Pizza Margherita

Method

1. mix5 min
   room temperature, no kneading yet
   00 flour + water until no dry flour remains, then leave it shaggy and covered for 20 minutes — this autolyse lets the flour hydrate and the gluten start linking on its own, which cuts the kneading roughly in half
2. knead10 min
   by hand on an unfloured counter
   + salt + instant yeast, folding and slapping until the dough goes from sticky and tearing to smooth and tacky. Salt goes in after the autolyse because it tightens gluten and slows hydration if added at the start. Stop when a pinch stretches thin enough to see light through without ripping
3. proof120 min
   covered, 21°C
   the dough as one mass until it has risen by about half — not doubled. The bulk rise at room temperature is where the yeast populates the dough; the flavour comes later, in the cold
4. rest1440 min
   divided into 2 balls, sealed, 4°C
   divide into two 260 g balls, round each tightly so the surface is under tension, and refrigerate 24 hours. Cold slows the yeast to a crawl while enzymes keep breaking starch into sugar — that sugar is what browns and blisters in the 90 seconds the pizza is actually hot. A dough that skipped this bakes pale no matter how hot the oven
5. bake60 min
   oven at maximum, stone or steel on the upper rack
   preheat the empty stone for a full hour with the broiler element close above it. Domestic ovens hit their set temperature long before the stone does, and a stone at 250°C instead of 320°C means a base that dries out before it chars. Pull the dough balls out of the fridge for the last 90 minutes so they relax to room temperature and stop fighting the stretch
6. prep5 min
   on a semolina-dusted peel
   press each ball from the centre outward with fingertips, leaving the outer 2 cm untouched, then stretch over the backs of your knuckles to about 28 cm. The untouched rim keeps its gas and becomes the cornicione; a rolling pin crushes those bubbles flat and you never get them back. Semolina, not flour, on the peel — it rolls like ball bearings and does not burn as fast
7. top2 min
   work fast, launch immediately
   + crushed tomato spread thin to the rim line + torn mozzarella scattered, not spread + a drizzle of olive oil. Sauce raw and unseasoned beyond a pinch of salt — it cooks in the bake, and a cooked-down sauce turns metallic under this much heat. Drain the mozzarella hard; its whey is the difference between a crisp base and a soup. Every second the topped dough sits on the peel it glues itself down
8. bake7 min
   maximum heat, broiler on for the last 2 minutes
   launch with one sharp forward-and-back jerk of the peel, bake until the rim is puffed and spotted and the cheese is just breaking into pools. Add the basil leaves in the final 30 seconds or straight out of the oven — held in that heat for the full bake they blacken and turn bitter