By Matt Smith Special to OnMilwaukee.com Published Jul 21, 2014 at 2:36 PM

With tomatoes and all sorts of mid-season vegetables coming into the markets, my mind immediately goes to pizza. We make at least two pizzas a week in my house, and I’ve got a no-knead dough that couldn’t be simpler. I’d like to do a couple of pizza recipes here in the next few weeks, so I figured we should start with the dough

A couple of notes with the dough: I like to use "00" flour, which is the finest a flour can be milled, but this dough really works better with all-purpose flour (I prefer King Arthur). A dough’s "hydration" is the percentage of flour to liquid. With this dough, we’re working with a hydration of about 67 percent, and using the fine-milled "00" flour results in a dough that’s just a little too wet.

This recipe calls for a 12-cup food processor fitted with a dough blade, but it can just as easily be made with a mixing bowl and a wooden spoon. The most important thing is that the dough is thoroughly mixed and all of the water incorporated.

Basic No-Knead Pizza Dough
  • 450g all purpose flour
  • 10g kosher salt
  • 10g sugar
  • 10g quick-rise yeast
  • 300g water
  • 10g olive oil
  1. Put flour, salt, sugar and yeast in the bowl of the food processor. Pulse once to combine. Add water and oil.
  2. Turn on food processor and run until the the dough comes together and starts to follow the blade around the bowl, about 20 seconds. Add a little flour if it’s not coming together. Run for an additional 20 seconds.
  3. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and bring it together into a ball. 

This recipe makes enough dough for two 12-inch pies or one pan pie. If you’re making two pies, split the dough in half and put in separate lightly oiled containers that can contain the dough once it doubles. Refrigerate at least one day, up to five. It’ll taste better three days in.If you’re making a pan pizza, put the dough in an oiled 12-inch cast iron pan and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise at room temperature for 24 hours.

Matt Smith Special to OnMilwaukee.com
Matt Smith is a home chef, hunter, fisherman, husband and father (but not in that order). He is a proponent of scratch cooking in the home and has been frustrating his exceedingly patient wife with culinary experiments for years.