to 12 minutes. Cooking times vary depending on the power of your oven.

   Step 17

   While the pizza is in the oven, clear a space on a clean, dry cutting board or place an aluminum pizza round on the counter to put the baked pizza on.

   Step 18

   When the pizza is done, slide the peel under the crust, remove it from the oven, and place it on the cutting board or round.

   Step 19

   Use a rolling pizza cutter to cut the pizza. We cut ours into four wedges at the Pizzeria, but for parties we often cut them into six or eight wedges so that guests each get a slice of pizza while it is hot.

   Step 20

   Make another pizza.