Giorgio Locatelli holds his hands up to his face and shakes his head in frustration. “You see, you need small hands to stretch out dough when you make pizza. These are too big,” he says, before softly plugging them into the dough. I can’t see the problem: after a few gentle tugs and nifty rotations, he has a base that is uniformly round and thin.
The Italian chef only became a pizzaiolo last year, after launching a pop-up, Pizza Locadeli, in Islington, north London. Here, the pizzas are baked in a wood-fired oven at temperatures that reach 400C: pizzas are creatures that need heat. Sadly, few of us have one of these large brick furnaces hanging out in the corner of our kitchen at home, but that isn’t to say that you can’t make a great pizza in a standard oven. “The key is to get the oven as hot as possible,” Locatelli says, “and the kitchen must be warm for the dough to prove.”
Serious home-pizza bakers should invest in a ceramic pizza stone that will provide the extra heat the dough needs to crisp up.
When it comes to forming the pizza base, be gentle. “Try to pull it and turn it with your hands — if you use a rolling pin, you expel all the air, and you need that to get a good, crusty rise,” he says.
The amount of topping, he says, is a personal matter: each pizzaiolo will have their “own bible” for quantities. But you should buy the most expensive ingredients you can afford. “A pizza is a very simple thing — it’s all about what goes into it and onto it,” says Locatelli, laying out a marinara still steaming from the oven. “And always eat it immediately.”
Basic pizza recipe
Makes 4
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FOR THE DOUGH
FOR THE TOMATO SAUCE
Sieve the flour into a bowl and stir in ¾ tsp salt. Make a well in the centre, and pour in 300ml warm water. Add the yeast and oil and combine with a wooden spoon until it’s a soft, fairly wet dough. Turn onto a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes, until smooth. Oil the bowl, then return the dough, cover with a tea towel and set aside for 3 hours in a warm place. Put the sauce ingredients into a bowl with ¼ tsp salt , then blend with a handheld mixer for 2 minutes.
Heat the oven to 240C. Cut the dough into 4 portions (about 200g each), and shape each one into a ball. One at a time, gently roll out the ball on a floured surface. Flatten it out using your hand. Rotate it with your fingertips, stretching it out until it’s as thin as possible, but leaving a thicker ring of dough around the edge.
Spoon the sauce in the centre of each base, then use the back of the spoon to spread it, in a circular motion, over the whole base, except for a 2in crust. Add toppings of your choice, transfer to a lightly floured tray or pizza stone, and cook for 8-10 minutes, until the base is crisp.
Marinara
INGREDIENTS
FOR THE TOPPING
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Arrange the anchovy fillets in a circle on the tomato base, with the fillets pointing outwards. Scatter the olives, capers and oregano evenly over the top, and cook for 8-10 minutes until the base is crisp.
Caprese
INGREDIENTS
FOR THE TOPPING
Roughly tear the buffalo mozzarella and arrange it over the tomato base. Cook for 8-10 minutes until the base is crisp, then garnish with the tomatoes and sliced basil.
Montanara
INGREDIENTS
FOR THE TOPPING
Evenly distribute the mozzarella, mushroom, sausage and rosemary over the tomato base. Add a splash of olive oil and cook for 8-10 minutes, until crisp.
Tartufo
INGREDIENTS
FOR THE TRUFFLE BECHAMEL (SERVES 2)
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FOR THE TOPPING
To make the truffle bechamel, melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour, combine, then gently cook the roux for 1-2 minutes. Slowly add the milk, whisking continually, until the mixture is smooth. Continue to cook over a gentle heat, until the sauce thickens, then add the grated taleggio and truffle paste. Stir until the cheese has melted, then season.
Spread half of the bechamel over 1 pizza base. Scatter the potatoes and chunks of taleggio over the top, then cook for 8-10 minutes until crisp. Garnish with thin shavings of fresh black truffle or a splash of truffle oil.
Calabrese
INGREDIENTS
FOR THE TOPPING
Scatter the chunks of ’nduja over the tomato base. Cook for 8-10 minutes until the base is crisp, then garnish with the torn pieces of burrata, basil florets and a splash of olive oil.