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Gather your foodstuff and tools.
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Make your sourdough pre-ferment.
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Use starter that is sour smelling in a good way, most likely between 12 and 24 hours old.
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Make your pre-ferment 8 to 12 hours before you want to start mixing your dough likely in the evening before you go to bed or in the morning.
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You want it to be the consistency of thick pancake batter.
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Put the sourdough starter, cool water and whole wheat flour into a big bowl.
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Mix it up real good.
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Cover with a plate or plastic wrap and leave it alone for 8 to 12 hours.
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Mix the lukewarm water, bread flour and sea salt and then mix them into your sourdough ferment.
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This dough will be a little difficult to mix.
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Dont be scared; just proceed as normal, and everything will be fine.
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Once youve mixed everything, cover your bowl with a plate or plastic wrap, and let it sit for 30 minutes to an hour.
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This dough uses a touch more flour than regular bread dough, which leads to a pizza dough thats essentially stronger, making it much easier to shape into a pizza and also yielding a crisper crust.
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Knead the dough.
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After the dough sits for a while, stretch and fold itit will be sweet and gentle yet firm.
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Once youre done, cover the dough, and let it sit for 1/2 hour.
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Knead a few more times.
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After 1/2 hour, stretch and fold the dough another ten times.
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Cover the dough, and leave it alone for another 1/2 hour or so.
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Do this another two times, at 15- to 30-minute intervals.
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Choose your own path.
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Now you get to choose your own adventure for the bulk rise.
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Do what is convenient for you here.
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If you want to shape your dough into balls in 3 to 4 hours, let it sit out somewhere in your kitchen.
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If you want to shape your dough into balls anywhere from 12 to 48 hours later, stick it in the fridge (or just outside if its cool outabout 45 degrees F).
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Shape the dough into balls.
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After the dough has completed its bulk rise, flour your counter and dump out the dough.
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Cut off a piece of dough about 8 oz/225 gitll make a ball thats about 3 in.
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in diameter.
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Use a little flour on your hands to shape it into a ball, and set it on a plate or in a baking pan, seam-side down.
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Do this with all of the dough, placing the balls next to one another.
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If you want to bake pizza within a couple of hours, cover the dough with plastic wrap and leave it on the countertop.
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If you want to bake in 6 to 24 hours, cover the dough with plastic wrap or a plastic bag, leave it at room temperature for an hour, and then put it in the refrigerator.
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If you do this, youll need to let the dough warm up for 30 to 45 minutes when youre ready to make pizza.
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Prepare the toppings.
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Were going simple with this pie: tomato, basil, and cheese (and salt).
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Heirloom tomatoes are delicious and easy to find, but if you have a favorite tomato sauce then be my guestyoull need about 1/4 cup of sauce per pie.
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Preheat the frying pan and broiler.
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Once youre ready to make pizza, put your frying pan on the stovetop, pour in 1 Tbsp of olive oil, and turn that burner on high.
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Turn on the broiler as well, and position a rack as close to the broiler as you can.
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It will take 6 to 8 minutes for both of these to get screaming hot, and youll know the pan is ready when the oil is smoking.
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Just open your windows and get pumped.
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Stretch the dough and toss it in the pan.
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Toss a tablespoons worth of flour on your countertop, and plop a dough ball onto it.
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Sprinkle a little bit more flour on top of the dough, and get to work gently stretching it into a round shape.
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Use your fingertips to press the dough ball into a circle.
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Lift up the dough and gently squeeze it between your fingers and thumb, creating a lip around the outer edge.
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Lay the dough down on the counter, and hit it with a little more flour to prevent sticking.
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Pick up the dough, lay it across the backs of your hands, and gently stretch it out to 10 to 12 in/25 to 31 cm in diameter.
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Once its as big as the frying pan, toss it in there.
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Build the pie.
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Youve got about 3 minutes until the bottom is baked, so theres no need to rush this.
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You can do it however you want, but I like to sprinkle about 1 tsp of Maldon salt on the pizza, mostly on the outer edge of the crust, then spread the tomato slices out to within about 1 1/2 in/4 cm of the outer edge.
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I then artfully toss on 5 or 6 big basil leaves and rip up the burrata into five or six pieces, and toss them on the pie, covering each basil leaf so the leaves dont burn.
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Once youre done, use a fork or spatula to lift up the dough, and check the color of the bottom.
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When it has some dark brown spots, it is ready to go in the broiler.
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Pop it in the broiler.
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Use an oven mitt or towel to place the frying pan in the broiler.
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It will probably take 2 to 3 minutes to get nice and speckled, brown with some specks of black.
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Check it after a minute, and rotate the pan if its browning unevenly.
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Take it out, and finish the pie.
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Be careful taking it out of the broiler, as everything is hot as hell.
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Slide your pizza out of the frying pan and onto a cutting board.
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Drizzle the pie with some extra-virgin olive oil and grate some Parmesan cheese on it.
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Cut it up into slices, let it cool for a minute, and share it with someone you have a crush on.
