THE GREAT DEBATE in our family over how to make the perfect pizza is over. I won, sorta. I made a pizza using fresh homemade dough, and everyone in the family agreed it was the best pizza they had ever eaten.

My pizza was declared to be far superior to the frozen pizza that our two teen-agers are fond of, the kind that has to be cooked on a oven rack. It was deemed better than the pizzas made with refrigerated dough and cooked on the pizza stone, the kind that my wife and I favored. The arrival of the homemade dough has silenced any talk about the merits of other types of pizza

I made the dough because I was lazy. There wasn't any refrigerated pizza dough in the house. I would have had to drive to the store to get some for supper. I was too tuckered to do that.

Instead, I flipped through cookbooks looking for a pizza-dough recipe that used ingredients I had in the house and that also could produce a pizza in time for supper, a mere three hours away. I found such a recipe in an Alice Waters cookbook.

The only exotic ingredients it required were some rye flour and a pizza stone. I had both. I followed the recipe (doubling it) and made several large pizzas. Each was greeted with cheers by my family members. Now, I make all the pizza, and my family ends up eating it and telling me how smart I am. It makes me wonder who really won the pizza debate.

Fresh pizza dough

Yield: One 12-inch to

14-inch pizza

1/4 cup lukewarm water

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1/4 cup rye flour

1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon milk

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup lukewarm water

To make the sponge (a light bread-dough mixture), combine the yeast and 1/4 cup lukewarm water. Put rye flour in bottom of large bowl and, using a wooden spoon, mix the yeasty water into the flour. Let it rise in a warm spot 20 to 30 minutes.

Add all-purpose flour and salt. Then, using a wooden spoon, mix in the milk, olive oil and water. Once the dough has formed a ball, transfer it to floured board or counter top. Knead the dough, using quick light motions. Add more flour to the surface as you knead the dough but no more than is necessary to keep dough from sticking.

Knead for 10 to 15 minutes to develop strength and elasticity in the dough. Put it in a bowl rubbed with olive oil and oil the surface of the dough to prevent a crust from forming. Cover the bowl with a towel and put it in a warm place, about 90-110 degrees, away from drafts. An oven heated just by its pilot light is a good spot.

Let the dough rise to double its size, about 2 hours, then punch it down. Let it rise about 40 minutes more. Flatten the dough on a heavily floured board. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough to roughly 12 inches in diameter, about / to 1/4 inch thick. Transfer the dough to a heavily floured paddle or back of a baking sheet.

Place a pizza stone in the oven, and preheat oven to 450 degrees. Have your toppings ready, at room temperature, and work quickly to put them on the pizza. Whatever is on top must be able to cook in 15 minutes, or have some partial cooking beforehand. Slide the pizza from the paddle or baking sheet onto stone with an abrupt jerking motion of your wrist. The pizza should be browned and cooked in 12 to 15 minutes.

Adapted from "Chez Panisse Pasta, Pizza & Calzone" by Alice Waters, Patricia Curtan and Martine Labro (Random House, 1984)

Pub Date: 03/07/99