Field Guide No. 04

Pizza Dough

The same 250-gram balls that go into our wood-fired oven on Pizza Night, sold frozen. Thaw one overnight — tomorrow is pizza.

A topped pizza on a peel going into the wood-fired oven — Into the fire at Pizza Night

A finished wood-fired pizza with blistered crust — Ninety seconds later

One ball, one pizza

Every ball is 250 grams of the dough we stretch at Pizza Night — half tipo 00, half semola rimacinata, a long cold ferment, frozen at its peak. One ball makes one 10-inch pizza. Frozen, it keeps three months.

Waking it up

The whole craft is patience. Cold dough tears and bakes gummy; warm dough does the work for you.

It's ready when it looks puffy and a poked finger leaves a dent that slowly fills. Stretch with your hands from the centre out — a rolling pin crushes the rim, and the rim is the best part.

1889

the margherita is named for a queen

Naples — so the story goes

2003

Altamura bread becomes Europe's first DOP bread

Puglia — semola country

2017

UNESCO lists the art of the Neapolitan pizzaiuolo

heritage of humanity

½ + ½

00 and semola in every Corner Harvest ball

our house blend, not the rulebook

Where it comes from

Two Italian flours, two regions. Tipo 00 is Naples' soft, silky pizza flour — the one the pizzaioli have stretched for three hundred years. Semola rimacinata is the golden durum wheat of Puglia and Sicily, the wheat in every box of pasta, milled twice until it's fine enough to knead. We use both, half and half: the 00 for the puff, the semola for a crackling, nutty rim. Both are Bob's Red Mill.

How to cook it — pick your oven

Same dough, any oven. Hotter is faster and better — the rim should puff before the middle dries out. Preheat longer than feels reasonable.

Home oven: a steel or an upturned cast-iron pan, preheated 45 minutes at max, 6–8 minutes. Broiler: preheat the steel under it 20 minutes, then 4–6 minutes, turning once. Skillet: 2 minutes on a smoking-hot burner, then 3–4 under the broiler. Grill: lid down, 90 seconds of naked dough, flip, top it, 4–5 minutes. Pizza oven or wood fire: launch, turn every twenty seconds, out in ninety.

A pizza baking inside the wood-fired oven beside glowing coals — 850°F on the floor — turn it every twenty seconds

The Corner Harvest cob oven with a small fire burning inside — Our cob oven, built by hand this summer

Eight pizzas this dough was born for

Thin sauce, less cheese than you think, and anything green goes on after the bake. Half of these start at the stand — our arugula, rosemary, quail eggs, and the tomato and basil plants.

Marinara

tomato, garlic, oregano — no cheese

Margherita

tomato, mozzarella, basil after

Bianca

ricotta, garlic, lemon zest

Potato & rosemary

paper-thin potato, our rosemary

Cherry tomato

Golden Nugget tomatoes + basil

Arugula & prosciutto

our arugula, piled on after

Quail-egg breakfast

five soft yolks from our coop

Mortadella & pistachio

folds of mortadella, crushed nuts

Three to make this week

Home-oven margherita

15 min once the dough is warm

The broiler trick gets a home oven surprisingly close to the wood fire.

You need

◆1 dough ball, fully at room temperature
◆3 Tbsp crushed tomatoes, lightly salted
◆a handful of torn mozzarella, well drained
◆4–5 basil leaves
◆olive oil, flaky salt

Method

1.Preheat a steel or cast-iron pan under the broiler for 20 minutes.
2.Stretch the ball to ~10 inches on floured parchment.
3.Sauce thin — you should see dough through it. Cheese in islands, not a blanket.
4.Slide onto the hot surface and broil 4–6 minutes, turning once, until the rim is puffed and spotted.
5.Basil and a thread of olive oil after it comes out, never before.

TipWet toppings are the enemy: drain the cheese, go light on sauce, and the centre stays crisp.

Garlic flatbread

10 min

For when the oven's hot and pizza feels like too much ceremony.

You need

◆1 dough ball, room temperature
◆2 Tbsp olive oil
◆2 cloves garlic, grated
◆flaky salt, something green to finish

Method

1.Stretch the ball into a rough oval — imperfect is the look.
2.Mix the oil and garlic, brush over the surface, dimple with your fingertips.
3.Bake on a hot steel or pan at max heat until golden and blistered, 5–8 minutes.
4.Salt, herbs, tear and share.

Next-morning focaccia bites

25 min

If the ball thawed and plans changed — it becomes breakfast.

You need

◆1 dough ball
◆olive oil, generously
◆rosemary, flaky salt, a few halved cherry tomatoes

Method

1.Press the ball into a small oiled baking dish; let it sit 30 minutes if it fights back.
2.Dimple deeply, oil generously, press in tomatoes and rosemary, salt.
3.Bake at 425°F until deep gold, ~18–20 minutes.

Pizza night at home

Kids can do almost all of it. Give them the jobs.

Kids' jobs

1
Poke it
If the dent fills back slowly, the dough is awake.
2
Paint it
Spoon the sauce, spread it with the back of the spoon. Thin!
3
Make a face
Olive eyes, a pepper smile, basil hair. Cheese is the freckles.
4
Count to ninety
That's how long a pizza takes in our wood fire.

Questions we get at the stand

My dough keeps tearing.: It's cold. Give it another 45 minutes on the counter — warm dough stretches, cold dough fights.
Can I refreeze a thawed ball?: No. Freezing spends some of the yeast each time, and a twice-frozen ball bakes flat. Thaw only what you'll use; a thawed ball keeps two days in the fridge.
Semolina or semola rimacinata?: Same durum wheat, different grind. Semolina is coarse like sand — good for dusting a peel. Rimacinata is milled again, fine enough to knead. Ours is the fine one.
What's in it?: 00 flour, semola, water, salt, a pinch of yeast. No oil, no sugar, no dairy — vegan as sold.

Grown 40 feet from where you're standing

Everything here comes from the corner lot at 1264 Lincoln Ave.

See what's ready today