When Big, Juicy Pizzas Attack: A Lazy Way Pizza recipe to make you drop your pantry staples

[DANGER: NOVEL PIZZA RECIPE AHEAD...]

Pizza Margherita is on my mind today for several reasons—all of them challenging.

One reason is that I’m preparing to do a live and in-person pizza event at the Tiki Food Lab in Pearlington, Mississippi. (We're talking close to New Orleans and even closer to NASA Stennis Space Center.)
 
It’s a Pizza Free-For-All Rumble in the Bayou, and it’s going to be crazy good fun. Chef Ernie of Suis Generis in New Orleans is the host, and he’s going to be doing outlandish things.
 
But before Ernie's extravagant, foodie fermentations are presented upon pizza (and he does some interesting stuff, lemmetellya), I’m going to be making a Pizza Margherita.
 
Why?

 
Because that’s the beloved cheese pizza at its most nascent, and we need to establish a baseline.
 
Margherita is the ancestor to all cheese pizzas that follow.
 
After I make the Margherita, I do a couple of unusual things while Chef Ernie throws his usual, crazy brand of fermentation exhibitionism at the pizza proceedings.
 
(If you’re interested in snatching up one of the few remaining seats to that event, more info can be found right here…)
 
There’s also another reason Margherita’s on my mind.
 
 
I’ve got a pizza dinner coming up with an audience that's tough and intimidating. (In my mind, at least.)
 
For about a year, I’ve been working on a short documentary film called, Little Miss Margherita: A Misunderstood Pizza in a Misunderstood Place.
 
By now, Pizza Margherita is probably stamped into my genes.
 
One of the many misconceptions about Pizza Margherita is that it is required to be a wood-fired pizza Napoletana.
 
 
One word: Untrue.
 
As legendary pizza tour guide Scott Wiener likes to say, Margherita is a topping combination.
 
As long as you remain true to the spirit of crushed tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and basil, you are in the zone with Margherita.
 
If you start adding your own stuff—red onion, pepperoni, cheddar—that’s when you violate the aesthetic terms of "pure" Margherita. (I put "pure" in quotes because really, we have only sketchy technical details about the pizza of antiquity.)
 
 
Very soon, I’m going to be serving Pizza Margherita to the pizzamakers who appear in Little Miss Margherita.
 
And the last thing I want to do is to try replicating the authentic, wood-fired version of their great pizzas.

​And each of them makes a different signature style of pizza anyway. 
 
Besides, this live event—which is a screening of the film for cast and crew only—is taking place in a private home. The only oven at my disposal is a home kitchen range. A good one, granted.
 
But still, we’re looking at an electric range with a max temp of about 550 degrees.
 
If you’ve been playing pizza the Lazy Way, you already have an idea of how satisfying, easy and fun the Lazy Way pizzas are.
 
This new Lazy Margherita raises the roof on flavor-bomb status for pizzas to come out of your home oven.

ABOVE: The actual pizza prototype that made all this possible. 


​I titled this screed, “When big, juicy pizzas attack…”
 
But the pizza is not that big, physically speaking.
 
The prototype is only 8 inches in diameter.
 
The pizza is not that juicy. The crust keeps its crunch.
 
But when you take a bite and that pizza "attacks," it sends your trusty tastebuds into overwhelm.

The chemical messengers in your brain go, “Wheee!” The dopamine rush is dazzling.


Things get big and juicy.
 
It’s big in flavor and packs a juicy punch you can’t see coming.

It’s a pizza you can’t believe you made in a pan at home.

Free The Pizza presents: Margherita the Lazy Way!
 
Hence, the B-movie exploitation title for this pizza.
 
All the Lazy Way pizzas are big and juicy, no matter their actual measurements.

What’s truly big and juicy is the flavor, and experience the desire to keep squeezing every last drop of delight out of that pie.

READ THIS IMPORTANT NOTE—especially if you’ve ignored everything above.
 
Getting this pizza 100% dialed in for your oven might take a couple of passes. Your home oven and my home oven are not identical.
 
If you’re not using The Lazy Way to Pizza method, you can use this recipe for other styles of pizza. But use your normal methods for your style.
 
If yours is a more traditional pizza (like in the Free The Pizza book), use your standard oven settings and rack position for that pizza. (In that book, we're talking about the top third of the oven with a broiler finish.)
 
And if it’s a traditional pizza style, also consider cutting back on the sauce and topping quantities specified. This is spec'd for a pan pizza that carries the potential for robust quantities. Ideally, a thin-crust NY 2.0 style is going to want more room to breathe.

NOTE ON WEIGHT MEASUREMENTS: If you're new to the Lazy Way to Pizza, we heartily encourage the use of a digital kitchen scale. (Amazon Basics has one for 10 bucks.) Volume measurements can vary widely. (A cup of flour is not always what it appears. A hundred grams of flour always is.) It's also much easier to use and scale gram measurements than it is to calculate ounces. And by weighing ingredients, it's much easier to ensure consistency and accuracy. I know this is painful. But you have it in you to do it. And once it becomes part of your lazy routine, you wonder how you ever lived without it. 
 
 
This is important…
 
RACK POSITION: I’ve learned that with this particular Margherita pizza, my bottom rack position is too low. The bottom of the pizza bakes too quickly. My second from the bottom rack is perfect. (My bottom rack is about two inches off the oven floor, and the heating element is beneath that. My second rack from the bottom is almost 5 inches, and it works great.)
 
BAKING TIME: I expected this pizza to bake a little less than the standard Lazy Way pizza with heavy cheese. I was right. Instead of a 16-minute bake in my oven, a 14-minute bake is ideal.
 
TOMATOES: This pizza does not use a standard Lazy Way sauce. Use canned crushed tomatoes that you've salted to taste, then simmered for just a few minutes and allowed to cool. (My go-to tomatoes are Bianco DiNapoli, California-grown organic tomatoes available in many supermarkets. I buy them in bulk from Amazon. But any good quality canned tomato will do. Even Walmart Great Value organic tomatoes.) 
 
OLIVE OIL: You may want to experiment with your olive oil. My standard pantry oil is Terra Delyssa organic single-origin extra virgin olive oil. Yes, that’s a lot of words for just olive oil. (Don’t get me started.) On the prototype pizza that locked-in this recipe for me, I tried using Partanna organic unfiltered extra virgin olive oil that I just happened to have in the pantry. I can’t say it was life changing. But this pizza with Partanna suddenly made me see the pizza fairies of the rainforest. (My life is already unusual.)
 
FINISHING SALT: I’ve been experimenting with fleur de del as a finishing salt on these pizzas. I find they taste good with a light sprinkle thereof. And they’re also good without that sprinkle. Go with your mood. (Part of my willingness to experiment with expensive salt like fleur de sel is stumbling on a very inexpensive version in my local Walmart.)
 
EXPERIMENT: The beauty of these pizzas is they’re so easy to make, you don’t mind getting some friends around and making a few prototypes and seeing which version you like best. Or stacking a bunch of dough balls in the fridge and making them over successive days. There is so little mess to clean up that pizzamaking is almost a non-event. (But the pizza tasting makes for an epic flavor-bomb happening.)
 
The following recipe is for A SINGLE 8-INCH PIZZA. (Yes, I make 8-inch pizzas. A lot of them. And I have a lot of Lloyd Pans. I love serving a huge pizza. Prototypes need not be huge.)
 
For a 12-inch pizza, double the ingredients.
 
For a 16-inch pizza, quadruple them. (This is a HUGE pizza when made in a pan.)
 
 
RECIPE: PIZZA MARGHERITA THE LAZY WAY
 
TIMING: Begin panning the dough two hours before you want to bake your pizza, as per instructions in the book. (Dimpling the dough at three intervals of 30 minutes before heating the oven.)
 
 
INGREDIENTS
 
NOTE: This recipe is for a single 8-inch pizza as outlined in the book The Lazy Way to Pizza: How to Make the Best Pizza Possible with the Least Amount of Work. As per the standards in the book, double the recipe for a 12-inch pizza. Multiply times four for 16-inch pizza.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Don't forget to prepare your tomatoes before baking so they can cool. If I don't have them already prepared in the fridge, I prepare them before panning the dough. 
 
180-gram (about 6 oz) Lazy Way dough ball for an 8-inch pizza
 
100 grams (slightly less than half an 8 oz ball) of fresh mozzarella, pinched into 11 chunks (I’ve been using Bel Gioioso)
 
15 grams (about 1.5 tbsp)  Pecorino Romano
 
75 grams (about 1/4 cup) crushed tomatoes (from a batch of canned, crushed organic tomatoes that were salted to taste and simmered for about 5 minutes)
 
5 whole basil leaves basil
 
8 large, torn pieces of basil leaves
 
Drizzle of good olive oil (Partana organic, yellow can or other good olive oil)
 
Sprinkle of fleur de sel (optional)
 
3 tsp standard olive oil (divided) for panning the dough
 
 
INSTRUCTIONS
 
Position your oven rack low in the oven (bottom position, or near the bottom).
 
If necessary, prepare your tomatoes. Put a can of crushed tomatoes in a saucepan, salt them to taste and simmer for about 5 minutes. 

Two hours before you want to bake, oil the pan with 2 teaspoons of the standard olive oil only. (No coconut oil for this recipe, and not the fancy olive oil for this task.)
 
Dimple the dough into a pan, then brush the top of the dough with the remaining 1 teaspoon of olive oil. Cover the pan loosely with plastic wrap. (I’ve actually begun covering the pan with a cutting board, as it’s more manageable with no plastic waste.)

30 minutes later, dimple the dough again.
 
Repeat a third dimpling at the end of the next 30-minute interval.
 
 
After the third round of dimpling, turn on the oven to 500 degrees.
 
When the oven reaches temperature, build the pizza.

​Spread the tomatoes around the pizza, leaving just enough space around the rim to have a cornicione. (That's the raised, puffy rim around the edge of the pizza.)

Sprinkle the shredded Pecorino Romano evenly around the pizza.

Distribute the torn basil leaves around the pizza.

Place the chunks of mozzarella around the pizza, placing some on top of the basil leaves. (This protects the basil from burning.)

Drizzle with pizza with the good olive oil.


Slide the pan onto the middle of the oven rack.
 
Bake the pizza for 8 minutes, then rotate the pan 180 degrees and bake for an additional 6 minutes or until the cornicione (rim) is turning golden. The bottom of the pizza should be turning a crunchy brown. 
 
Remove the pizza from the oven.

Remove the pizza from the pan using an offset spatula, then place it on a cooling rack.
 
Sprinkle the pizza with a scant pinch of fleur de sel.

​Place the whole basil leaves on the pizza.
 
Cut and serve.

Lose your mind at least a little bit. 

Enjoy!
 
----

 
The five-star rated The Lazy Way to Pizza is now for sale at Amazon. As it says in the book description there:

The only special tool: A pan. The only special ingredient: Patience. (Just a pinch.) The only oven: the one already in your kitchen.
​
​Your friends and family won't believe you made this pizza yourself--especially after that incident with the burnt water topped with boiled toast. This is for real: one of the best tasting pizzas you've ever put into your mouth. The cheese, the tomato, the olive oil, the crunch--it's so good, you might never order delivery pizza again. You might even call this pizza "artisanal."

"This pizza made as instructed is one of the best pizzas l've had...an artisan-level experience while remaining one of the easiest pizzas to execute."
     --Kevin Godbee, Chef and creator of Pizza Is My Life
        (from the foreword to the book)

For more info, click here.