Nearly all the tourists who visit Italy do not leave the country without tasting the Italian Pizza. It’s tragic for anyone who visits or stays in the country to leave without having a taste of the delicacy.

According to popular folklore, Chef Raffaele Esposito and his wife prepared a pizza that bore colours of the country’s flag. This occurred in 1889, twenty-eight years after unification of Italy, when the duo visited Naples of Margherita of Savoy, the queen and King Umberto’s wife.

Even though there are other theories that also explain the origin of Italian pizza, Chef Raffaele Esposito’s version is the one that made pizza popular.

With the passage of time, Italian pizza has become the world’s most identifiable symbol of the rich Italian food culture. That’s why so many people across the world are interested in knowing how to prepare the Italian delicacy.

Italian Pizza Ingredients

The following ingredients can enable you make about four pizzas measuring approximately 12 inches in diameter:

Sugar- 2 teaspoons

Warm water- 600 ml

Salt- 1.5 teaspoons

Wheat flour- 1 kilogram/ 7 cups

Olive oil- 6 tablespoons

Fresh yeast- 25 grams/ 3 tablespoons or,

Dried yeast- 8 grams/ 2 teaspoons

Procedure of making the perfect Italian pizza

1. Pour warm water in a mid-sized bowl and then sprinkle the yeast. The water should be neither too cold nor too hot- it should be temperate. Yeast can only work best with warm temperature. Stir the mixture until all the yeast dissolves.

2. Pour about 90% of the flour onto a table and make it assume the shape of a typical volcano. You can think about Mount Vesuvius. It’s appropriate, given that Naples is regarded as king of all the pizza cities.

3. Pour the mixture of yeast, lukewarm water and other ingredients in the volcano’s crater.

4. Knead the resultant mixture for approximately 15 minutes. Make sure the surface has enough flour. Don’t stop kneading until the dough becomes elastic and smooth.

5. Use some olive oil to grease the bowl before putting the dough inside. Ensure the top of the dough is oiled. You can achieve this by turning it around.

6. Place a cover on the bowl and give the dough time. About 4  hours would be sufficient time.

7. Use a knife to make a cross on the top surface of the dough. Please note that this step is optional. You should only do this if you want to make the pasta really authentic. Making a cross is an old tradition in Italy that was regarded as blessing the bread.

8. Ensure the oven is preheated to about 200 degrees Celsius/ 400 degrees F.

9. Remove the dough from the bowl and put it back on the surface containing flour. Punch it severally to get rid of bubbles. If you have a kid bubbling with energy, this is the perfect opportunity to make use of some of that energy.

10. Divide the door into two. Give each of the two halves enough time to rest.

11. Roll each of them into 12 inch discs. This is the time to choose the thickness of your take away pizza. Do you want the pasta Roman style or Neapolitan style? Don’t forget that the crust might puff up during the baking process.

12. Transfer all the dough to a baking sheet. Alternatively, you can transfer it to a well-oiled pizza pan.

13. If most of your clients love red pizza or pizza rossa, you can add some tomato sauce. Most of the take away pizzas in the country are pizza bianca, or pizza with no tomato sauce. Therefore, you don’t have to add tomato sauce to the pasta. Use some olive oil to brush the crust’s edges.

14. Bake each pasta for 10 minutes or thereabouts before adding grated or sliced mozzarella cheese and other ingredients as well.

15. Let the Italian pizzas bake. This should continue until the cheese melts or crust turns brown. Find out if the bottom has also turned brown by slightly lifting it up and peeking underneath.

16. Finally, remove them from the oven. You can garnish with some basil leaves to give them genuine Italian touch. At this point, you’ll be at liberty of inviting your friends or customers for take away pizza.