Pizza comes home

Divyanshu Dutta Roy

To the average urban Indian, Pizza still means a speciality food that can only be done right by a fast food chain. And why not. The convenience of having almost any pizza delivered at your doorstep within 30 minutes is something that’s quite a thing in itself and we are not trying to make it go away. But what about the time when you want to make something special for your friends and family coming over and you feel like something Italian? Do you feel like settling for the dry, chewy, crusty pizza where you can taste the hurried mediocrity on every bite or do you want to dazzle your audiences with something special?

Baking a pizza at home might seem like a daunting task. After all, you need that right kind of flour, yeast, the gooey-stringy cheese, fancy toppings and, of course, a baking oven. Homemade pizzas with store-bought pizza bases and canned sauces just don't cut it and end up being that annual experiment you are reluctant to try again.

But just as indie music once disrupted the beats of record labels and YouTube shows are beating down the monopoly of traditional broadcasters, the Internet and pop culture have joined hands to take the pizza out of those wood-fired stone ovens in rural Italy and into the bachelor pads and urban kitchens of the average Joe. All you need is an iron skillet and an equally firm urge to bring the pizza home. Pizzas are fundamentally not that complicated. To the belan-wielding Indians, it should come as a second nature in fact. And with these methods which have been perfected thanks to what is stellar example of social culinary-engineering, humble means and even humbler ingredients come-together to produce a fine slice of Italy right in your Indian kitchen.

The dough

The right pizza begins with the right dough. You have seen the admirable skills of chefs in Roman bakeries flinging the dough in the air, perfectly kneaded with the right amount of flour, water, salt, and yeast. While there is nothing out there to top traditional means, for the home chef the best resort is an innovation made famous quite recently by New York baker Jim Lahey. 

Called the no-knead dough, this easy, forgiving dough makes up for your lack of not having an Italian grandmother by enlisting a very simple to do sheet. Just mix 500 gm of regular flour, one teaspoon of active dry yeast, two teaspoons of salt (fine sea salt works best, if you can get your hands on it) and one-and-a-half cup of water with your hands or a wooden spoon spoons. It’s alright if you go generous with the water and the yeast because in the end the wet dough will rise better on the cast iron skillet or tawa.

Get saucy

For the sauce you have to start with the juiciest and the reddest tomatoes you can find. Blend them in in a food processor, blender, with a hand blender, or by hand. The heat a pan and pour a little olive oil. Crush a whole garlic just once with the palm of your hand and throw it in (you will take it out once the sauce is sauce is finished. 

Once you start getting the beautiful smell of garlic seared in oil, pour in the tomato pulp, salt to taste and any store-bought pizza seasoning (oregano, basil, black pepper, paprika and chilli powder — if you want to do it yourself), let it simmer till it attains a thick a sauce-like consistency and then turn off the flame.

Top it up

You can go as wild with the toppings as you like — is what most pizza guides will say. From all kinds of green vegetables to mushrooms, baby corns, chicken chunks to the holy grail of pizza toppings — pork pepperoni. For your first one though, try the simple, elegant Margharita — just your tomato sauce, lots of mozzarella cheese, and fresh basil (or tulsi).

Cooking up a storm

This is where the skillet pizza really gets its name from. Instead of an electric or wood-fire oven, you bake your pizza on a cast iron skillet or tawa. A thick-bottomed non-stick pan will also do. So all you do is baste some olive oil or butter to the tawa, stretch enough of the dough onto skillet and make a ‘lip’ around the edges. Then you place the pan on high heat till the base is starts bubbling and drying out. Once those bubbles have formed and the bottom side has dried, flip it over and let the top cook for a little bit. 

Just when it starts to get charred, take it off the heat, flip to bring the right side up and top it off with your sauce, lots of mozzarella and then fresh whole basil leaves. Then put it back on the stove, this time on medium heat. And wait for the cheese to melt and your pizza to be cooked all through.

Slice it up, sprinkle some more seasoning, olive oil and maybe some chilli flakes and your homemade pizza is ready to serve.

Epilogue 

There can be countless variations and innovations to the skillet pizza recipe. From treating the pizza to raw flames to using a blow-torch to char the edges and the top — once you get the concept right you can innovate on your own. 

From the “no-knead-dough” to the “cook, flip, flip, top” technique, these innovations, developed only in the last few years, don’t just deliver you from the mercy of multinational chains but also prove just how overpriced and underwhelming their pizzas really are.

To make your own skillet pizza, the idea that you need to have is that making a pizza is no less difficult than making your roti sabzi, in fact in some cases, it can be easier. 

PRO TIP

A cold surface is the mortal enemy of any pizza or pasta dough. Therefore, best results are obtained by not using metal surfaces, utensils or spoons. Your all-marble kitchen slab is a no-no too. Only non-cool surfaces like wood, plastic and hands should ever come in contact with the dough. Once the ingredients are mixed well, cover the bowl or jar with plastic wrap or a wet cloth and let it sit undisturbed at room temperature for at-least 18 hours. Yes, you will have to start prepping a day before — but in the end it will be worth it. 

Chef’s advice  

Never buy pomace olive oil. These oils are extracted through chemical processes  from the waste residues of other olive oils with none of goodness of olives and can actually be harmful! Opt for the cold-pressed extra virgin  olive oils if you want an authentic taste or the cold-pressed light olive oil  if you want to introduce your in laws into to the exotic flavour.

SHOPPING LIST

Flour
Tomatoes
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Mozarella cheese
Basil (or tulsi) leaves