Pepperoni-style classic pizza

Ingredients

Dough (for 2 pizzas)

• 500 g strong bread flour (or 00 flour)
• 7 g dried yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 320 ml warm water
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Tomato sauce

• 1 × 400 g tin chopped tomatoes
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• ½ tsp sugar
• Salt and pepper

Topping

• 250 g mozzarella, shredded
• 100 g pepperoni slices
• Drizzle of olive oil

Method

1. Dough. Mix flour, yeast, sugar, salt. Add water and olive oil. Knead 8–10 minutes until smooth. Place in an oiled bowl, cover, and refrigerate overnight (or 24–48 hours for colder ferment).
2. Sauce. Blend all sauce ingredients. Taste — should be punchy and herbaceous.
3. Stretch. On a floured surface, stretch each dough ball into a 30 cm round by hand. The pan crust is thicker than Neapolitan — don’t stretch it too thin.
4. Pan top. Spread sauce thinly. Scatter mozzarella. Lay pepperoni, slightly overlapping.
5. Bake. 230°C oven (lower than Neapolitan — pan crust takes longer). 12–15 minutes until the crust is golden and the bottom is crisp.
6. Rest 2 minutes. Slice. Eat.

Tips

• Pan crust is thicker than Neapolitan. Don’t stretch the dough too thin — you want a base you can hold.
• Cold-ferment the dough for 24–48 hours. Longer ferment = better flavour and easier digestibility.
• The bottom of the crust needs to be crisp. A pizza stone or preheated baking steel helps enormously.