Pizza With Lievito Madre

Recently I published an instructable about sourdough and part of this was an explanation how to achieve a lievito madre. It is a living culture mainly propagating yeast but it doesn't have the taste of baker's yeast. In this instructable I will show you how to make a pizza without adding yeast. You will need:

• Lievito madre
• Pizza flour
• Water
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pizzaiola
• Pizza topping
• Pizza cheese

If you don't have a lievito madre I got bad news for you if you crave pizza right now. It takes 25 days to prepare it unless you buy a starter. You need a container and a kitchen scale. The lievito madre is always refreshed with flour and water in a ratio of 2 to 1. We need 150grams, therefor I take 30grams of lievito madre, 40grams of water and 80grams of flour. Stir until you have a mother dough and let it rest overnight.

You need:

• 150grams lievito madre
• 500grams pizza flour
• 180grams water
• 15grams olive oil
• 2teaspoons salt
• herbs (optional)

I like to put herbs like thyme into the pizzadough because they are said to encourage proliferation of microorganisms.

Put everything together into a bowl and stir it, knead it or put it into a food processor to make a smooth, homogenous mixture.

Shape the dough into a ball and cover the bowl with a dishcloth. Since it is a natural yeast source, the dough needs 4 to 5 hours to rise.

Meanwhile we can prepare the tomato sauce for the pizza, the pizzaiola. You need a can of sliced tomatoes, garlic, an onion, herbs and seasonings. Chop the onion and garlic, then sweat them in a pan. Sprinkle some sugar over them to caramelize for a better taste. After 3 minutes add the tomatoes and let it simmer for 30 minutes. Stir from time to time and then season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove pan from heat and check your dough.

It needs to double in size, we have to wait a bit more.

Take half of the dough and place it on a silicon kneading mat. You don't have to swirl it around, first press the sides of the dough flat. Then take one side of the flat dough and lift it into the air to let gravity pull the dough into the shape of your pizza pan.

Preheat the stove to 220°C (425°F). Meanwhile prepare the toppings. Spread the pizzaiola evenly on the pizza base. Add some vegetables, some meat and then cover everything with pizza cheese. Wait with pepper and oregano after the baking, otherwise you will just burn the spices. Put the pizza in your stove for 15 to 20 minutes.

When all the cheese is melted and you see small black spots on the crust then you can consider to take the pizza out of the stove. Now spread some pepper and oregano, slice the pizza and serve them. The pizza is crusty but I still enjoyed to chew on it. It is easy to cut with a knife and still solid enough to not bend down. The pizza base doesn't taste too much like yeast and I really like to eat the pizza with lievito madre. Just have a look at the crumb at the cornicione (thats the crust on the edge):