A Simple New York Pizza Recipe

I am fairly certain I swore in a previous post that I would never list a New York Pizza recipe on this site.  Mostly because it has been covered on countless blogs and web sites. But low and behold I made a great tasting pizza the other night and I thought it would be shameful to not share this fairly simple recipe with the world. 

This recipe covers a lot of ground that has been covered by others but simplifies the overall process.  I think you will find it can deliver tremendous results.

The Dough

The dough recipe simply follows Peter Reinhardt's recipe from his book The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread.  You can find a legally reprinted copy of the recipe on the 101cookbooks.com blog posted here.  I have only a few points to add to the recipe:

• Follow the instructions regarding ingredient temperature religiously (i.e. refrigerate your flour and use ice cold water).
• Use the weight measurements and NOT the volume measurements (except in the case below).  I have found they give very different results. (Note that after you have made the dough a few times you will learn what it looks like and you can revert to the volume measurements for simplicity sake and adjust flour and water amounts as necessary till the the dough looks and feels as it should.
• Unless you have an incredibly accurate scale use volume measurements for salt and yeast.
• If using any olive oil at all use at most about an 1/8th a cup
• If using Sea Salt or Kosher salt be mindful of how much you use because you can quite easily kill the yeast if you use to much salt.
• Use high-gluten flour.
• Let you dough rise in the refrigerator for 2 days ( 1 day will work but 2 days seems to be the optimum time).

The Sauce

Pizza sauce is actually so simple but yet many people including myself tend to overcomplicate it.  At it's core a pizza sauce should be uncooked tomato pulp.  Here is the recipe that works for me (note this recipe makes enough sauce for two or three small 12-inch pizzas.  You can double the recipe as needed)

• 1 can of whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes ( I am currently using San Marzano Cento Organic Italian Peeled Tomatoes, DOP Certified)
• Purchase any Italian Tomato Press
• Pick the tomatoes out of the can (not the juice) and repeatedly run them through the press until you squeezed out all the pulp and juice and only have seeds in your waste bowl.
• Strain the tomato pulp and water until you are left with nothing but tomato pulp
• Add a teaspoon of Italian seasoning (or use fresh herbs)
• Add a pinch of sea salt and pepper
• optional: add a little garlic powder

That's it!

The Cheese

Very little effort is required for the cheese portion of this recipe.  All you need to do is buy the right ingredients.  I have been using the cheese blend listed below.

• Buffalo mozzarella (can be purchased at Costco here in Seattle)
• Whole Milk mozzarella (don't use part skim)
• Shredded Parmesan cheese (from a block)

Don't overdo the cheese.  New York style pizza does NOT have a blanket of cheese on it.

How to make it and bake it

For all the various components people have claimed are necessary to make a great New York pizza I have come to the conclusion that above all the main thing needed is high even heat.  So to bake your pizza properly (assuming you don't have a pizza oven)  you need two things:

• A pizza stone
• A gas grill that will fit the pizza stone (I use a Weber Spirit E-310)

Let the grill heat up for a good hour.  The thermometer on the front of the grill should be close to the max 600 degree mark.  I promise this technique will make a great tasting crust and deliver a great char on the bottom of the pizza.

To make your pizza first follow Peter Reinhardt's instructions on taking the dough out a couple hours prior to making the pizza.  To stretch the dough flour your peel (don't use corn meal ... no self respecting New York pizza place uses corn meal).  Place your finished dough on the peel and push down creating a flat disk.  Then slowly stretch the dough by pulling your hands apart and turning.  Repeat this movement till the dough is very thin.

Once your dough is stretched, top it with sauce and cheese.  Place the uncooked pizza pie on the pizza stone and close the grill.  Depending on how long you preheated the grill the pizza should cook in 3 - 6 minutes.  I recommend you turn the pizza once.

Caveats

Although the grill works great, it still has it's limitations.  In general I find that unlike my oven which has to much top heat (i.e. the cheese cooks before the dough), I find the grill is a little heavy on bottom heat.  So although the pizza cooks through I am not a 100% happy with the dough color I get on the top of the pizza.  That said I think this is the best you can do without owning a pizza oven or following Jeff Varasano's methods of altering your home oven (and probably violating your insurance policy).

Final thoughts

This recipe is actually really easy if you have the right tools.  It is a bit time consuming but not difficult from a recipe perspective.  There are countless other recipes on the web ranging from incredibly simple to Jeff Varasano's dissertation on pizza making.  I promise this recipe will deliver equal or greater results than most of the recipes out there in a reasonable amount of time.  You just might never need to search for a New York Pizza ever again.