My pizza story started as a college summer job making pizzas for Pizza Hut. Which made me rarely want a pizza again. Then I moved to Nantucket and had dinner one night at Grant Sanders’ house in the fashionable mid-Island district. Using Something Natural dough balls, he made an assortment of pizzas, which were as good as you’ll get in most restaurants. I was hooked. Dough-hooked. We began buying the Something Natural dough at Stop & Shop and enjoyed experimenting with new toppings. As is often the case with the Nantucket Stop & Shop, if it’s good, and cheap, it doesn’t last. Lately they stopped selling Something Natural dough and, instead, sell a Stop & Shop brand dough ball that tosses like it was made in a factory in Malaysia 3 years earlier.

So now we make the dough ourselves. (Keep meaning to see if you can get the dough ball directly from Something Natural, but who wants to drive downtown this time of the year?)

Researching the idea, I found the same pizza dough recipe posted on a number of food blogs. It comes from Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread book. (He later wrote a whole book on his quest for perfect pizza: American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza.) It’s the dough he uses for his Napoletana pizza. He uses a delayed, overnight fermentation to give you a golden, beautiful crust with the perfect amount of crunch and yeasty undertones.

Peter Reinhart’s Napoletana Pizza Dough Recipe

4 1/2 cups unbleached high-gluten, bread, or all-purpose flour, chilled
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1/4 cup olive oil
1 3/4 cups water, ice cold (40°F)
Semolina flour or cornmeal for dusting

1. Stir together the flour, salt, and instant yeast in the bowl of an electric mixer at low speed using the paddle attachment. Switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for 5 to 7 minutes, or as long as it takes to create a smooth, sticky dough. The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too wet and doesn’t come off the sides of the bowl, sprinkle in some more flour just until it clears the sides. If it clears the bottom of the bowl, dribble in a teaspoon or two of cold water. The finished dough will be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky, and register 50 to 55 deg.

2. Sprinkle flour on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter. Prepare a sheet pan by lining it with baking parchment and misting the parchment with spray oil. (Don’t use wax paper, it leaves the dough soggy.) Cut the dough into 6 equal pieces (or larger if you want large pizzas). Sprinkle flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Lift each piece and gently round it into a ball. If the dough sticks to your hands, dip your hands into the flour again. Transfer the dough balls to the sheet pan. Mist the dough generously with spray oil and then cover in plastic wrap.

3. Put the pan into the refrigerator overnight to rest the dough, or keep for up to 3 days. I usually put two dough balls in the refrigerator and save the rest of the dough for future baking, storing the balls in a zippered freezer bag after dipping each dough ball into a bowl that has a few tablespoons of oil in it, rolling the dough in the oil, and then putting them into their own, individual bag. You can freeze these for up to 3 months. Transfer them to the refrigerator the day before you plan to make pizza so they can thaw and rise.

4. On the day you plan to make the pizza, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator 2 hours before making the pizza and allow them to rest at room temperature for 2 hours on a flour-dusted counter that is then misted with spray oil. Place the dough balls on top of the floured counter and sprinkle them with flour; dust your hands with flour. Gently press the dough into flat disks about 1/2 inch thick and 5 inches in diameter. Sprinkle the dough with flour, mist it again with spray oil, and cover the dough loosely with plastic wrap or a food-grade plastic bag. Now let rest for 2 hours.

5. At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone on a rack in the lower third of the oven. Heat the oven as hot as possible, up to 800F (most home ovens will go only to 500 to 550F, but some will go higher). If you do not have a baking stone, you can use an upside down large cast iron skillet.

6. Generously dust a peel or the back of a sheet pan with semolina flour or cornmeal. Make the pizzas one at a time. Dip your hands in flour, lift a piece of dough, and gently lay the dough across your fists and carefully stretch it by bouncing the dough in a circular motion on your hands, carefully giving it a little stretch with each bounce. If it begins to stick to your hands, lay it down on the floured counter and reflour your hands, then continue shaping it. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss. If you have trouble tossing the dough, or if the dough keeps springing back, let it rest for 5 to 20 minutes so the gluten can relax, and try again. You can also resort to using a rolling pin, though this isn’t as effective as the toss method.

7. When the dough is stretched out to your satisfaction (about 9 to 12 inches in diameter for a 6-ounce piece of dough), lay it on the peel or pan, making sure there is enough semolina flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide. Lightly top it with sauce and then with your other toppings, remembering that the best pizzas are topped with a less-is-more philosophy. The Pizza Hut “All Game At The Same Time Meat Lovers” approach is counterproductive, as it makes the crust more difficult to bake. A few, usually no more than 3 or 4 toppings, including sauce and cheese is sufficient.

8. Slide the topped pizza onto the stone (or bake directly on the sheet pan) and close the door. Wait 2 minutes, then take a peek. If it needs to be rotated 180 degrees for even baking, do so. The pizza should take about 5 to 8 minutes to bake. (If the top gets done before the bottom, you will need to move the stone to a lower self before the next round; if the bottom crisps before the cheese caramelizes, then you will need to raise the stone for subsequent bakes.)

9. Remove the pizza from the oven and transfer to a cutting board. Wait 3 to 5 minutes before slicing and serving, to allow the cheese to set slightly.

Makes six 6-ounce pizza crusts.