Introduction
Pizza in teglia is Italian pan pizza: a wet, airy dough pressed into a well-oiled baking tin, topped with tomato, garlic and oregano, and baked until the bottom is crisp and almost fried. One tin, cut into squares, feeds four.
It is the home version of pizza al taglio, the pizza by the slice sold by weight in Roman bakeries. Italian home cooks often make it rather than Neapolitan pizza, because it needs no stone and no very hot oven: a domestic oven at full heat bakes it in 20 to 25 minutes. This one is the plain rossa, tomato only, so it is vegan. The dough is too sticky to knead; a few rounds of stretching and folding in the bowl do the work. Be generous with the oil in the tin, it is what crisps the base.
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 500 g strong white bread flour (or Italian “0” flour)
- 375 ml cool water
- 4 g dried yeast
- 10 g salt
- 1 tablespoon olive oil, plus 3 tablespoons for the tin
For the topping:
- 1 can of peeled tomatoes (400 g), crushed by hand or briefly blended
- 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- salt
Tools
- A large mixing bowl
- A baking tin or deep baking tray, about 30 × 40 cm
- An oven that reaches 250 °C
Preparation
- Stir the flour, yeast and 325 ml of the water into a rough dough and leave it for 20 minutes. Add the salt, the rest of the water and the tablespoon of oil, and squeeze the dough through your fingers until it takes them in.
- Over the next hour, three times at 20-minute intervals, stretch and fold the dough in the bowl: with wet hands, lift one side, fold it over the middle, turn the bowl and repeat four times. Then cover and leave to rise for about 2 hours, until doubled and bubbly.
- Pour 3 tablespoons of oil into the tin and tip the dough in. Gently stretch it towards the corners with oiled fingertips; when it springs back, wait 15 minutes and stretch again. Leave it to rise in the tin for 30 minutes.
- Heat the oven to 250 °C (230 °C fan), or its highest setting. Season the tomatoes with salt, the garlic, oregano and a spoonful of oil.
- Dimple the dough all over with your fingertips, spread the tomato over it right to the edges and drizzle with the rest of the oil.
- Bake on the lowest shelf for 20 to 25 minutes, until the edges are deep brown and the base is crisp when you lift a corner with a spatula. Cut into squares and serve hot or warm.