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Pizza

Four Cheese Pizza

Pizza ai quattro formaggi – pizza with four cheeses – can be rossa (red) with a base of tomato or bianca (white) with just the cheese.

Makes 2

Difficulty
Easy
Preparation Time
Over 2 hours
Cooking Time
10 to 30 minutes
Bob's  Kitchen Recipe Card

Ingredients to make 2

  • For the Dough

  • 2g
    Fresh yeast (2.5g dried fast-action yeast)
  • ½ tsp
    Caster sugar
  • 300g
    00 Pizza Flour
  • 200g
    Strong white bread flour, plus extra for sprinkling
  • 2 tsp
    Salt
  • 35ml
    Olive oil, plus extra for greasing

  • For the Topping

  • 300g
    Passata (optional)
  • 140g
    Mozzarella, well drained and ripped into small pieces
  • 120g
    Gorgonzola, cubed
  • 100g
    Fontina, roughly grated
  • 60g
    Parmesan, very finely grated
  • -
    Freshly ground black pepper

Approximate Times

  • Preparation :
    Over 2 hours
  • Cooking :
    10 to 30 minutes

Method

  1. In a jug, dissolve the yeast in 300ml tepid water then add the sugar. Leave in a warm place for 10 minutes, or until it starts to bubble gently. Put the flours in a large bowl, make a well in the centre and pour in half of the yeast mixture. Mix then add the salt and oil and mix again before adding the rest of the yeast mixture. Bring the dough together with your hands or a wooden spoon.
  2. Grease your hands and a work surface with olive oil and turn the dough out. Knead, using the heel of your hand to fold the dough up and over itself, for 3 minutes. Put the dough in a clean, lightly oiled bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and leave to prove in a warm place for 2 hours, or until it doubles in size.
  3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and cut in two, then tuck the corners under to make neat balls. Put on a tray, cover with cling film and leave to prove again for another 20 minutes.
  4. Preheat the oven to 240°C/Fan 220°C/Gas 9. Preheat two heavy baking trays.
  5. Dust a work surface with flour, roll each dough ball into a circle and dimple with oily fingertips. If you are adding passata, spread it over the bases. Divide the mozzarella, gorgonzola and fontina cheeses between the pizzas, leaving a small border to allow for melting and making sure the cheeses make a nice patchwork. Sprinkle the Parmesan over the top and grind over black pepper.
  6. Transfer the pizzas to the pizza trays and bake in the middle of the oven for 15 minutes or until the cheeses have melted and the edges are golden.

Notes

This straightforward pizza dough produces a pizza that is somewhere between a thin and crisp-edged Roman pizza and the plumper bordered Neapolitan one. It is not a wet dough, but kneading with oily hands on an oily surface prevents the incorporation of too much extra flour. It also lends flavour and helps give a deep colour as it bakes.

00 Flour often referred to as Italian-style flour where millers grade their flour by using a ‘zero’ rating. The '00' refers to the super fine texture of the flour. Italian '00' pasta flour with durum wheat has a protein content of 11 to 12 percent and is 'the' Italian pizza flour.

Fontina is a semi-soft Italian cows' milk cheese, deep golden-yellow in colour with a reddish-brown rind. It has a firm, slightly springy texture, melts easily and it is gluten free.

For a vegetarian option use compatable cheeses.