Make your own Roman-style pizza
Cesare Agostini shares a pizza recipe that's perfect for the home chef
During the pandemic, Friday night means takeout. And the go-to choice for many of us is pizza.
At Farinella in Little Italy, takeout has been a godsend for sibling owners Cesare and Nina Agostini, but Cesare still wants people to experience the fun of homemade pizza too.
And while you might not have all the carefully selected flours, cheeses and toppings that have made Farinella so popular, he believes you can still make a mighty fine pie at home.
Agostini shared some of his secrets on All In A Day this week, as the show continues to profile the best pizza places in town.
"I feel that sometimes people are so disconnected with food that they forget the beautiful feeling of making something from scratch and sharing it with the ones you love," he wrote in the Braised By Wolves cookbook, released in 2020 for charity by Ottawa's Raised By Wolves clothing and lifestyle brand.
Cesare Agostini's DIY pizza dough
Ingredients:
- 8 cups Type 00 flour OR unbleached bread flour
- 3 cups cold water
- 1 ½ tbsp. sea salt
- 2 tbsp. dark honey
- 1 tsp. fresh or dry active yeast
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
Instructions:
1. Place flour, yeast, honey and 2½ cups of the cold water in a mixer and mix on low speed for four to five minutes. The dough should come together into one mass and still look rough and shaggy.
2. Slowly add the salt and the remaining water to dough while mixing. Once all the water has been added, mix on the next highest speed.
3. When the water has been fully absorbed (this can take up to five minutes) and the dough appears smooth, slowly add the olive oil. After about one minute, the dough should be smooth, shiny and have absorbed the olive oil.
4. Remove dough from mixer and place in a container that will allow the dough to double in size.
5. Leave the dough out for one to two hours if planning to eat the same day or place in the fridge until the next day.
Note: If you make the dough in the morning and would like to use it for dinner, then leave it out. If you are planning to make pizza the next day, then put the dough in the fridge. Both options work perfectly fine and give the dough different flavours and characteristics.
6. Once dough has doubled in size, portion it into seven to nine round dough balls that each resemble a baseball.
7. Place the baseball-size dough portions on a floured sheet pan and cover with plastic wrap. This process can be done with the dough either at room temperature or cold from being in the fridge.
8. Let the dough balls double in size, at which point they're ready to bake.
9. Preheat oven to the maximum temperature (about 550 F) and use either a baking stone, baking steel, cast-iron pan or standard sheet pan.
10. Stretch the dough balls to your desired size, top them however you'd like, and place them in the oven.
11. Once the crust has achieved a golden brown colour and the bottom has an even bake, remove the dough from the oven.
12. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil and enjoy.