Mario Batali's Pizza Dough

March 6, 2009 — -- Sometimes after a long day you just want to kick back, settle in and enjoy the sweet taste of a late-night Italian dish.

Luckily expert chef Mario Batali has come to the rescue with several delicious Italy-inspired dishes to deal with those late-night cravings.

Check out his recipe for Pizza Margherita below or click on one of his other dishes to see those recipes. Then head to the "GMA" recipe section for many, many more meal ideas.

Mario's Pizza Dough

Yield: About 1¾ pounds

Ingredients:

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast, salt and sugar and mix well. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the warm water, wine and olive oil. Using a wooden spoon, stir the wet ingredients into the dry until the mixture is too stiff to stir, then mix with your hands in the bowl until the dough comes together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

2. Lightly dust a work surface with flour and turn the dough out. Knead gently, dusting the work surface lightly with more flour as necessary, for 5 minutes, or until the dough is smooth, elastic, and only slightly sticky.

3. Oil a large clean bowl, add the dough and turn to coat. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel, set in a warm part of the kitchen, and let the dough rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

4. Punch down the dough and it is ready to use.