New York-style stone baked pizza

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Ready to go back in the oven

Stone baked base resting while the other base is cooking

Having just got my pizza stone, I am rushing around trying to find pizzas that are really well suited to 'the stone'.

This one uses the grill, a pizza stone and the oven so it's as close to a proper pizza oven as you can get.

Ingredients

• 1 portion pizza dough - Makes 2 pizzas
• 150 g ball of mozzarella cheese, torn into pieces
• 1 spicy pepperoni-style sausage
• 300 to 350 g cooked meatballs - (I used turkey and chicken meatballs from Waitrose - delicious)
• Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 cup spicy tomato sauce
• Handful of basil leaves, torn
• 1 tablespoon pickled capers
• 1 tablespoon cornmeal

Mise en place

• Make the pizza dough as instructed
• If using a pizza stone, pre-heat the pizza stone under a very hot grill for about 20 minutes. Place it about 8cm (3") from the heat source.

Method

1. Make 1 pizza per person
2. Dust the work surface with yellow cornmeal
3. Stretch or roll the dough into two thin rounds
4. Sprinkle the stone with cornmeal
5. Pre-cook the empty pizza base on one side only for about 3 minutes or until it is lightly browned
6. Remove from the oven, flip and add the topping.
7. Lightly oil one side of the pizza and grill, oiled side down, flip an repeat, about 2 minutes per side
8. Drizzle the pizza with olive oil and spread the pizza with ½ of the tomato sauce
9. Top with torn mozzarella, Crushed garlic, sausage and meatballs
10. Bake for 3 or 4 minutes or until the cheese browns a little - watch it carefully as it can burn easily.
11. Remove and sprinkle with torn basil and capers
12. Keep the fist pizza warm at the bottom of the oven whist you make the second.
13. Serve hot

Chef's note

If you don't have a pizza peel use an upturned plate, dusted with cornmeal and some deft handwork to slide the dough onto the stone.