Homemade pizza marinara — garlic, tomato and oregano

pareve Italian · hard · 210 min, including 65 hands-on

Two pizzas with a long-fermented dough, raw tomato, thinly sliced garlic and oregano, without cheese and finished with a drizzle of olive oil after baking. Warm chickpeas with garlic, chilli and lemon make this a complete pareve dinner.

easy version

Ingredients for two

Method

1. The day before, dissolve the yeast in the 195 g lukewarm water (25°C) and leave for 2 minutes. Add 300 g flour and mix until no dry flour remains. Cover for 10 minutes, add the 8 g salt, then knead for 8–10 minutes, using a little of the 20 g flour reserved for dusting: the dough should become smooth, supple and elastic, and a small piece stretched between your fingers should turn translucent without tearing.
2. Shape into a ball and place in a closed container, barely greased with a few drops from the 41 g oil and large enough for the dough to double in volume. Leave at room temperature for 1 hour, then refrigerate for 12–18 hours: the dough should rise slowly and develop small bubbles without collapsing.
3. On the day, 3 hours before baking, divide the cold dough into two balls of about 250 g. Shape each by tucking the edges underneath, then place side by side, with space between them, in the same container, wiped clean and dusted with the remaining flour, or in a second container. Close the lid. Leave at room temperature for 2 hours 30 minutes to 3 hours: the dough should relax, and an indentation made with your finger should spring back slowly.
4. 45 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 250°C conventional, with an upturned heavy baking tray or a pizza stone in the upper third. Drain the tomatoes in a sieve for 10 minutes, weigh out 160 g (a little more than half the tin), then roughly crush them by hand with 2 g salt: keep the texture of raw tomatoes, rather than making a purée. Refrigerate the juice and remaining tomatoes for a sauce. Cut 2 garlic cloves into 1 mm slices and crush the third.
5. While the oven heats, prepare the warm chickpeas. Put 25 g olive oil, the crushed garlic clove and the pinch of chilli flakes in a small frying pan over a low heat for 2 minutes, until the garlic is pale golden but not brown. Add the 240 g drained chickpeas and 3 g salt. Heat for 4–5 minutes, stirring and crushing a quarter of the chickpeas with a fork to bind the mixture. Turn off the heat, add the juice of the half lemon and the chopped parsley, then taste: both the lemon and salt should come through clearly. Cover and keep ready for the pizzas.
6. Dust the work surface with some of the semolina. Press out one dough ball with your fingertips, working from the centre outwards and leaving a 1 cm rim. Stretch it over the backs of your hands to a 28 cm round, without using a rolling pin. Shake off excess semolina and place the round on a sheet of baking paper cut to fit, on the back of a cold baking tray used as a peel. If using a proper pizza peel, you can omit the paper: dust the peel with semolina and check that the dough slides freely before topping it.
7. Spread 80 g tomato (half the bowl, about 4 level tbsp) in a spiral with the back of a spoon, leaving 2 cm clear around the edge. Add half the sliced garlic, half the oregano and 4 g oil. Press the garlic slices lightly into the tomato to protect them from direct heat, then bake immediately.
8. Pull the paper and pizza onto the hot tray and close the oven. After 3 minutes, the dough will have set: lift the edge with a spatula, pull the paper out sharply and discard it so the base can brown better. Bake for 8–11 minutes in total at 250°C: the rim should puff up and develop brown spots, the tomato should reduce and caramelise at the edges, and the base should be dry and coloured. If the tomato and crust still look pale after 6 minutes, switch to the grill for 2–3 minutes, watching closely (the element takes 2 minutes to glow red). Rotate the pizza halfway through if the oven heats unevenly. Drizzle each pizza with 4 g uncooked olive oil as it comes out. Prepare the second pizza while the first bakes, then cook it in the same way. Share the first while the second cooks, or keep it on a wire rack for no more than 10 minutes to preserve the base. Serve each portion with warm chickpeas.

On your plate

Cooking tips

The stated 210 minutes cover the dough balls' final rest, preheating and baking both pizzas on the day; the 65 minutes of active time include all hands-on work, including 25 minutes the day before for kneading. Also allow 1 hour at room temperature and 12–18 hours in the fridge the day before. In a very warm room, check the dough balls after 2 hours: they should stay puffy, not spread into puddles. With a proper pizza peel, semolina alone is enough; without one, baking paper pulled away after 3 minutes makes the transfer reliable. The marinara keeps its traditional topping without added protein; the chickpeas are a separate contorno and are included in the recipe's totals. The drained tomato juice makes a base for tomorrow's pasta sauce.

Equipment : large mixing bowl, lidded container for the dough, accurate scales for the yeast, heavy baking tray or pizza stone, baking paper, peel: the back of a cold, rimless baking tray, or a pizza peel, wide spatula, small frying pan, wire rack, sieve, 2 bowls

Topping inspired by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana specifications, with dough and baking adapted for a domestic oven; pan-cooked chickpeas (ceci all'olio, aglio e peperoncino) served alongside.