Spaghetti alle vongole

I think I’ve had enough of my little expat kitchen. I don’t mean this one here of course, but my actual little expat kitchen, the room in my apartment that is small, bursting at the seams with things I have accumulated over the years, the kitchen that drives me crazy because I need.more.space. If anyone but me dares to take even a single plate out of one of my cupboards, they’ll most certainly end up with a dozen other plates on their heads. You need to be dexterous and somewhat of a magician to handle the overcrowded chaos that is my kitchen.

Also, we rent our apartment, and in most cases here in the Netherlands, big city apartments have small, nay, tiny kitchens that most of the time come with the electrical appliances, which is not a good thing. No one who rents buys the major appliances, which means that you get stuck with some that may be old, dysfunctional and, well, impractical. Such is the case with mine.

The oven is too small, too old and heats in patches. The refrigerator is small, with a rickety shelf (that’s kind of my fault) and a tiny freezer. The gas stove is, you guessed it, small, and for the last couple of weeks the bigger gas ring is not working (that’s not my fault). I may have some fancy pots and pans but I can’t use them.

This situation has taken away my will to cook. For this and various other reasons, we have been thinking of moving for a long time now, but it’s not that easy because I can’t find an apartment with a kitchen that I like. Yes, it’s come to this, the kitchen is the only room in a house that matters to me.

Anyway, I could go on and on about this for a looong time, so let’s get down to what’s important here. The food. I only needed the two gas rings in my kitchen that work for this, so I put them to good use and made a fantastic spaghetti alle vongole, that classic Italian, or Neapolitan to be exact, dish that truly is breathtakingly delicious in its simplicity.

The most important ingredient is of course the vongole (clams), and you need to buy them fresh, don’t use canned or bottled ones, unless you want to ruin the dish. The sweet, supple vongole, with that fresh, intense aroma of the sea is what this dish is all about. As for the rest of the ingredients, you most probably already have them in your kitchen; spaghetti, garlic, olive oil, white wine, dried red chilli flakes, fresh parsley.

As soon as we sat on the table, I couldn’t stop devouring the plump, briny flesh of the bivalves, swiftly twirling the spaghetti around my fork, slurping on any stray strand that had the audacity to resist getting into my mouth, dunking my bread into the aromatic sauce with the light acidity from the white wine, with the chili that tingled my palate and the garlic, present but not overpowering.

This ultimate taste of summer, just before its unofficial end, was exactly what I needed and it made me realize that I may not have the kitchen of my dreams, but what I create in it can be, at times, dreamy.

Spaghetti alle Vongole in bianco (Spaghetti with Clams in a white sauce)

The Italians prepare this dish in two ways: a) in rosso, meaning in a red (tomato) sauce and b) in bianco, meaning in a white sauce without tomato. I prefer the second version of the dish as in my opinion, tomatoes overpower the flavor of the little mollusks.
By the way, the broth-like juices are essential in the dish, so make sure to have some bread to soak them all up.

This dish is easy but also a bit tricky. The spaghetti need to be cooked al dente, the vongole should be just cooked and not overcooked otherwise they’ll become rubbery, and the bringing together of the two needs good timing. Also, the correct cleaning of the vongole is important (in the recipe I explain in detail how to do it).

Oh and something else, spaghetti alle vongole is never topped off with cheese. If you insist on adding cheese, I will turn a blind eye, but don't let any Italians see you.

Yield: 4 main-course servings

Ingredients
1 kg fresh, live vongole (palourdes / small clams)
400 g spaghetti (I used De Cecco no12)
4 plus 1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for finishing the dish
2 garlic cloves, minced
¼ tsp dried chilli flakes
250 ml dry white wine (I used Pinot Grigio)
A handful of flat-leaf parsley leaves, finely chopped
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Special equipment: large bowl, large and deep frying pan with lid


Preparation

Cleaning the vongole
Vongole should be alive when you buy them. You can store them in the fridge for 1 day before you use them. Place them inside a bowl while they’re still inside the net (they’re usually sold wrapped in small nets) and you can loosely cover them with a plastic bag. Just make sure you make holes in the bag for the air to circulate.

When you want to prepare them for cooking, you need to clean them. The vongole have sand inside and if not purged, the dish will be sandy and grainy. For the vongole to purge the sand, they need to be put in salted water for a few hours. The vongole will open up, take in the clean water from one side and purge the sand from the other.

Remove them from the net (or any other packaging), rinse them well under cold running water, checking if their shells are clean. If not, rub them with your hands or a soft brush to remove any dirt. Transfer them to a large bowl, add enough water to cover them and add 3-4 Tbsp salt. Stir them around with your hands and cover the bowl with a dark-colored tea towel (the vongole open when it’s dark) and leave the bowl in your kitchen, somewhere shady, not in direct sunlight. Leave them like that to purge the sand for 3 to 5 hours, depending how much time you have, and then remove each vongole from the bowl. You’ll notice that the water is now dirty. Discard any vongola that has a broken shell and keep the ones that are tightly closed. If you find any that are open, tap them gently and if they close after a few seconds, keep them, otherwise discard them because they’re dead. Place the vongole in a clean bowl until ready to use, which should be soon.

Cook the spaghetti
Boil the spaghetti in salted boiling water until cooked al dente (to the tooth) or to your liking, stirring often so they don’t stick to one another.

Cook the vongole
While the spaghetti is cooking, in a large frying pan add 4 Tbsp of olive oil and heat over medium heat. Add the garlic and the chilli flakes and sauté for 1 minute, being careful not to burn the garlic. It will become very bitter if you do. Add the wine, turn heat on to high and once the wine begins to bubble, add the vongole, stir well and put on the lid. Boil/steam the vongole for about 3 minutes until their shells have just opened, shaking the pan from time to time. Do not overcook them as they’ll become rubbery and lose their flavor. Remove pan from the heat and ideally at this point the spaghetti should be ready. Strain them and add them to your vongole, add some black pepper and 1 Tbsp of olive oil, and mix well. Give it a taste to see if it needs any salt. The vongole have that natural salty quality from the sea, so most probably you won't have to add any salt.

Serve immediately into bowls, sprinkle with some extra black pepper, parsley and a little olive oil to finish.
In case you find any vongole that haven’t opened, discard them.

Enjoy with some bread and white wine. Pinot Grigio is an excellent choice.

Homemade chèvre

If someone put a gun to my head and told me to pick between savory and sweet, I would definitely go for savory. No second thoughts. There are so many options with savory food, you can make anything your heart desires, from fish and meat to pasta and every kind of salad imaginable. You can be freer, you can improvise, cook on a whim, not worry about grams and egg sizes and baking pan dimensions.

I could never live without my favorite savory dishes but I can live without sweets, well, at least for a day or two. There is something you can make though, that with the right combination, can offer you the best of both worlds. Something that can be used both in savory and sweet dishes. That is of course chèvre aka goat’s cheese. [Chèvre means goat in French]

The tart flavor of goat milk is what makes this cheese unique and the tang is what makes it pair so well with spinach and beef but also with honey and fruits.

Soft, crumbly, moist goat’s cheese is so easy to make at home that it’s crazy not to try it. The freshness, the aroma, especially when still warm, is incomparable to the mass-produced goat’s cheeses that you find at your local supermarket.

In my humble opinion, chèvre is far better tasting than ricotta or similar soft cow’s milk cheeses as it is more complex, creamy and rich due to the fact that goat’s milk has more fat than cow’s milk. And when you are lucky enough to find goat’s buttermilk and add it to the mix, it gives the cheese even more depth of flavor.

I have made chèvre many times and it always disappears from the fridge in a matter of hours. We like to smear it onto freshly toasted baguette slices or homemade barley bread drizzled with Greek extra virgin olive oil. It’s a snack that can only be surpassed by juicy tomatoes on sourdough but let’s not go there yet.

As I stated in the beginning of this post, this cheese is versatile in every sense of the word. You can add it to spanakopita or tyropita along with some good Greek feta, to this tartine, or perhaps this smoked trout and lentil salad. Crumbling it on top of pizza is an excellent idea, but so is adding it in a sweet tart with pistachios and honey. You can add some herbs like rosemary or thyme to your freshly made, supple cheese and serve it alongside crostini or grissini, or add it to an omelette which will most probably equal to the simplest, tastiest lunch you’ve had in months.

It’s just a matter of waiting; waiting for the whey to drip out, waiting for the cheese to dry. You will have to be patient, but in the end you will be rewarded with the clean, tangy taste of fresh, homemade chèvre.

Homemade Chèvre - Goat’s Cheese

The process of making this cheese is very easy but you will need a thermometer. It really helps and, if you cook a lot, it’s a good idea to buy one.

If you can’t find goat’s buttermilk which luckily I did, use cow’s buttermilk.

If you want a creamy consistency then I would advise you to let the cheese drain for 1 hour. After 2 hours it will be semi-soft and after 4 hours it will be very crumbly. Experiment, and if you end up with a more dry cheese than you’d prefer, add the whey back to the cheese, about ½ tsp at a time, folding it in until you reach the desired consistency.

Yield: about 300 g

Ingredients
750 ml fresh goat’s milk
500 ml fresh goat’s (or cow's if you can't find it) buttermilk
Juice of 1 lemon (about 60 ml)
½ tsp fine sea salt

Special equipment: candy/deep-frying thermometer, large cheesecloth or muslin cloth, fine sieve or colander


Preparation
In a medium-sized, heavy-bottomed saucepan, add the milk and buttermilk and attach the thermometer to the pan. Heat over medium-high heat and bring the milk to a temperature of 80 degrees Celsius / 175 Fahrenheit. It will take about 10 minutes to reach that temperature and at this point, the milk should bubble and start to curdle. If not, leave it on the heat until it does but don’t allow it to come to the boil.

Take it off the heat and add the lemon juice. Lightly stir with a spatula and you’ll clearly see it curdling. Don’t stir anymore and allow the temperature to drop to 55-60 degrees Celsius / 130-140 Fahrenheit. It will take about ½ hour and the curds will thicken as the temperature drops.

Line a fine sieve (or colander) with cheese or muslin cloth and set it over a large bowl to catch the whey. Slowly pour the curds into the cloth and drain the whey into the bowl. You can either save the whey for another use or throw it away. It would be good to throw it away after your cheese is ready in case it turns out too dry. By adding whey back into it, it will become creamy. Tie the top of the cheesecloth with baker’s twine, as close to the cheese and as tight as possible, and hang it somewhere in your kitchen over a bowl to catch the drippings.

Leave it for about 2 hours to have a proper chèvre consistency. (Or read notes above the ingredients list for alternatives).
Untie the twine, open the cloth and remove the cheese carefully. At this point, you can add your herbs and salt stirring them into the cheese or if you don’t want to mess with the nice ball of cheese, simply sprinkle salt over the top.

You can keep it in the fridge, inside a plate and covered with plastic wrap, for up to 1 week but if you’re anything like us, it will not last more than a day or two. Having said that, the flavor of the cheese will intensify after a couple of days in the fridge so perhaps the second time you make it, it would be worth it to leave it there to see the difference in taste.

Running up that hill *

People can be hard on each other for no reason. No reason at all.
We all want to be loved, accepted and nurtured by our environment and the people we surround ourselves with, we all seek the same fundamental things in life and yet many times, we are out to get each other, to make each other feel bad or less of a person.

If we stopped and realized that we're all in this together, things would be so different.
Wouldn't the world be a better place if we were all kind to one another, smile to those around us, laugh at each other's jokes, help each other with what may seem trivial to us but know that to the other person is vital?

Going through difficult things in life makes you recognize what's important, what really matters. It makes you realize that the energy you give off, feeds those around you and what you give is ultimately what you get back.

Life is so precious, our loved ones and those we count on are precious. If we paused to think about that every once in a while, our lives would be better. Reaching out, trusting and being open to people is important. Even if it seems difficult sometimes.

As always, for me, food is one of the things that makes life better. Maybe I sound like a broken record when I say this, but sharing food with the ones I love and appreciate, is what counts.

A couple of weeks ago I won a copy of Aran Goyoaga's book 'Small Plates & Sweet Treats' on a giveaway on El's beautiful blog Fresh. Aran, the creator of canelle et vanille, wrote a wonderful book, filled with stunning recipes and photographs. When I got my hands on it, I was flipping through it like crazy, getting excited about every single one of her recipes, which are all gluten-free.

I'm not on a gluten-free diet, I actually can't imagine not eating gluten, but her recipes can easily be converted. The one I chose to cook first though, chestnut crêpes with creamy mushrooms, was a gluten-free one. I was taken by the type of flour she used; chestnut flour. I had never used it before but being a lover of chestnuts, I was sure I was going to love its flavor, and I did.

Chestnuts and mushrooms have an affinity for each other so it was not surprising that the marriage worked. The thin crêpes had a nutty, earthy and vaguely sweet flavor with a hint of nutmeg that intermingled with the woody, creamy wild mushrooms and the fresh thyme to create a combination of flavors that was simply brilliant.

* The writing of this post was accompanied by the music of Kate Bush and this song in particular.







Chestnut Crêpes with Creamy Wild Mushroom Filling
Barely adapted from Small Plates & Sweet Treats

These crêpes are deeply satisfying and filling and they'd make the perfect lunch served with a leafy salad.

They can also easily be turned into a sweet treat by omitting the parsley and pepper in the crêpe recipe. Pair them with hazelnut spread, hot chocolate sauce, drizzle them with honey and serve them with whipped cream; the possibilities are endless.

Chestnut flour has been used in Italy for centuries and is considered to be a staple in Italian cuisine. That counts for something, right? Don't be afraid to use it, but in case you can't find it where you live, you can substitute with all-purpose flour.

Yield: Ten 25cm crêpes

Ingredients

for the crêpes
100 g chestnut flour
250 ml fresh whole milk, at room temperature
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1½ Tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley leaves
¼ tsp salt
Pinch of grated nutmeg
30g unsalted butter, melted and cooled

60 g unsalted butter, melted, for greasing the pan

for the mushroom filling
3 Tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled
450-500 g assortment of wild mushrooms (I used shiitake, chestnut, oyster), cut in half or quartered if too big
4 sprigs of fresh thyme
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2-3 Tbsp crème fraîche
1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley leaves

Special equipment: immersion blender or stand blender, 25 cm non-stick sauté pan or crêpe pan, heatproof brush


Preparation

make the crêpes
Place all the ingredients for the crêpes in a large bowl or in a stand blender. Use an immersion blender to mix the ingredients well or mix in your stand blender. (In case you have neither kind of blender, whisk vigorously with a hand whisk).
Place the crêpe batter in the refrigerator, covered with plastic wrap, for 2 hours before using.

You can make the crêpe batter a day ahead if you wish.

Just before starting making the crêpes, take the batter out of the refrigerator and transfer it into a pourable container. It will be easier to add to the pan.
Heat the non-stick sauté or crêpe pan over medium-high heat and lightly brush the bottom and sides with melted butter. Whisk the batter and add 3-4 Tbsp right in the center of the pan, swirling it quickly around so that the batter coats evenly the bottom of the pan. You're aiming to make thin crêpes. You need to swirl the pan quickly because if you wait, the batter will solidify before you get the chance to spread it evenly around the bottom of the pan.
Cook the crêpe on one side for 30-40 seconds or until it takes on a golden color and the top is set and then, using a spatula, lift the sides of the crêpe a bit all around and, carefully yet quickly, flip it over. Cook on the other side for 10 seconds, transfer it to a large plate and continue cooking the rest of the batter, placing each one on top of the other.
You can either eat them now or place them in the fridge (after they have cooled), covered tightly with plastic wrap, and eat them the next day. They reheat really well.
You can also freeze them for 1 month.

Important notes about crêpes:
1. Crêpes can be intimidating, especially if you haven't cooked them before. You need to keep in mind that the first crêpe will always be a disaster and it'll end up in the bin. It's kind of like a test to see how much of the batter you need to add to the pan, how you're going to spread it around the pan, how you're going to flip the crêpe. I never throw the first crêpe away though, I just test to see if the batter needs more salt etc. So, don't be discouraged if even the first couple of your crêpes turn out to be not very appealing. On your third crêpe you'll be doing perfectly.
2. I use a long and narrow offset icing spatula to flip my crêpes. Other people use two spatulas, others use a fish spatula. Nothing is set in stone. See what works best for you.
3. Even if the crêpe tears a little, it's okay. It happens to me all the time and as long as it's not a large tear that will cause the filling of the crêpe to seep out, then it is definitely a keeper.
4. Crêpes, and these in particular, don't stick together so don't be scared to stack them.

prepare the mushroom filling
In a medium-sized sauté pan, add the olive oil and heat over medium heat. Add the two garlic cloves and sauté for a couple of minutes in order to infuse the olive oil. Be careful not to burn the garlic because it will give a bitter taste to the oil. Remove and discard the garlic.
Add the mushrooms and the thyme sprigs to the pan and cook, stirring constantly, for 3-4 minutes, until the mushrooms soften and slightly caramelize. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper and then add the crème fraîche. Stir well until you have a creamy sauce and immediately remove the pan from the heat.

assemble the crêpes
Take one crêpe and lay it open on a plate. Add 3 tablespoonfuls of mushrooms down the center of the crêpe, sprinkle with some chopped parsley and roll it up. Sprinkle some more parsley on top and continue doing the same with the rest of the crepes.

Serve the crêpes immediately.

The Pizza, Part One: The Dough

The times when I'm most proud of my achievements in the kitchen, are when I make successful bread and dough of every kind. That's when I feel that I have really accomplished something spectacular.

Sourdough bread, puff pastry, phyllo dough, kourou dough, pie and pizza dough. I get the most satisfaction when I achieve to make a delicious, crusty bread and a buttery, flaky puff. Nothing compares to how they smell, feel, taste. No, they don't and cannot compare to a salad, however detailed and extravagant it may be, or even a chocolate creation, and we all know how I feel about chocolate.

Upside down dough after proofing. Doesn't it remind you of the moon?

There's nothing more satisfying than feeding your family and friends homemade pizza and having them crave for more. And even though I love to cook for my friends and family, I think the time has come for them to learn how to make it for themselves. It is like that old Chinese proverb, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime". The same thing applies here. Learn how to make your own pizza and you'll never be hungry again. You'll never have to eat ready-made, super market freezer isle pizza or those awful ones your neighborhood pizzeria makes,—unless you live in Naples, then you can go ahead and skip this post,—and surely, you don't have to nag your friends to make pizza for you.

As it is obvious by the title, this is part one of the pizza posts, the dough, which will be followed by the tomato sauce and then by a post about a couple of different topping selections which comprise two of my favorite pizzas.

Reshaped dough after proofing

I have been meaning to share with you my recipe for pizza dough for a long time. I've tried a lot of different recipes over the years before I ended up with this one and it is everything I want my pizza dough to be. Puffy, bubbly and crunchy yet soft in the middle and crusty around the edges.

Cut into four pieces

What I absolutely hate, is when pizza dough turns out like bread. It's not supposed to be bread, but pizza. If I wanted bread, I would have made bread. You need those big and smaller holes, the crusty outside and the soft inside, you need the bottom to be crisp and the top to be charred. And here's how to do it.

Four round dough balls

There are certain tips and tricks for making a good pizza dough and one of them is the type of flour you use. The best flour for pizza is the Italian type 00 (zero-zero) flour which is the one I use. Thankfully I can find it easily in Holland. There are some misunderstandings about 00 flour though. So let's get things straight. Type 00 means that the flour has been milled to a fine consistency and it has nothing to do with the strength of the flour. You can find 00 strong flour with high gluten content (12%) to 00 pastry flour with very low gluten content (5%). For making pizza, you need a finely milled flour, Type 00, but with a high amount of gluten, and all Italian brands usually indicate on the package for what purpose the flour is to be used. If you can't find Italian flour, that doesn't' mean you can't make an amazing dough. Choose good quality strong bread flour and you're set.

One of the things that make pizza really a pizza, is a baking stone; a preheated, flaming hot baking stone. If you're thinking, "oh they're too expensive" or, "I don't need it", let me tell you this, if you like baking and eating bread and pizza regularly, then you need it. I bought mine for about 16 euros (cheap!) and I bake on it weekly, either bread or pizza, and the result is spectacular. You can certainly bake your pizza on the back of a well preheated baking pan but it'll not be the same.

As I told you earlier, I like my pizza with a crunchy crust and a rich texture. Surely, that can be achieved with the use of the proper flour and the correct kneading technique but there's also another little something that, for me, is the secret to my scrumptious pizza. The addition of a small amount of milk in the dough. It makes it a little softer and fluffier yet still retaining those all important crusty edges a pizza must have.

So, get ready, and let's make some mean pizza dough.

Homemade Pizza Dough

Some more tips:

On kneading: I usually let the kneading part to my trusty KitchenAid mixer. It does all the hard stuff, but I have made this dough by hand multiple times. You just need to be a bit more patient until you achieve a pliable, soft and stretchy dough that's not sticking to your hands but is slightly moist. It shouldn't by any means be dry.

On proofing: If you want to test whether your dough has proofed correctly or not, do the finger-poking test, which I learned from a wonderful bread baking site, Weekend Bakery. Gently poke the dough with your finger and a) if the dough springs back immediately, it is under-proofed, b) if the dough springs back halfway, it's perfectly proofed and c) if the dent remains in the dough, then it is over-proofed.

On rolling out: The thinner you roll out your dough, the crustier it will get. When I want something lighter, I go for a super thin crust and when I want something fluffier with lots of holes, I roll the dough out a little thicker. This dough is perfect for both kinds of crusts.

Yield: enough dough for 4 large-ish pizzas

Ingredients
350 ml plus 30 ml (2 Tbsp) lukewarm water
11 g (3 tsp) dried instant yeast
15 g (1 ½ tsp) caster sugar
700 g "00" flour for pizza or strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
12 g (1 ½ tsp) sea salt
60 ml extra virgin olive oil, plus a little extra for oiling the bowl
50 ml fresh, whole milk, at room temperature

Special equipment: mixer with dough hook attachment (optional), rolling pin (optional)


Preparation
In the bowl of your stand mixer (or in a large bowl if you're kneading by hand), add the yeast and the 2 Tbsp (30 ml) of lukewarm water. Massage the yeast with your fingertips into a paste and then add the sugar, the rest of the water, the flour and the salt, in that order.
Note: Be careful not to add the salt on top of the yeast but on top of the flour. If the salt comes in direct contact with the yeast, it will kill it and your dough will not rise.

Turn your mixer on and knead for about 2 minutes on low speed, until it comes together into a rough dough. If you're kneading by hand, it will take about 4 minutes. Then, add the olive oil and the milk and continue kneading either by hand (turning the dough out of the bowl and onto a clean surface) or in the mixer, on low speed, until the dough is smooth, elastic, is not sticking to your hands but is slightly moist.
Note: Not all flours are the same so if your dough is very wet, don't be afraid to add more flour. Add a little at a time though, testing the consistency of the dough. You don't want to end up with a stodgy, stiff dough.

If you're using a mixer for kneading the dough, turn out the dough onto a clean and lightly floured surface and shape it into a ball.
Lightly grease the bowl of your stand mixer (or your large bowl), with olive oil and place the ball of dough inside. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in a warm place, allowing the dough to proof and double in size. (See also notes above for proofing). It will take about 45 minutes to proof, depending on how warm the room you leave it in is.

Once the dough has proofed, take it out of the bowl and knead it for a couple of seconds just to deflate it a bit. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces and shape them into 4 balls. Place them on a floured surface such as a baking tray or wooden chopping board, spacing them apart, and cover them with plastic wrap. Leave them to proof for about 20 minutes, until they almost double in size.

At this point, you can continue with rolling out each ball and shaping it into a pizza but if you're in a hurry, you can skip the second proofing and roll out the dough balls into a pizza immediately after you shape them.

To roll out the dough, you can either do it by using a rolling pin, your hands or a combination of both.
Take a ball of dough and place it on a lightly floured surface. Knead it for a couple of seconds just to deflate it a bit and then flatten it with your hands into a disk. Using a rolling pin or your hands, roll it out. In my opinion, it's better to use your hands, starting from the center of the pizza and working towards the edges, using your fingertips to stretch it out, until it's almost the size you want it. Then, allow it to rest for a couple of minutes, because if worked too much, the dough becomes springy and it refuses to stretch more. Then, continue working it until it is as thin or as thick as you want it. I always allow a rim around the edge of the dough to create that puffy, crusty edge.

At this point, you're ready to add your sauce and toppings to your pizza.

Update 25.09.2012 on how to freeze and refrigerate the dough:
If you wish to freeze all or part of the dough, you should do it straight after the first rise. Divide the dough into four equal pieces, shape them into four balls, rub them with a little olive oil, cover them well with plastic wrap, put them in a Ziploc bag and in the freezer. Before you use them, defrost them in your refrigerator and then, allow them to come to room temperature and rest for a bit before you roll them out into pizzas.
You can keep the dough in the freezer no longer than a month.

If you want to keep the dough for a couple of days after making it, you can keep it in the refrigerator. You should refrigerate it immediately after the first rise. Put the whole piece of dough in a large bowl that fits in your fridge and cover it well with plastic wrap. You'll notice that the dough will rise while in the refrigerator. When you want to use it, take it out of the fridge, knead it for a bit, divide it into pieces and shape into balls. Leave them out of the fridge to come to room temperature and proof a bit. Then, roll them out into pizzas.

Keep in mind that, in both cases, the result will not be the same as when you use the dough immediately after making it, and I seldom keep dough in the freezer or fridge.

Next up: The best fresh tomato sauce for pizza. Stay tuned!