Sourdough Discard Pizza
Quick and absolutely delicious, this pizza dough is incredibly flavorful!
Ingredients
Dough
- 305 grams water (warm to 90℉-115° following the instructions of the brand of your yeast)
- 15 grams fine sea salt (1 Tablespoon)
- 475 grams bread flour (4 cups)
- 35 grams semolina (¼ cup)
- 7 grams instant yeast (2¼ teaspoons)
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 113 grams sourdough discard (½ cup)
- Olive oil (for coating surfaces)
- semolina flour (to prevent dough from sticking)
Pizza Sauce
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 2-3 cloves garlic, crushed or chopped
- 794 grams crushed tomatoes (28 ounces, see note below)
- 1¼ teaspoons sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon ground pepper
Toppings
- 312 grams mozzarella, shredded (11 ounces)
- 28 grams parmesan (1 ounce)
- fresh basil
Instructions
Dough
- In a large mixing bowl, mix salt into the warm water until salt is dissolved. Stir in yeast.
- Stir in bread flour and semolina flour until mostly combined. Add olive oil and sourdough discard. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, approximately 3-4 minutes. The dough should be slightly tacky but not sticky.
- Shape dough into a ball and place in a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and allow it to rise at warm room temperature until doubled in size, approximately 1 hour.
- Very lightly coat the bottoms and sides of round bowls or plastic containers with olive oil. Divide dough into 4 equal balls. Place each ball in a prepared bowl or container and cover loosely with plastic wrap or plastic container covers. Allow to rise at warm room temperature until doubled in size, approximately 1 hour.
PIzza Sauce
- In a medium sauce pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Sauté the garlic just to soften it, approximately 30 seconds. (Do not let it brown.) Stir in the can of tomatoes, sugar, salt and pepper. Reduce to a simmer and cook, uncovered, 45-60 minutes, stirring occasionally. Set aside to cool until you are ready to assemble the pizzas.
Assembly and Cooking
- Preheat oven (with pizza stone or pizza steel in oven) to 550℉ or to the highest temperature.
- Lightly coat the countertop with a drop of olive oil. Carefully pour one of the doughs onto countertop. Starting from the center of the dough, use your fingertips to press into the dough working your way out towards the perimeter of the circle. Lift the dough up, stretching it with your knuckles, so that most of the dough is very thin and the edges more doughy. Place dough onto a pizza peel (or backside of a baking sheet or a cutting board) well coated with semolina flour.
- Top with mozzarella cheese, then with tomatoes. Add parmesan, if desired.
- Use the peel to deliver the pizza onto the pizza stone or pizza steel. Cook for 6 minutes. Rotate the pizza 180°, and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes.
- Top with a splash of olive oil (if desired) and fresh basil. Allow to cool for 1-2 minutes before slicing.
Notes
- If you want to make the dough ahead of time, you can place it, covered, in the refrigerator immediately after kneading it in step 3 so that it bulk ferments overnight in the refrigerator. The next day, divide the dough into 4 equal portions and continue as directed. It will likely take an additional hour for the dough to rise before you shape the pizzas. Alternatively, at the end of step 4, cover each of the 4 container tightly and place them in the refrigerator. The next day, continue with the next step, and it will likely take an additional hour for the dough to rise before you shape the pizzas.
- The sauce can be made up to a couple of days ahead of time, Once cooled, store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
- For the sauce, if you cannot find hand crushed tomatoes with basil and salt, use any brand crushed or diced tomatoes and add 1 teaspoon (instead of ¼ teaspoon) salt and a handful of chopped basil leaves together with the rest of the ingredients.
- This recipe is really about the dough. By all means, feel free to top your pizza however you like! No cheese, no sauce, potatoes, veggies, meat ... cater to your personal preferences!