René Mayer shares his delicious pizza dough recipe, which he makes for friends and visitors at his studio in Bubbio in Piedmont.
Culinary art shares similarities with fine art in that it is stimulating, exciting, and creative, requiring responsiveness and improvisation to achieve a good result. Each organic vegetable, organic fruit, and spice possesses its own unique nuances, and all these flavors must harmonize to impart the dish with its distinctive character.
My motto is to use only a minimum of spices to preserve the taste of each individual ingredient. I love to cook near the large pizza oven that I built under the awning. Here, the success of a dish is determined.
It depends, of course, on the ingredients, but also on the wood (I prefer vine branches), the temperature (the gradation must be controlled), and the smoke (its development must be monitored).
When I have the pleasure of hosting friends or acquaintances, I try to pamper them – usually with homemade pizza. Since the oven consumes a lot of energy, it’s important to use it efficiently. That’s why I prepare various dishes that are baked at decreasing temperatures: Pizza requires about 400°C, bread about 180°C, and Brasato al Barolo (beef braised in Barolo wine sauce) benefits from residual heat.
I let the latter rest overnight in a covered cast-iron pan in the oven. In the morning, checking the pan is a heavenly pleasure: the Brasato has become wonderfully tender, and the sauce is delicious. The same goes for Ossobuco alla Gremolata (veal shanks with a parsley-lemon mixture) or a large roast.
The aroma of Mediterranean dishes stimulates both the imagination and appetite: fresh herbs, olives, capers, sun-dried tomatoes, onions, garlic, and extra virgin olive oil, just the thought of it stirs my appetite!
For me, the pleasure of cooking is ultimately in sharing it with others. So it is a pleasure to share my pizza recipe with you, to make at home and, most importantly, to enjoy in good company.
RENÉ MAYER’S PIZZA DOUGH
What you’ll need
1 large bowl
1 kg wheat flour (00)
3.5 dl milk
3.5 dl lukewarm water
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons salt
30 g yeast
The workout routine begins
Put the flour in the bowl, add milk, water, oil, and salt, crumble the yeast into it… and knead, knead, knead, for 30 minutes!
Let the fine, homogeneous mixture rise for 3 hours, then refrigerate for 48 hours.
2 hours before the pizzas go into the oven’s embers, shape the portions into balls and roll them out.
Then prepare the pizzas as desired.
For the design, I’d keep the copy exactly this way but visually emphasize 30 minutes / 3 hours / 48 hours / 2 hours. That gives you a strong graphic device using only information Mayer actually provided.
