Make your own Roman-style pizza

During the pandemic, Friday night means takeout. And the go-to choice for many of us is pizza.

At Farinella in Little Italy, takeout has been a godsend for sibling owners Cesare and Nina Agostini, butCesare still wants people to experience the fun of homemade pizza too.

And while you might not have all the carefully selected flours, cheeses and toppings that have made Farinella so popular, he believes you canstill make a mighty fine pie at home.

Agostinishared some of his secrets on All In A Day this week,as the show continues to profile the best pizza places in town.

"I feel that sometimes people are so disconnected with food that they forget the beautiful feeling of making something from scratch and sharing it with the ones you love," he wrote in the Braised By Wolves cookbook, released in 2020 for charity by Ottawa's Raised By Wolves clothing and lifestyle brand.

Cesare Agostini's DIYpizza dough

Ingredients:

• 8 cups Type 00 flour OR unbleached bread flour
• 3 cups cold water
• 1 tbsp. sea salt
• 2 tbsp. dark honey
• 1 tsp. fresh or dry active yeast
• 2 tbsp. olive oil

Instructions:

1. Place flour, yeast, honey and 2cups of the cold water in a mixer and mixon low speed for four to fiveminutes. The dough should come together into one massand still look rough and shaggy.

2. Slowly add the salt and the remaining water to dough while mixing. Once all the waterhas been added, mix on the next highest speed.

3. When the water has been fully absorbed (this can take up to fiveminutes) and the dough appearssmooth, slowly add the olive oil. After about oneminute, the dough shouldbe smooth, shiny and have absorbed the olive oil.

4. Remove dough from mixer and place in a container that will allow thedough to double in size.

5. Leave the dough out for one to twohours if planning to eat the same day orplace in the fridge until the next day.

Note: If you make the dough in the morning and would like to use it fordinner, then leave it out. If you are planning to make pizza the next day, then put the dough in the fridge. Both options work perfectly fine andgive the dough different flavours and characteristics.

6. Once dough has doubled in size, portion it into seven to nine rounddough balls that each resemble a baseball.

7. Place the baseball-size dough portions on a floured sheet pan and cover with plasticwrap. This process can be done with the dough either at room temperatureor cold from being in the fridge.

8. Let the dough balls double in size, at which point they're ready tobake.

9. Preheat oven to the maximum temperature (about 550 F) and use either a baking stone,baking steel, cast-iron panor standard sheet pan.

10. Stretch the dough balls to your desired size, top them however you'd like, and place them in the oven.

11. Once the crust has achieved a golden brown colour and the bottom has aneven bake, remove the dough from the oven.

12. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil and enjoy.