No Knead Pizza Dough Recipe (with No Cook Pizza Sauce)

No knead pizza dough is a recipe you’ll save forever because it gives you great pizza dough results with a seriously minimum amount of effort! 

Originally published May 6, 2012.

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With this no knead pizza dough recipe, you’ll never have to buy dough ever again. It only takes minutes to prepare and tastes so much better than anything you’ll buy.

This is my copycat recipe from a local LA restaurant with truffled creme fraiche, brie, mushrooms and arugula on the pizza! It’s so good, you’ll be making it on repeat as others who have tried it.

You can top it however you desire, from a classic Italian tomato pizza sauce, to a chocolate hazelnut spread, as they often make in Italy as a dessert! This was one made by a Neapolitan pizzaiolo at a pizza-making class I attended in Naples last year. Nutella is much better quality in Italy, but in the US, I buy other brands like this Pan Di Stelle which has no hydrogenated vegetable oil (Costco also carries an inexpensive one).

When I first shared this recipe, I had joined the Food Bloggers of Los Angeles group where many of the members were complaining about their mothers’ cooking skills, or lack thereof.

My mother’s stuffed artichokes (taught to her by her mother).

Fortunately, I had the opposite problem as my mother is a most wonderful cook! She was born in a tiny village in Southern Italy, and has six older sisters (every single one of whom are also fabulous cooks). One example is my Zia Iolanda and her stupendous gnocchi!  I wrote a post featuring all my aunts and other relatives recipes so you can check out more of them.

I really had a hard time narrowing it down to one thing as I could really choose from hundreds of things that my mother has on her “mental menu.”  Let’s just say I didn’t inherit my sweet tooth from my mother, so I narrowed it down to something savory.

I finally decided on pizza; not just any pizza, but her favorite pizza, which has nothing but tomatoes as a topping. Since she grew up in Italy, one can only imagine that this is not strange, but perfectly understandable, as the flavor of the pizza crust and tomatoes alone is heavenly! You can see a slice of this plain pizza below from Pizzeria via Florida in Rome.

Of course, my pizza can’t compete with pizza made in Italy, but using DOP (Italy’s Federal government certification) tomatoes, top quality extra virgin olive oil, and fresh ingredients, definitely helps.

As with my no knead bread recipe which is from the genius baker, Jim Lahey, this no knead pizza dough is tough to beat. The hardest part is doing the math to figure out when to mix the dough so that it is ready when you want it to be! It’s the same ingredients I’ve always used, but just given much more time to rise with much less yeast (and less work). 

You can even fry this no knead pizza dough and keep it plain. It’s fantastic this way, too!

No Knead Pizza Dough Recipe

dough adapted from Jim Lahey                 makes two large pizzas

FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE BELOW

Ingredients:

• all-purpose flour (to make it even better use 00 flour)
• active dry yeast
• Diamond Kosher or sea salt
• pinch of sugar
• quality extra virgin olive oil
• warm water 

Prep the No Knead Pizza Dough for Use the Next Day

Place all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix together. Make a well and pour in the water. Stir just until everything is thoroughly mixed into a slightly sticky dough. Cover with cling wrap and let rise for approximately 18 hours, or until doubled in size.

Find the best and easiest pizza sauce recipe here (printable recipe card below, too.)

Bake the No Knead Pizza Dough

Prepare two 12×16 (or smaller, if you like a thicker crust) baking trays by drizzling with some extra virgin olive oil, avoiding the edges.

When the dough is ready, knock it down with a spatula, then place it onto a well floured surface and knead for a minute and divide into two equal pieces.

Shape the dough into 12 x 16 rectangles and place on each tray.

 Then drizzle with some more olive oil, and rub all over the dough, again, avoiding the edges.

Let rise for about 10 minutes in a warm, draft-free place.

Heat the oven to it’s hottest setting, minimum of 500ºF (260ºC) then evenly spread the tomato topping on the dough.

When the oven is ready, place one pizza on the very bottom of the oven for 4 or 5 minutes. Then move to the center of the oven for another 5 to 7 minutes. (These cooking times will vary depending on your oven and oven temperature.)

Just lift the pizza with a fork to peek underneath and see if the bottom is brown. The bottom should look like this when it is ready:

The pizza crust should be light brown on top too-I left this one a little pale as I was going to reheat it in the oven later.

Remove the pizza from the oven, and place it on a surface on which to cut it.

Cut the pizza into larger pieces which can be folded in half and eaten this way. This is called “pizza al portafoglio” which you’ll see around Naples when they had you folded pizza (“wallet pizza” is the translation for this style).

You can wrap the bottom part of the pizza in parchment, which is how pizzerias serve their “to go” pizzas in Italy (not necessarily in parchment, but in paper.)

Of course you can make any size or shape pizza with this recipe, and add some mozzarella and toppings too, but I hope you give plain a chance. ? I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised–and you can thank my mother. I hope you enjoy this no knead pizza dough recipe as much as I do. You can also check out this no knead bread recipe.

Pizzas with toppings: mozzarella, Abruzzese hard Italian sausage, and fried red peppers! Delicious!

And plain mozzarella isn’t too shabby, either.

I hope you enjoy this no knead pizza dough recipe as much as I do.

Continue to Content

No Knead Pizza Dough Recipe

Yield: 2 large pizzas

Prep Time: 18 hours

Total Time: 18 hours

A super easy, no knead pizza dough recipe you'll use over and over again!

Print

Ingredients

• 4 cups (454 g) all purpose flour (better choice is 00 flour from Italy)
• 12 oz (355 ml) warm water
• ¼ tsp yeast
• 2 ½ tsp Kosher or sea salt
• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• pizza sauce recipe, below

Instructions

1. Place all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix together. Make a well and pour in the water and oil. Stir just until everything is thoroughly mixed into a slightly sticky dough. Cover with cling wrap and let rise for approximately 18 hours, or until doubled in size.
2. Find the best and easiest pizza sauce recipe here (printable recipe card below, too.)
3. Prepare two 12"x16" (or smaller, if you like a thicker crust) baking trays by drizzling with some extra virgin olive oil, avoiding the edges
4. When the dough is ready, knock it down with a spatula, then place it onto a well floured surface and knead for a minute and divide into two equal pieces
5. Shape the dough into 12 x 16 rectangles and place on each tray
6. Then drizzle with some more olive oil, and rub all over the dough, again, avoiding the edges.
7. Let rise for about 10 minutes in a warm, draft-free place.
8. Heat the oven to its hottest setting, minimum of 500ºF (260ºC) then evenly spread the tomato topping on the dough.
9. When the oven is ready, place one pizza on the very bottom of the oven for 4 or 5 minutes. Then move to the center of the oven for another 5 to 7 minutes. (These cooking times will vary depending on your oven and oven temperature.)
10. Just lift the pizza with a fork to peek underneath and see if the bottom is brown. 
11. The pizza crust should be light brown on top too. Remove the pizza from the oven, and place it on a surface on which to cut it.
12. Cut the pizza into larger pieces which can be folded in half and eaten this way. This is called "pizza al portafoglio" which you'll see around Naples when they had you folded pizza ("wallet pizza" is the translation for this style).

Notes

Use the best quality ingredients and fresh yeast for the best results possible.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 8 Serving Size: 2 slices
Amount Per Serving:Calories: 228Total Fat: 1gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 742mgCarbohydrates: 48gFiber: 2gSugar: 0gProtein: 7g

Nutrition information is only estimated.

Did you make this recipe?

Please leave a review by clicking on the 5 stars above, in the purple header (a form will appear) or tag me on Instagram! 😍

Continue to Content

Best Pizza Sauce Recipe (No Cook, Authentic Italian Style)

Yield: Sauce for 4, 10" pizzas

Prep Time: 18 hours

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Additional Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

The best and easiest Italian pizza sauce recipe.

Print

Ingredients

• 14 oz (400g) can of European tomatoes (preferably pomodoro pelato S.Marzano dell’Agro Sarnese-Nocerino D.O.P) THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT INGREDIENT-do not use inferior quality tomatoes
• 3 Tbsp good quality extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• a few pinches of dried oregano
• 2 or 3 leaves of fresh Italian basil, torn into small pieces
• (optional: a clove of fresh garlic, minced) my Italian family uses garlic, but it's only used on one type of pizza in Naples

Instructions

1. Pour the can of tomatoes into a bowl. If it is pomodorini or whole tomatoes, crush them with your hands, or you can roughly cut them with kitchen shears.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Taste for salt and add if needed. (Don't add a lot of sauce to the pizza dough; you don't want to drown it.)

Notes

Best quality ingredients are essential for this recipe. Do not subsitute the tomatoes.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 4 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving:Calories: 167Total Fat: 13gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 10gCholesterol: 5mgSodium: 453mgCarbohydrates: 10gFiber: 1gSugar: 2gProtein: 3g

Nutrition info is estimated.

Did you make this recipe?

Please leave a review by clicking on the 5 stars above, in the purple header (a form will appear) or tag me on Instagram! 😍

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