Kitchen Notebook: Sheetza

This is a recipe for all my fellow lockdown sourdough enthusiasts looking for shortcuts that still make use of our starters.

After making a few dozen entirely mediocre (at best) Neapolitan-style pies, I recently switched to a focaccia-style pizza baked in a sheet pan. Keen to cut as many corners as possible, I also use a sourdough pre-ferment to flavor the dough, but ultimately rely on instant yeast for most of the leavening.

The resulting recipe is:

Easy. Other than a few steps in the morning, the dough simply sits while you work in the next room, ready to bake up once you transition from professional to recreational screen time.
Flexible. I always tinker with the flour ratios and proofing times and have never been disappointed (though the mix below is optimal in my test runs).
Delicious. The hallmark of this recipe is a ridiculously crunchy bottom crust, anchoring a pillowy crumb and the toppings of your choice. The overnight pre-ferment lends a pleasant tang, overlapping with the toasty flavors of the olive-oil-heavy crust.

Let’s cut to the chase, shall we?

Ingredients

Note: this is my flour mix for a 26cm x 38cm baking sheet (15in x 10in), a bit larger than a US “quarter sheet” pan. Most US kitchens use a “half sheet” pan, 18in x 13in. If you are using a half sheet pan, simply double the amount and note your crust will be extra pillowy. Or, use the appended amounts below for a precise measurement optimized for a half sheet pan.

250 g "00" flour or another high-protein white flour (i.e. bread flour)
50 g spelt 812
173 g Water
12 g Salt
25 g olive oil for dough
25 g olive oil to grease sheet pan
6g dry yeast
85 g ripe 100% starter (25% “00,” 25% spelt, 50% water)

Instructions

Before bed the night prior, mix your starter. I add 25 g “00” flour, 25 g spelt 812 flour, 50 g water, and 10-20 g of sourdough starter for the ratios above.
(8:30am) The next morning, add flour, water, olive oil, and sourdough starter to bowl. Mix by hand (or dough scraper / chopstick) for 2-3 minutes until roughly combined. Cover with damp towel and let sit 30 minutes.
(9am)Add salt, and very roughly mix. Then add dry yeast, and mix until combined. Once combined, turn dough out onto lightly-floured counter and knead aggressively for 5 minutes (I use this technique to avoid adding too much flour)
Cover sheet pan with remaining portion of olive oil.
Place dough on sheet pan and flip over a few times to coat thoroughly with oil.
Gently press the dough into as wide of an oval as you can manage. Once the dough seems unwilling to stretch any further, stop and cover the dough with plastic (I use a plastic shopping bag / small trash bag around the entire tray). Let dough relax for 30-60 minutes.
(10am) After the dough has relaxed, return to dough and gently press dough into an even layer covering the entire sheet. Lift dough from sheet occasionally as you work to ensure the bottom layer is completely covered in oil. Cover dough with plastic.
Let dough proof until dinner. At recent room temps at 68F / 20C, I simply let the dough proof all 9-10 hours until dinner. If your room is much warmer, put in the fridge for the last hour. If your room is much cooler, proof the dough in the oven with a light on for a few hours. The dough should be very jiggly and almost ‘soupy’ once finished. This recipe does not create massive bubbles like other focaccia doughs, but the dough should still be visibly well-fermented and risen.
Baking with stone / steel
(6pm) An hour and a half before baking, place a pizza stone or baking steel in the oven on a middle rack. Turn the oven on to its maximum heat for a full hour. In the last 30 minutes of pre-heating, turn on the oven’s broiler / grill to its highest setting to ensure the stone or steel are a shot as possible. Reduce heat to 250C / 500F for baking.

Pre-bake the dough for 5 minutes. Remove, top, and continue baking until the bottom crust turns golden brown (10-15 minutes). If the toppings start to burn before the bottom browns, wrap the top layer loosely in tinfoil.

If you are able, I also like to slide the entire pizza out of the baking tray for the last few minutes and place the pizza directly on the pizza stone / steel. However, this is unnecessary and I only recommend it if you have a metal pizza peel and the pizza slips easily out of the tray.

Baking without stone / steel
(6:30pm) An hour before baking, set a rack to the middle height and preheat oven as high as it can go. Reduce heat to 250C / 500F for baking.

Pre-bake the dough for 5 minutes. Remove, top, and continue baking until the toppings are starting to brown (5-10 minutes). Cover the toppings gently with tinfoil and return pizza to oven until the bottom crust is golden brown (another 10 minutes).

Easy Tomato Sauce

My favorite use of this crust has been the simplest: a layer of mozzarella, then pizza sauce, then grated parmesan. Miso’s salty umami qualities punch up this simple tomato sauce, amplifying the depth of the canned tomatoes for a full bodied flavor.

One can (400g) whole peeled tomatoes
Half of a medium yellow onion
2 cloves garlic
5-10 basil leaves (or 2-3 stems of a small basil plant)
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon miso

Chop onion, then garlic.
Heat butter and olive oil in pan over medium heat until melted.
Add onion, cook 3-5 minutes until starting to turn translucent. Add garlic, cook for another 1-2 minutes.
Add canned tomatoes and basil, cook down for 20 minutes over medium-low heat, stirring regularly.
Stir in miso, remove from heat.

For sheetza, apply this sauce over a layer of mozzarella cheese (the extra fat barrier helps the crust remain light).

Kale, sausage, mozzarella di bufala, and red pesto

Season ground pork with dried fennel, oregano, black pepper, and salt.

Blend some jarred, sun-dried tomatoes with pine nuts and parmesan cheese. Thin with oil as needed so that it can easily be drizzled on top the finished pizza.

Top a par-baked sheetza crust with bits of sausage, torn kale massaged with olive oil, and just a bit of shredded mozzarella cheese. After baking is complete, top with dollops of a creamy cheese like fior di latte or mozzarella di bufala, then drizzle the red pesto as desired.