½ package dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 ¼ cups tepid water (110
degrees)
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
¾ cup drained canned tomatoes
1 teaspoon oregano
2 cloves garlic, minced fine
½-pound low-moisture mozzarella,
grated
¼ cup grated Pecorino Romano
cheese
Dash olive oil
Crushed red pepper
Combine yeast and sugar with ¼ cup of the water.
Combine remaining cut of water with flour and salt. When yeast mixture is foamy, add it to flour and stir vigorously. Turn out onto a floured board and let dough rest while you clean and oil bowl.
Knead dough 10 minutes, adding flour if necessary to create a smooth, silky mass. Return to bowl and cover with a double layer of plastic wrap, and let rise until double in bulk., about 2 hours. Punch down dough. Knead again 3 minutes. Cover and let rest.
Preheat oven (with pizza stone or quarry tiles in oven) to 500 degrees. Dust baker’s peel with a sprinkle of flour. (If using an ordinary cookie sheet, preheat oven, grease sheet well with vegetable oil, but don’t put it in the oven. Prepare pizza as instructed below and simply lay full-sized pizza dough onto cookie sheet. Bake until crust is light brown.)
If your pizza stone is 12-14 inches, divide dough in half to form 2 pizzas. Flour a board and flatten dough out onto it. Pressing with the heel of your and, work dough into a circle. When it is about ½ inch thick, pick it up and use your fists underneath to stretch it further. Proceed slowly and patiently, letting the weight of the dough do most of the work. When pizza is full size, lay it on flout-dusted peel.
Pulverise tomatoes with oregano and garlic until you have a smooth sauce. Spread sauce on pizza nearly edge to edge. Sprinkle on mozzarella and Pecorino cheese, then olive oil. Using a quick jerking motion, slide pie from peel onto stones.
Bake 10 minutes, or until crust is light brown. Remove from oven with peel and put on metal serving tray. (If using a cookie sheet, serve directly from sheet.)
Cut in triangles and serve, accompanies by shakers of crushed red peppers. Serves 3-4.