Chef Juliana
Beirute Paulistano
You don't need a lanchonete counter to make this. Pão sírio, roast beef, cheese, egg, salad, and a hot pan solve dinner without powder, drama, or fear.
Culinary Explorer
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Pizza de Mussarela
Created by
You don't need a wood oven or a secret hand gesture. Learn one thin dough, bake it hot, and the plainest pizza becomes the lesson that keeps paying you back.
Breads
Brazilian
Comfort Food
Weeknight
Budget Friendly
25 min
Active Time
12 min cook•1 hr 37 min total
Yield2 medium pizzas, 4 servings
You look at dough and hear that little voice: isso não é pra mim. I know. I used to hear it too, standing there with flour on the counter and panic in my chest, as if bread had chosen other people and left me with a notebook. Anota aí: dough is not a personality test. It's flour, water, yeast, salt, time, and your hands learning what soft and elastic feel like.
Pizza de mussarela is where São Paulo teaches you to stop being afraid. No mountain of toppings to hide behind. Just a thin base, tomato sauce, a good layer of mussarela, oregano, and a hot oven doing its job. The method matters because there's nowhere for laziness to disappear. Knead until the dough smooths out, rest it until it relaxes, stretch it thin, and bake it on a very hot surface so the bottom crisps before the cheese dries out.
The everyday Brazilian plate, the pê-efe, is still the center of the house: rice, beans, something from the pan, something green. But a house that cooks also knows how to resolver o jantar when Tuesday arrives with no mercy. This pizza belongs to that same fight for comida de verdade. Not powder, not a frozen disc pretending to be dinner, not the delivery box as a life plan. Real dough. Real tomato. Real cheese.
Make one and you'll understand the trick. Make three and you'll stop calling it a trick.
São Paulo's pizza culture grew with Italian immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, especially in neighborhoods such as Brás, Bixiga, and Mooca. The paulistana mussarela pizza became its own local habit: thin crust, tomato sauce, plenty of cheese, oregano, and often a green olive on each slice. Pizza on Sunday night is so fixed in São Paulo that the city is often described as one of the great pizza capitals outside Italy, though the style is entirely local by now.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
all-purpose flour
Quantity
3 cups, plus more for dusting
instant yeast
Quantity
1 teaspoon
sugar
Quantity
1 teaspoon
fine salt
Quantity
1 1/2 teaspoons
warm water
Quantity
1 cup
warm to the touch, not hot
olive oil
Quantity
2 tablespoons, plus more for the bowl
tomato passata or crushed tomatoes
Quantity
1 cup
garlic
Quantity
1 small clove
grated
olive oil for the sauce
Quantity
1 tablespoon
salt for the sauce
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
mussarela cheese
Quantity
2 cups
grated or thinly sliced
dried oregano
Quantity
1 teaspoon
green olives (optional)
Quantity
8
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| all-purpose flour | 3 cups, plus more for dusting |
| instant yeast | 1 teaspoon |
| sugar | 1 teaspoon |
| fine salt | 1 1/2 teaspoons |
| warm waterwarm to the touch, not hot | 1 cup |
| olive oil | 2 tablespoons, plus more for the bowl |
| tomato passata or crushed tomatoes | 1 cup |
| garlicgrated | 1 small clove |
| olive oil for the sauce | 1 tablespoon |
| salt for the sauce | 1/2 teaspoon |
| mussarela cheesegrated or thinly sliced | 2 cups |
| dried oregano | 1 teaspoon |
| green olives (optional) | 8 |
Equipment Needed
- •Large mixing bowl
- •Pizza stone, baking steel, or heavy baking tray
- •Pizza peel or parchment paper
- •Rolling pin, optional
Instructions
- 1
Mix the dough
Put the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt in a large bowl and stir so the yeast and salt are not sitting in one angry little corner. Add the warm water and olive oil, then mix with a spoon until no dry flour is left. The dough should look rough and a little sticky. Good. Dry dough bakes tough, and nobody needs a cracker with cheese on top pretending to be pizza.
Warm water means comfortable on your finger, not hot. Hot water can hurt the yeast, and then you'll wait an hour for dough that has no intention of moving. - 2
Knead until smooth
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured counter and knead for 8 to 10 minutes. Push it away with the heel of your hand, fold it back, turn it, and repeat. At first it will grab your fingers like a needy child. Keep going. When it turns smoother, springier, and only lightly tacky, the flour has hydrated and the dough has learned to stretch without tearing.
- 3
Let it rise
Rub a clean bowl with a little oil, put the dough inside, turn it once to coat, and cover it. Let it rest in a warm spot until it looks puffy and nearly doubled, about 1 hour. This rest is not decoration. It gives the yeast time to make the dough lighter and gives the flour time to relax, so you can stretch it thin instead of fighting it like a bedsheet with opinions.
- 4
Make the sauce
Stir the tomato passata, grated garlic, olive oil, and salt in a small bowl. Taste it. It should be bright, lightly salty, and clean. Don't cook it to death before the oven even sees it. The sauce will concentrate as the pizza bakes, and a fresh tomato taste is what keeps the cheese from feeling heavy.
- 5
Heat the oven
Put a pizza stone, baking steel, or upside-down heavy baking tray on the middle rack and heat the oven to 260°C (500°F) for at least 30 minutes. You need the surface properly hot before the dough lands. A hot base sets and crisps the bottom fast; a lukewarm tray gives you pale, soft pizza that bends sadly under the cheese.
- 6
Stretch the rounds
Divide the dough in half. Keep one piece covered while you work with the other. On a floured counter, press the dough from the center outward, leaving the edge just a little thicker, then stretch it into a 25 to 30 cm round. If it snaps back, stop for 5 minutes and let it relax. Force it and it tears. Wait, and it cooperates. Cooking is like that, annoyingly often.
- 7
Top with restraint
Move the stretched dough to a floured pizza peel or a sheet of parchment. Spread on half the sauce in a thin layer, leaving a small border. Add half the mussarela, scatter with oregano, and add olives if using. Don't bury the dough. Too much sauce makes the center wet, too much cheese leaks oil, and then the pizza teaches you the lesson by collapsing in your hand.
- 8
Bake until crisp
Slide the pizza onto the hot stone, steel, or tray and bake for 8 to 12 minutes, until the rim is browned in spots, the bottom is crisp, and the cheese is melted with small golden blisters. Look underneath with a spatula. The bottom should have color, not just confidence. Repeat with the second pizza and let each one sit 2 minutes before slicing so the cheese settles instead of running away.
Chef Tips
- •Use low-moisture mussarela if you can. Fresh wet cheese tastes lovely, but it releases more water and can make the center soft. If it's what you have, slice it thin and pat it dry first. A Tuesday is a Tuesday.
- •Skip powdered tomato mixes and fake cheese blends. That's not a shortcut, that's someone selling you the idea that flavor comes from a packet. Tomato, garlic, oil, salt. A gente consegue.
- •If your oven only reaches 230°C (450°F), bake a little longer and preheat the tray very well. The crust won't be quite as crisp as a hotter oven, but it will still be yours and it will still beat waiting for a box.
- •Make the dough in the morning and let it rise slowly in the fridge all day. It gets easier to stretch and tastes better. Dinner then becomes topping and baking, which is exactly the kind of shortcut I respect.
- •Oregano is not decoration here. It is the smell of paulistana pizza. Rub it between your fingers before scattering it so the oil wakes up and you actually taste it.
Advance Preparation
- •The dough can be made 8 to 24 hours ahead and kept covered in the refrigerator. Let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before stretching.
- •The sauce can be mixed up to 3 days ahead and kept covered in the refrigerator.
- •Parbake stretched dough rounds for 3 minutes, cool, wrap, and freeze for up to 1 month. The crust will be less delicate, but dinner will be faster.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 245g)
Calories
660 calories
Total Fat
26 g
Saturated Fat
9 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
16 g
Cholesterol
30 mg
Sodium
1650 mg
Total Carbohydrates
82 g
Dietary Fiber
4 g
Sugars
4 g
Protein
25 g
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