When I got a request for this recently, I did a search, and realized South Shore Bar Pizza was the same thing we grew up eating, except we called it cracker crust pizza–the style of pizza we got anytime we’d go to a bowling alley, a movie theater, or any kind of snack bar location. It’s probably the easiest pizza to make, and I’m excited to share my take with you.
Ingredients
- 1/4 teaspoons dry active yeast (1 packet): 2 piece
- 1/2 teaspoons white sugar: 1 piece
- warm water, at about 105 degrees F (41 degrees C): 1 cup
- 2/3 cups all-purpose flour or bread flour: 3 piece
- 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt: 1 piece
- unsalted butter: 2 Tbsp (melted)
- corn oil or other vegetable oil: 2 Tbsp
- 1/2 cups San Marzano tomato puree (from 1 can San Marzano tomatoes), or plain tomato sauce: 1 piece
- kosher salt: 1 tsp
- oregano: 0.5 tsp (to taste, dried)
- pinch cayenne pepper: 1 piece
- corn oil, divided, to grease pizza pans: 0.5 cup
- ounces grated sharp white Cheddar cheese: 8 piece
- ounces grated Monterey Jack cheese: 8 piece
Metric Conversion
Stages of cooking
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Stir yeast, sugar, and water together in a bowl; let sit for about 10 minutes.
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Stir in flour and mix until a dry, shaggy dough forms. Add salt, butter, and 2 tablespoons oil and mix to combine.
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Knead with your hands in the bowl until dough comes together, then turn out onto the counter and continue to knead until a stiff but smooth dough forms, about 1 to 2 minutes.
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Return dough to the bowl; rub the surface of the dough with a small amount of oil. Cover the bowl and let dough rise in a warm place until doubled in size, up to 6 hours. Alternately, place dough in the refrigerator to rise overnight.
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Meanwhile, make the pizza sauce. Blend San Marzano tomatoes until smooth using a stick blender or in the jar of an electric blender. Measure out 1 1/2 cups of the tomato puree and place into a bowl. Stir in 1 teaspoon kosher salt, dried oregano, and cayenne pepper. Refrigerate until ready to make the pizzas.
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Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C). Drizzle 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons oil into a 10- to 12-inch pizza pan.
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Divide dough into 4 pieces and roll into balls. Keep dough covered when not using. Press 1 dough ball into a round disc and place on the prepared pizza pan. Press and stretch dough flat, almost all the way to the edge of the pan. Poke the dough all over with a fork.
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Once the dough is properly punctured, top with about 1/3 cup sauce, spreading all the way to the edge of dough. Top the entire surface with 2 ounces each of Cheddar cheese and Monterey Jack cheese.
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Bake in the preheated oven until cheese is bubbling and bottom of pizza is browned, 10 to 12 minutes. Repeat with remaining ingredients to make 3 more pizzas. Chef John
