This Amazing Pizza Dough Recipe Has Just Three Ingredients, No Kneading Required

If you’re anything like most people with functioning taste buds, then you probably call pizza your favorite food. Even if you’ve never made homemade pizza before in your life, there’s another way of getting your margherita fix besides delivery and DiGiorno. Yes, it involves cooking, but anyone can do it.

This pizza dough recipe, via Bon Appétit, calls for just three basic ingredients: flour, sea salt, and active dry yeast. Better yet, the dough can be made three days ahead and chilled. It requires no kneading, which happens to be one of the trickiest parts of baking bread or making pizza. Too much pressing can break down the gluten and leave you with a gooey, shapeless dough, and nobody wants that.

This recipe takes that out of the equation completely. Start by combining 7 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour, 4 teaspoons of fine sea salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of active dry yeast in a bowl and whisking them together. Gradually stir in 3 cups of water until it’s well mixed, and then use your hands to form the dough into a ball.

Transfer the dough to a large bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rise at room temperature for about 18 hours. The time may vary depending on the temperature—the room should be as close to 72°F as possible—but you’ll know it’s ready to go when the dough is more than twice its original size and you see small bubbles forming on the surface.

Next, cover a counter or flat surface with a little extra flour, plop your dough down, and start working it into a rectangular shape, then divide it into six portions. The next step, described by Bon Appétit, requires a little handiwork, but nothing too challenging:

“Working with one portion at a time, gather four corners to center to create four folds. Turn seam side down and mold gently into a ball. Dust dough with flour; set aside on work surface or a floured baking sheet. Repeat with remaining portions.”

Finally, you can cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rest for about one hour. Then you’re ready to flatten each ball into a circle, add toppings, and bake it for about 10 minutes at 500°F–550°F. Once you've mastered pizza, you can move on to this easy three-ingredient pasta sauce that's hailed by some as the world's best.

[h/t Bon Appétit]