Lazy Pizza Dough + Favorite Margherita Pizza

• servings: Yield: 2 9×13-inch rough

Ingredients

3 cups (375 grams) all-purpose flour (bread flour works too)

Slightly heaped 1/8, 1/4 or 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast (for Overnight, All-Day, or Part-Day Schedules respectively, above)

1 1/2 teaspoons sea or kosher salt

1 1/4 cup water, plus an additional tablespoon or two if needed (updated)

My New Favorite Margherita Pizza

2 12-inch round or 9×13 rectangular pizza doughs

1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon sea or kosher salt

Red pepper flakes, to taste

Pinch of sugar, if desired

8 ounces aged mozzarella (sold in plastic, not water) (use more if you like your pizza with extra cheese)

1/4 cup finely grated parmesan or pecorino romano cheese

Two glugs of olive oil

Few leaves of fresh basil, torn or sliced

Directions

In a very large bowl, mix all ingredients with a spoon. The dough will be craggy and rough; this is fine, but if it feels excessively so, add another spoonful or even two of water. (See Note up top about altered water level/flour heaviness.) Cover bowl with plastic and keep at room temperature for approximately 22 (for Overnight schedule), 12 (for All-Day schedule) or 6 (for Part-Day schedule) hours, or until the dough has more than doubled. This takes longer in a chilly room and less in a very warm one, but don’t fret too much over this, as the dough is generally forgiving of a loosened schedule.

About 30 minutes before dough is ready, begin draining tomatoes if you’ll be following the margherita recipe below. Prepare pizza stone and paddle sprinkling it with cornmeal. You can also use any old baking sheet you have around, however, based on early commenters, the pizza tends to stick to these more, so I now recommend that you prepare it by very lightly, thinly coat it with olive oil or a nonstick cooking spray before sprinkling it with cornmeal. Heat oven to its highest temperature, usually between 500 and 550 degrees F. If you’re using a pizza stone, place it in the oven so that it heats too.

Flour your counter very well. Scrape dough out of bowl onto floured counter; in the time it has risen it should change from that craggy rough ball to something very loose, soft, sticky and stretchy. Flour the top of the dough, and divide dough in half (or more pieces, if you’re making smaller pizzas). Form them into ball-like shapes. Grab first round with floured hands and let the loose, soft dough stretch and fall away from your hands a few times before landing the dough on your prepared baking sheet/paddle. Use floured fingers to press and nudge dough into a roughly round or rectangular shape. Add desired fixings (see below for My Favorite Margherita Pizza) and bake pizza for 10 to 15 minutes, rotating if it’s baking unevenly, until the top is blistered and the crust is golden. Repeat with remaining dough.

Do ahead: Once risen and formed into ball-like shapes, the dough can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for up to 3 days, says Lahey. He doesn’t say anything about freezing the dough, but I have done so successfully with others. However, if you don’t mind me being a little pushy here, I honestly feel that by the time the dough is defrosted and ready to use, you could have easily made a fresh one, so I don’t usually bother. When you’re ready to use a refrigerated or defrosted-but-still-cold dough, Lahey says that you should return it to room temperature by leaving it on a counter covered with a damp cloth for 2 to 3 hours before using it.

Whole wheat variation: Feel free to replace up to half the flour with whole wheat without altering any other ingredients.

Place tomatoes in a colander set over a bowl and give the tomatoes a little squeeze so they release any trapped juices. Let them drain for 30 minutes, if you can spare it. (We think you should save the reserved juices for Bloody Marys.)

Meanwhile, heat oven, if you have not already, to its top temperature, usually 500 to 550 degrees F. If you’re using a pizza stone, place this in the oven so that it heats too.

Add salt, garlic, red pepper flakes and sugar (if the tomatoes taste overly acidic to you), to the tomatoes and blend in a blender or with an immersion blender until they reach your desired sauce texture. (I like it smooth, personally.) This will make more sauce than you need; you can save the remainder in the fridge for up to a week, or in the freezer for longer.

Add 1/3 cup of sauce to each stretched-out dough and spread it evenly. Tear or crumble mozzarella into tiny bits and scatter it over the pizzas. Some people like their basil and parmesan or pecorino added only after the pizza comes out of the oven, some like it baked on; I tend to add half the sharp cheese before and half after. I’ll let you decide. Finally, give each assembled pizza a quick drizzle with olive oil and bake it for 10 to 15 minutes, rotating once if needed, until the top is bubbled and lightly charred and the crust is golden. (You’ll get better color than I did on the crust if you use a baking pan without sides, or if you bake it on the back of your baking sheet.) As soon as the pizza comes out of the oven and is still blazing hot, finish with basil and parmesan or pecorino, if this is when you prefer to add it.

Slide pizza onto cutting board or serving plate and cut into squares or wedges.

Toppings: Favorites include spinach or other greens, thinly sliced mushrooms or thin shaves of whatever vegetables are in season (cough, being neglected in the fridge). Here’s my toppings advice: Whenever you can, saute the vegetable gently in olive oil on the stove until it softens or wilts. Just a minute or two will make a huge difference in outcome. Mushrooms will be roasted, not just dried. Spinach will merge into the pizza. Is someone at the table skeptical of vegetables on their pizza? I’ve “heard” that if you lay them on top of the sauce, below the cheese, few are the wiser.