The secret to making a good pizza is the simplicity of a well-prepared and leavened dough, precisely cooked. And of course, your pizza is only  as good as the quality of the ingredients you put in it.

The rules outlined here are the result of trying to revive some old recipes gathered and selected from ancient Italian texts and books.

To obtain a quality pizza and satisfy the taste of your friends and family, you must follow these 5 major steps:

1. The choice of raw ingredients

To get a quality product, your ingredients must always be fresh or well-preserved and must have the following characteristics:
Water: must be potable, not too much lime (if your tap water is high in lime, you need to boil it and let it cool before using it)
The yeast: you can use the fresh yeast (you need to make sure it has a lighter color and feels brittle otherwise it is better not to use it) or you can use the dry yeast which needs to be dissolved in lukewarm water
The salt: you should only use kosher salt. It is more pure and helps secure a longer rising.
The flour: most of the brands commercially available at grocery stores, are almost always weak flours, their leavening times are short (2-3 hours) and the absorption of water is about 50% (1 kg of flour needs 5 deciliter of water). That's why we will use a combination of different flours
The toppings are at the discretion of whoever makes the pizza.  The only recommendation I have for you is to use quality mozzarella cheese and do not grind it in the meat grinder, the taste changes and it melts in a funny way. Buy blocks or balls of mozzarella and shred it by hand using a cheese grater.

2. The Recipe

1 ½  cups of all purpose flour
1 ½ cups of bread flour
½ cup of pastry flour
1 cup of water
2 tablespoons of yeast
2 tablespoons of honey
1/4 cup olive of oil
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Of course the amount can be increased or decreased as needed, and yeast should be decreased if the temperature is high like in the summer time.

3. Kneading the dough

You need to mix the ingredients in succession.
Sift the flour (thus it will rise much more easily).
Always avoid putting closely salt and yeast together, because the salt kills the yeast and prevents it from carrying out its function.
In a bowl dissolve the yeast in some lukewarm water 38 ° C, add a tablespoon of honey (as it feeds the yeast) add a bit of flour until you have a smooth but homogeneous mixture (it should look like a pancake batter) cover the bowl with a cloth and let stand at room temperature for at least 1 / 2 hour.

In large bowl, mix the remaining water, oil, honey and salt. Gradually add half of the flour and mix until you get a loose dough, add the yeast mixture and mix a little bit more, add the remaining flour and knead vigorously until you have a dough that is soft, elastic and doesn't stick to your hands.

4. Leavening

The process of “double leavening” used in many pizzerias does make a big difference.
Put the dough in a large bowl, grease the surface with a little olive oil, cover with plastic film and let it rise at room temperature for 2 hours.

Second leavening:
Divide the dough in 2 balls.
Oil lightly the baking sheets.
Stretch each ball to fit one baking pan.
Cover and let rise at room temperature for one hour.

5. Cooking

Home ovens are much colder and more moist than commercial pizzeria ovens. But we will try to get around that as best we can.
First, you need to go out and find 2 red bricks and put them in the bottom of your oven.  They will act as moisture absorbers, and they will reflect more heat around the pizza.
Second, you need to preheat the oven to 450° F and keep it that way for at least half hour before you can bake the pizza in it.

Now we will cook our pizza in two stages.
Cover your crust with pizza sauce and bake for about 8-10 minutes.
Remove the pan from the oven, top your pizza with mozzarella cheese and any other toppings of your choice. Put the pan back in the oven to finish cooking.
The pizza must be eaten right out of the oven if you want to savor the aroma and fragrance in all its intensity.