Combine the flour, yeast, salt and sugar in a large bowl and stir together.
Add the warm water and olive oil, and mix with a wooden spoon until it comes together into a shaggy mass with no dry flour left.
Tip onto a lightly floured bench and knead for 8–10 minutes. It will be sticky at first — **resist adding flour.** It becomes smooth and elastic as the gluten develops. It’s ready when you can stretch a piece thin enough to see light through it without tearing.
**Either:** put it in an oiled bowl, cover, and leave somewhere warm for 1 hour until doubled. **Or, much better:** put it in an oiled bowl, cover, and refrigerate for 24–72 hours, then bring it out an hour before you need it.
Heat the oven to its maximum, with a heavy oven tray, pizza stone or cast iron pan inside. Give it a full 30 minutes to get properly hot.
Knock the dough back and divide into 4. Roll each into a ball and rest 10 minutes under a tea towel.
Press each ball out from the centre with your fingertips, leaving the outer 2 cm untouched, then lift and stretch it over your knuckles to about 30 cm. **Don’t use a rolling pin.**
Sit the base on a sheet of baking paper dusted with semolina, top it lightly — less is more — and slide paper and all onto the hot tray.
Bake 8–10 minutes, until the crust is puffed and blistered and the base is crisp. Turn the grill on for the final minute if the top needs colour.