If I could have only one meal before I died, it would be pizza.

I love the yeasty perfume of pizza baking, the spicy gravy smothered on top, the veggies, the crunch of the outer crust.

The breading, the flavors.

The... Oh, sorry.

I got lost in dreaming of pizza.

Nature's perfect food, in my view, began in Naples.

So let's see how pizza became the food we love so much today, on Christina Cooks, the Macroterranean way.

Underwriting for Christina Cooks is provided by Suzanne's Specialties, offering a full line of alternative vegan and organic sweeteners and toppings.

Suzanne's Specialties, sweetness the way Mother Nature intended.

Jonathan's Spoons, individually handcrafted from cherry wood.

Each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.

Additional funding is also provided by.

Hi, I'm Christina Pirello, and this is Christina Cooks, where each week we take fresh seasonal ingredients and whip them into amazing dishes.

Will they all be plant based?

Yes.

Will they all be amazing?

Absolutely.

So, as I said earlier, if I had only one meal that I could have in my life, it would be pizza.

But I don't send out for pizza.

We make pizza.

My nonna made pizza every Friday night, every Friday night.

And she used her own recipe, which we are going to follow today.

She used to take a quarter cup of warm water.

Now you want to make sure your water is warm, but not hot because if it's hot, it'll kill the yeast.

This is a yeasted dough.

So we have two and a half tablespoons of yeast.

We're going to add a table--a teaspoon, not a tablespoon, a teaspoon of some kind of sugar.

You can use white sugar.

You can use coconut sugar, which is what I use.

And then you're going to add your warm water and this is going to activate the yeast.

So you just want to give it a little bit of a stir to make sure everything is blended.

And then this is going to start to bubble.

If it doesn't bubble, either your yeast is old, your water was too hot or too cold.

It has to be like Goldilocks--just right.

So this should start to bubble.

Okay, now into a mixing bowl, we're going to add some combination of flours.

I use a scale when I'm measuring flour for things like pizza and bread.

Not when I bake cookies and cakes, but when I bake pizza and bread, I do use a scale.

I'm not using one now because I've measured my flour, but invest in one.

It'll make such a difference in the way your bread and pizza come out.

This is double zero Italian flour.

This is a whole grain flour to give us some nice fiber.

But if you use all whole grain, you end up with a pizza that's really, really heavy and no one will fall in love with it.

This is semolina or semola.

Either one.. semolina is a little finer.

This is going to give your pizza crunch.

And everybody likes that crusty edge on your pizza and then some salt.

We're going to mix these together.

I use a fork and you'll see why.

So we're just going to mix this until everything is well blended.

You really want to get your flours well blended for this.

Okay.

You can see the yeast is already starting to bubble.

It happened pretty quickly.

This is really nice fresh yeast.

So this is ready to go.

So we're going to add to this a tablespoon of olive oil and the rest of my water, which is about 300 milliliters.

Now, we're going to make a little bit of like a well inside the bowl where the dough is so that the water doesn't go flying all over the place.

Give it a stir and pour it into the center.

And now using your fork, you mix this and you kind of turn your bowl and just pull the flour into the center, into the liquid so that it starts to come together.

Now, when you're working with dough like like this, try to keep your hands out of it while it's really, really wet.

It's just going to make your hands goopy, and then you're going to add more flour and it's going to be a dry dough and it's not going to hold together.

And you're going to be a very unhappy person.

And once the dough pulls together like this, you see how we have here.

This is really, really nice.

It's already feeling light and sort of stretchy.

Now we take, we flour the board.

Don't go crazy, but flour your board because your dough is going to be sticky now and with a floured fingertips, get your pizza dough onto the board.

And now you start to knead.

Now I'm a big fan of keeping one hand clean and the other hand can get dirty, so that if you need to add more flour, your fingers are dry.

And this is going to knead for 9 minutes.

Okay, so after 9 minutes, this is how your dough should be.

See how it springs back when I touch it with my thumb?

That's dough.

So that's going to go into an oiled bowl and covered with plastic and set aside in a warm place--no drafts--to rest and rise for 90 minutes.

And you see how this bubble forms from the gases in the dough?

Then I usually use a rubber band around my plastic as well to really make sure it's a nice tight seal.

Now you're going to take your dough and you can see it's all, uh, it's airy and stretchy and gorgeous and you're not really kneading now.

You're just pulling it together.

It's really stretchy dough.

And now we're going to take a pizza tray.

And the dough likes to be manipulated, right?

It doesn't like to be rolled.

A lot of people use rolling pins when they make pizza, but it's really not your best way.

When you stretch it like this, you sort of activate the gluten a little bit more and you end up with a pizza that's more crunchy on the edges and you want to make sure you're a little thicker on the perimeter of your pizza.

And it should happen pretty quick and be pretty responsive.

If it keeps stretching back, then you might have kneaded your dough for too long.

So now we have, you can make tomato gravy, which I always have in my house.

You can take a can of tomatoes and hit it with an immersion blender and flavor it with a little bit of garlic powder and oregano and make like a quick gravy.

Or you can use a jarred gravy as long as it's not sweetened with a ton of sugar and has very few ingredients, namely tomatoes.

Okay, so this is going to go into the oven at 500 degrees for about 8 minutes to get a perfect pizza.

This smells so good.

Okay, now I usually finish my pizza with baby arugula, which is really good for digestion because most people, you know, they want cheese on their pizza and you can use vegan cheese if you like.

I just don't.

It's just not my thing.

Some whole basil leaves and while I'm dressing the pizza, did you know that there was a doctor in Italy, Dr. Gallus, who actually won a version of the Nobel Prize for Medicine for creating the theory that if you eat pizza in Italy, made in Italy, it's actually a healthy food.

And speaking of a healthy Mediterranean diet, it's off to Naples to make some authentic pizza in a pizzeria.

Ciao!

Ciao!

(Speaking Italian) Angelo, nice to meet you.

So, I've come here today to learn how to make my first authentic Neapolitan pizza.

(Speaking Italian) Okay, let's go.

Let's go to the kitchen.

Yeah.

In my house, I don't make pizza.

My husband makes the pizza, so I'm excited to learn from you.

So let's make pizza.

We have flour.

The type of flour is double zero flour.

Okay.

Then we have salt, water.

This is tap water, room temperature.

The pizza maker thing that is important for the results of the Neapolitan dough is also our water.

Okay, of course.

Then we have the yeast.

This is fresh yeast.

This is fresh.

We use only fresh yeast okay and we use only a little part.

Yeah, it's tiny.

Yes.

Only two or three grams.

Okay.

Because we don't need to put too much yeast because in this way the dough became very soft, very elastic and very digestive.

And not (sound effect).

It will hop, it will hop back.

It will hop during 12 hours.

We leave the dough for minimum 12 hours.

Wow.

We can start from the water.

Okay.

Right?

Okay.

Okay.

This is half liter.

We put all the water.

All.

Okay.

All.

Then salt.

30 grams.

All.

All.

Wow.

Okay.

We start with 1 ounce [inaudible] near the bowl, we start to mix.

So the salt dissolves?

Yes.

Okay.

Absolutley, it's very important.

So we're just dissolving the salt in room temperature water.

Okay.

When you don't feel the salt.

So that when you don't feel the grains anymore.

Okay, mine's ready.

Then we can add.

[Speaking Italian] Okay?

Yeast.

We crumble.

And then you mix again.

And then the same thing.

You dissolve it again?

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

Mine is all dissolved.

It's okay.

Okay.

Also me.

(Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) Okay.

Okay.

(Speaking Italian) Okay, one hand inside.

One hand in the bowl.

So you use one hand to mix, which is typical.

You keep one hand clean to do other things.

It's better if you don't add to all the flour in one touch.

Right.

Because in this way you can break the little bowl of flour.

And when you do it this way, adding it a little at a time, you don't have lumps of flour.

The flour mixes more evenly.

Bring all flour and we have to clean the bowl.

And you mix, this activates the gluten, yeah?

Hmm.

So you mix to activate the gluten and pull the dough together.

(Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) And a lot of times when you're mixing like this, you, you may have to add more flour because you feel it, you feel the dough.

When I was a little girl, my grandmother was teaching me how to make something with dough.

And I said, "But Nonna, how do you know it's ready?"

How..because she never measured like this.

It was just...

Yes.

She said the dough tells you.

So now, all of these years later, I cook and I teach cooking like you do.

And someone says, How do you know the dough is ready?

It tells you.

The dough tells you.

Come on, Nonna.

So you would knead this dough for 5 to 10 minutes until it was really smooth and elastic.

And that's when you know it's ready.

When it all comes together.. We can.. we can.

Put the dough on the table.

Okay.

Because we need to work in another way.

Yep.

So now you knead for 5 to 10 minutes until the dough is smooth.

You, when you make pizza at home, which you will, you learn, you'll feel it.

You'll know when the dough is smooth enough.

It sticks not to you and it doesn't stick to the table anymore.

(Speaking Italian) Right?

Yeah, right.

Okay.

This is the moment before the dough.

Okay.

That we push with the palm that we turn and repeat.

Okay.

So, what Francesca is saying you turn it, you pull the dough over, turn it, do it again.

So you keep turning it 90 degrees and this will activate the gluten more uniformly.

Yes?

Yes.

As you're kneading, don't worry if your hands are a little sticky when you're at home, because if you keep adding too much flour, then your dough is tough and your pizza is tough.

Right.

When it's ready like this.

Yeah.

We leave for 2 hours, in a bowl covered with the dry cloths.

After 2 hours is possible to make the style.

Style is when the pizza maker cut the single portion because with this quantity we can make four pizzas.

So, okay.

Okay.

(Speaking Italian) We cut and we pull a little bit when we cut.

Yeah.

(Speaking Italian) Okay.

Can now [inaudible].

(Speaking Italian) This is very important because in this moment we remove all the air.

Okay, so what we're doing... Because we don't need to put air now.

Okay.

You're folding sort of it folded in on itself so that there's no air inside and you have a small piece of dough to make one pizza.

Because we leave for many hours.

For many hours.

And that powers the dough, [inaudible].

Okay.

And so you just fold it in on itself.

Yes.

It's very important to close the bottom.

To close the bottom and then there's no air so we can rise.

Okay.

We roll in this way, only with the finger.

We leave this part of hands on the table.

And then with the finger.

Okay.

We don't press on the ball.

Ah, you just roll.

Yes.

No pressure.

No.

Okay.

So the way they ferment their dough is for 2 hours at room temperature and then in a box covered in the fridge.

So slowly, slowly, slowly it rises and ferments and makes it more digestible, more easy to digest.

Absolutely.

Of course.

Perfect.

Now we go to the oven and make pizza.

Okay, now what do we do?

(Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) I'm failing pizza class.

Now [inaudible].

Okay, okay, okay.

(Speaking Italian) Okay, so now we have tomato sauce.

Tomato sauce.

This is San Marzano tomato.

San Marzano.

San Marzano.

Okay, so San Marzano tomatoes are unique to Napoli.

And you can only get San Marzano tomatoes from San Marzano so and they're (speaking Italian).

We only press the tomato and we had just a little bit of sauce.

Okay.

We don't cook before the sauce.

So just, ah..

It's raw, it's raw.

Okay, okay.

Because we have the high temperature in the oven.

Great.

(Speaking Italian) Okay.

(Speaking Italian) Okay.

Okay.

(Speaking Italian) Come on.

We put the basil under the cheese because in this way we protect the basil.

So the basil doesn't burn.

Doesn't burn.

Yeah.

Okay.

But now what about my pizza (speaking Italian)?

(Speaking Italian) It's okay.

It's okay.

it's okay for us.

(Speaking Italian) okay.

(Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) Okay.

The right way for the (speaking Italian), not mozzarella.

Yes.

Is the about 80 grams.

Okay.

(Speaking Italian) Okay, last thing, extra virgin olive oil.

Of course.

No, no.

No, no.

Okay.

(Speaking Italian) Pull.

(Speaking Italian) Okay.

Okay.

(Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) I don't want to mess up my pizza.

I failed pizza class.

Okay.

My husband will say no.

Wow.

(Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) What temperature is the oven?

Approximately?

350.

350.

Centigrade.

Ah, si.

So very hot.

It's very hot.

Very hot.

The pizza cook very quickly only 1 minutes.

Ah, si.

It's already puffing in the back.

Yeah.

The pizza, my pizza, my first pizza.

(Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) One to two minutes in the oven at the right temperature.

Okay (laughing).

Wow.

Ladies and gentlemen, I gave you Christina's first pizza made from scratch.

Francesca, Angelo, (speaking Italian).

Thank you for teaching me pizza.

Thank you for bringing me into your kitchen.

(Speaking Italian) I'm taking my pizza.

Okay.

Okay.

Ciao.

Ciao.

I don't know about you, but is there ever enough pizza?

In my house, my grandmother used to use her leftover pizza dough, because she would make a boatload of pizza dough when she made pizza, and she would make something called a calzone.

Calzone is basically a stuffed pizza, not a stuffed crust.

A stuffed pizza.

It's almost like a turnover.

So what I'm doing now is I took some extra virgin olive oil, some diced red onions and some fresh garlic, and we're making the filling for our calzone.

And we did this probably every Friday night when I was growing up.

A little hot pepper, pinch of salt and we're just going to sautee this filling to create a lovely sort of lush, wonderful, abundant filling in the calzone.

Now, there's no cheese, of course.

So we have mushrooms, cremini mushrooms.

You can use whatever you like.

Some zucchini sliced, some cherry tomatoes halved, another pinch of salt.

Saute this around a little bit.

This is going to sweat and reduce because you're thinking, how big is this calzone?

Not that big.

And then for protein, a little bit of vegan sausage and then this is going to cook until it wilts down.

And once it wilts, then the sort of piece de resistance--I know that's French--is broccoli rabe that will go on top till it just wilts.

So now you take your leftover dough and you're going to put a tiny bit of flour on your parchment.

Not much.

You just don't want to stick.

Now, I know I said earlier that you don't roll pizza dough, but you do roll it for calzone.

And the reason you roll it is that a calzone needs to be thin.

The dough needs to be really, really thin.

Otherwise it's, I don't know.

There's sure I'm sure there's a technical term, but my nonna used to say it's doughy.

And so you want to get it nice and thin, almost like a pie crust, and you want to make sure that it's even and you can have, you know, an organic shape as long as it's something that you can fold in half.

So you need to get it a pretty good size and relatively even.

Okay, now, now we take our cooled filling and it's going to go right on one half of the calzone.

And you kind of make a little bit of an oblong in your filling.

Now you lift the dough over, okay?

And before you finish it, take a sheet pan because it's going to go into the oven on a sheet pan.

And now you don't just like use a fork to seal it.

With a calzone, you take the edges and you roll them so that you create like this braided effect right here.

And so you just roll and roll and roll.

And this is what seals the calzone.

If you do it with a fork, first of all, it looks like a giant dumpling.

And secondly, it'll come apart in the oven, right?

So now you slide it to the center of your sheet pan if you want to, or just leave it.

It doesn't matter.

I usually fold my parchment under, so it's not hanging over in the oven.

Now you take a small knife and you cut three steam slits so that the calzone doesn't burst and crack.

And then the last thing you do before it goes in the oven, take a little extra virgin olive oil on your fingers and rub it over it.

A lot of people use a brush for this.

I don't.

And I only brush the inside.

I don't brush the braid because I want that to brown and get nice and crusty.

So then this is going to go into the oven at the same temperature as your pizza - 500, but it's going to go for about 15 minutes, maybe a bit longer.

It should puff up and be very sort of firm when you touch it.

Okay.

So let's see how it turns out.

All right.

There is our finished calzone.

Look at this.

It's brown and crunchy and puffy and hot.

So now you're going to take a knife.

Oh, look at all the juices come out, pull it apart.

And this is not your nonna's calzone, but that is a calzone nonetheless made from your leftover pizza dough.

It's absolutely the perfect alternative to just making pizza again.

And so easy.

You saw how easy it was.

So what are you waiting for?

Let's get back to the cutting board and I'll see you next time on Christina Cooks, the Macroterranean Way.

Underwriting for Christina Cooks is provided by Suzanne's Specialties, offering a full line of alternative vegan and organic sweeteners and toppings.

Suzanne's Specialties, sweetness the way Mother Nature intended.

Jonathan's Spoons, individually handcrafted from cherry wood.

Each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.

Additional funding is also provided by.

You can find today's recipes and learn more by visiting our website at Christina Cooks.com and by following Christina on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

The companion cookbook, The Macroterranean Way, Volume Two combines the Mediterranean diet with the ancient wisdom of Chinese medicine, allowing us to understand how food affects us, so we can cook deliciously while creating the wellness we want.

To order your copy for $19.95 plus handling, call 800-266-5815.

Add Back to the Cutting Board and Christina's Iconic Glow, a prescription for radiant health and beauty and get all three books for $49.95, plus handling.

Call 800-266-5815.