sorry, digiorno...

a couple of years ago, the hubby and i took an italian cooking class at the ICE. we spent six weeks chopping garlic, boiling pasta and gorging on all the goodness we made in class. in one of the lessons, we learned to make pizza...and that's when we learned that the hubby is quite good at making pizza!

so i prepped some dough and let it rise overnight. the hubby stretched and tossed the dough and we topped it with whatever we had in the kitchen - hot italian sausage, ricotta, garlic, fresh basil, tomato sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese, grated parmesan cheese...making pizza at home doesn't require a lot of fancy tools. you don't need a pizza stone - a baking sheet turned upside down works just as well. you don't need a pizza peel - a cutting board is a perfectly fine substitute. sprinkling a little semolina underneath the dough (after it's been stretched before the toppings are added) prevents the dough from sticking and makes it much easier to move.
neopolitan-style pizza dough
makes enough for four 9- to 10-inch pizzas

1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 1/4 cup warm water (105-115 F)
1 cup cake flour
2 1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
olive oil for bowl

1. Sprinkle the yeast over the water. Let stand 1 minute, or until the yeast is creamy. Stir until the yeast dissolves.
   
2. In a large bowl, combine the cake flour, 2 1/2 cups of the all-purpose flour and the salt. Add the yeast mixture and stir until a soft dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead, adding more flour if necessary, until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.
   
3. Lightly coat a large bowl with oil. Place the dough in the bowl, turning it to oil the top. Cover with plastic wrap. Place in a warm, draft-free place and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours.
   
4. Flatten the dough with your fist. Cut the dough into 2 to 4 pieces and shape the pieces into balls. Dust the tops with flour.
   
5. Place the balls on a floured surface and cover each with plastic wrap, allowing room for the dough to expand. Let rise 60 to 90 minutes, or until doubled.*
   
6. Thirty to sixty minutes before baking the pizzas, place a baking stone or unglazed quarry tiles on a rack in the lowest level of the oven. Turn on the oven to the maximum temperature, 500 to 550 F.
   
7. Shape and bake the pizzas until the edges are slightly brown.

*For the second rise, I placed the dough in the fridge overnight for a longer, slower rise.