How to make the best Pizza in the world, nachon?

What better way to break a fast or just have a delicious dinner to share with friends than this? Gordon Ramsay, Jamey Oliver & Eyal Shani – pfff, let’s go!

The recipe is as follows and will provide you with 4 italian-size pizzas enough for 4 people:

2,5 dl finger-warm water, 10g fresh yeast, sourdough, any amount of Israeli olive oil (I’ll explain later why),  an arrogant pinch of salt and an arrogant pinch of sugar. And yes – you need flour, the only acceptable flour is TIPO-00 Italian pizza flour – or else you’re out of the game. There is no rule to how much flour you need, but it should turn into a dough and not a slime-party for your kids or grandkids.

For topping use tomatoes, REAL mozzarella (no shredded cheese) and Parmaggiano Reggiano 36 months.

What do you need?

A pair of hands, a bowl, a bread-showel, a bad-ass oven, a pizza-stone, some alcohol when waiting and common sense.

Turn on the oven on MAXIMUM. Full heat, mine goes to 325 degrees celsius, for this to happen I have to put it in the special Shabbat-mode as displayed in the picture below – only then the oven will perform double up and count as a pizza oven.

Insert the pizza stone into the middle or lower part of the oven as displayed below, dont mess it up. It should be straight, not leaning, not standing, not upside down. Just put it in the middle of everything (like Jerusalem) and you’re good to go.

So, time to make sure you have running water in your tap which is finger-warm (or is it luke-warm?) If you don’t have running water I strongly suggest you go and buy some water at your Supermarket. A liter should do, the rest of your shekels you invest in whisky, beer or a Vaipolicella Ripasso superiore from 2014. No Amarone.

If you add cold water = no dough. If you add too hot water = no dough. If you add correct temperatured water = dough. OK?

Now, for step number 2. Add the rest of the ingredients except the flour, mix with a spoon until everything is completely disolved.

Step 3 is super-easy, add the flour. Start with a decent amount and stirr with you spoon until it becomes creamy. Then add about the same amount again and it will magically turn into a dough. If you use a KitchenAid or any other form of mechanical tool you’re  disqualified. The only exception to this rule is if you have no hands or have any sort of hand problems. After some dough-making with your hands, shape the dough into a big football, sprinkle with flour let it rest for one hour.

Tadaaaaa!

Now, just empty the bowl by turning it upside down on some pre-flowered surface as displayed above and below.

Shape it. Don’t forget to be gentle just like you are in real life.

Time to use your eye measurement skills by cutting it into even pieces. Those who use a kitchen-scale will be subjected to the mercy of the Pizza Assoziaone Italiano (PIA), from what I heard they take you to Sicilly and you have to attend a Pizza course until Italian so-so perfection is achieved.

You have to roll the dough by pinching and turning it in opposite directions until a ball is formed, no other method is allowed. The more Israeli olive oil you add to this recipe, the easier it will be to do this. So be generous. Now why Israeli? Because atleast I have olive trees which produce olive oil only an Italian could dream of. If you don’t have an olive tree and the means to process olives – you must go to the nearest olive oil emergency center and bunker up.

By now you should have your balls ready. Dip them into the Tipo-00 flour, cover with whatever you have – an old T-shirt will do. Let it rest for another hour. And don’t forget if you use any other flower the PIA will notice this and come looking for you.

Now comes the lazy part, just wait. Drink something, socialize, listen to Revivo Project, whatever you’re up to.

So it’s time for some real pizza action. This is what and how you do it.

Finally it should look like this, otherwise you have failed and have to eat a failed pizza. Which is equally good, size and shape does’nt matter on food, animals or humans.

Finally! Shredd some high quality Parmigiano Reggiano and enjoy the best pizza in the world.

Issues to deal with:

Some people want to put ingredients on top of their pizza, like olives, tuna, onion, artichokes or whatever. Those are not your friends. They are enemies of the true pizza. Below is an example of a person who insisted on adding more ingredients and by doing that destroying the pizza. Don’t be like that person. Be a good person.

As you might notice, this recipe is done by italian standards – that means that every ingredient can be of any amount. It really does’nt matter and it does’nt have to be precise. It’s kind of an art really. And it’s more – it’s a really nice way to share dinner with a lot of people, it’s cheap to make, it’s easy to do and it’s a great change from the way you break your fast or just eat dinner. 

Final notes about the PIA, beware of them – follow the instructions above and you should be fine. Upload your best pizza pic and let’s compare – I challenge you to make a tastier pizza than this.

Kind regards,

Jonas Amir Kadah

Amateur pizza maker and educated pizzaiolo in my early years of life.