My Zackarys-esque Pizza Experiment

pizza dough
4 teaspoons sugar (or honey)
4 teaspoons salt
16 oz. warm water
4 teaspoons olive oil 

1 packet yeast

32 oz. flour

Dissolve sugar and salt in the warm water in a large bowl then add the yeast and wait for it to ferment, usually 5-10 minutes.  Add the oil to the water mixture in the bowl then finally the flour and mix well with a wooden spoon until dough has formed into a ball. If the dough is sticky, add a little flour, it shouldn't stick to your hand.  If it's too dry, add a tiny bit of water.  All flours are different so you might have to adjust a bit on your own here.

Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl (olive oil) and cover with a dish towel, in a warm and dry place in the kitchen.  Allow dough to rise until doubled in size, your timing will vary.  Once the dough has risen, divide the dough in half and then each half into two pieces for four dough balls total.  One piece should be larger than the other (roughly 2/3 of the dough can be formed into one dough ball, and 1/3 formed into another).  Repeat with the other portion.  Wrap dough balls in plastic wrap and put them into a large zip lock bag or tupper-ware and refrigerate overnight (remember to use large enough bags or containers to allow for the dough to double in volume). 

The dough recipe is on par with the online recipe and it's killer.  I wouldn't dare to change it very much if I were you.  Where I deter from the recipe completely is my red sauce...I'm pretty keen on my recipe and have tweaked it over the years and it's pretty much my ultimate comfort foods. In other words, I stand by it.

red sauce 

One small sweet onion (white is fine if you can't find it) chopped

2 large garlic cloves chopped

3/4 cup "big" red wine (zin, cab etc) plus a little more for color to follow

Oregano

Dried Chili Flakes

Salt

Pepper

1 can organic diced or crushed tomatoes

White Sugar to taste

Sautee onion and garlic until they sweat, about 5-8 minutes on medium heat.  When they are translucent add the wine and cook all the way down until there is very little liquid left.  Season to taste with spices then add the tomatoes.  Simmer for 1.5-2 hours on low temperature.  With an emulsifier (I use the Oster hand held) puree the red sauce until your desired texture.  I prefer puree, but you could leave some tomato chunks if that's your thing.  Adjust flavor and color with a little more red wine, salt, pepper, oregano, chili flakes and a little white sugar if it tastes to acidic.

Remove one large and one small dough balls from the refrigerator and allow to warm for a half hour or so as you let your red sauce cool down slightly.

 Roll out the larger dough ball, eye-balling it to be slightly larger than your cast iron skillet (or pizza pan if you have one), with the edges hanging over.  Add your main "topping".  I parenthesis because it's not really "topping" in this style of pizza, it's "bottoming".  I used oven roasted chicken for the one pictured.  Four or so pieces of deli sliced provolone cheese on top of the chicken, plus fresh spinach and sliced mushrooms next plus finally a layer of Mozzarella cheese.  You can get creative with ingredients here.  
 

Roll out the smaller dough ball, it needs to be very thin, almost translucent.  Stretch it across the top and tuck it underneath the over hang, it should fall easily to cover the thin dough top.  

Spoon red sauce atop the pizza and bake at 475 for 25-30 minutes. 

Enjoy!

[The dough was adapted from a posted Zackary's pizza recipe on the Bon Appetit blog.  I doubled the recipe to throw some dough in the freezer to save time in the future, you can half the dough if you like but the sauce recipe makes just enough for two pizzas.  It's also great on pasta and it freezes well.]