Pizza Napolitana!

I'm currently re-reading 'Eat, Pray, Love' by Elizabeth Gilbert. It's a true narrative about a woman who leaves her life behind and spends a year travelling - 4 months in Italy (where she learns to eat) 4 months in India (where she learns to pray), and 4 months in Indonesia (where she learns to love).

In her writings about Italy, the author goes into extensive detail on the delicious-ness of authentic pizza from Naples - aka pizza napolitana! Naturally, I started craving it. So, here I go! An attempt to make real, authentic, pizza napolitana!

I googled and found a number of recipes, which I combined to make my own (based on what ingredients and kitchen tools I had access to!).

The Crust

Ingredients

• 1/2 packet of instant yeast (about 1 1/4 tsp)
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour

Directions

1. In a metal bowl, combine yeast and water. Stir and let sit for 5 minutes.
2. Add salt and stir.
3. Add olive oil and flour. Stir with a wooden spoon until dough is rolled into a ball.
4. Knead dough on a lightly floured wooden surface for about 8 minutes. (One recipe didn't call for kneading, another called for 12 minutes of it... So I compromised!)
5. Once dough is smooth, place in a lightly oiled metal bowl and cover with a clean dish cloth. Let sit for 2 hours in a warm spot, until doubled in size.
6. Roll dough into a thin crust. You can use your hands or a rolling pin.
7. Place on a pizza pan or stone. I don't have either, so I flipped a cookie tray upside-down (to get a flat surface with no lips or sides) and covered it with tin foil.

Sauce

Ingredients

• 1/2 can of San Marzano tomatoes (Yes, that's it!)

Directions

1. Hand mash the tomatoes. (That's all there is to it!)

Toppings

Ingredients

• 5-10 fresh basil leaves. You can leave them whole or julienne them.
• a few tbsp olive oil
• fresh mozzarella, sliced into disks

Directions for putting it all together!

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Make indentations over the centre portions of the crust, leaving a border around the outside. The border should be a bit higher than the rest of the pizza.
3. Pour some olive oil onto the crust and spread evenly, avoiding the border.
4. Even distribute the crushed tomatoes across the crust.
5. Lay the disks of mozzarella evenly across the pizza.
6. Lay the basil leaves over the top, and sprinkle with olive oil.
7. Season with salt and pepper.
8. Bake until the crust is slightly charred and the cheese is dappled brown.
9. Let cool slightly, cut, and serve!

Notes

Delicious and simple. Nothing else to say! :)