Neapolitan Pizza

We love pizza. And for a few years, we could not find decent pizza while living in Baton Rouge. We also struggled to make our own, as we did not have a pizza oven and never invested in a pizza steel or stone. I will note, we got pretty good at Detroit-style pizza, though this crust is completely different than your average pizza. But that will be another post.

Neapolitan pizza with fresh mozzarella and basil

Pizza Ovens Matter

The average kitchen oven goes up to 500, maybe 550, degrees F, which will not be able to get a crispy crust; and because a home oven will take so long to bake, the crust will dry out.

A pizza oven will get as hot as 900 degrees F and cook your pizza in about 90 seconds. Because it cooks so fast, the crust will be crispy on the bottom while maintaining the moisture for a soft, chewy middle, and the spotty coloring on top.

At some point we’ll experiment with the home oven. But this recipe will be using our Ooni pizza oven.

Neapolitan Pizza

Pizza Dough

Prep: 10 minutes

Active work: 10 minutes

Rising time: 60 hours

Ingredients

• 600 g 00 flour

• 12 g salt

• 3 g instant yeast

• 400 g warm water (between 100-110 degrees F)

  
  

Steps to make the dough

1. Mix together flour, salt, and yeast. Then add the warm water and mix until there is no dry flour remaining. The dough is supposed to be sticky.

2. Place in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit out at room temperature for 8-12 hours, or overnight.

3. After the dough has proofed, punch it down and turn it out into a floured surface. Separate into 4 equal pieces (we use the scale). Shape each piece into a ball by gently pulling the dough out from the edge and and stretching up and back towards the middle of the dough in a single motion, and repeating the process as you work around the dough at least one full revolution or until the ball fully forms.

   
   

   Pinch the seams together as best as you can before flipping the ball upside-down and begin rocking in a circular motion while rolling your cupped hand along your working surface (don’t don’t do this in flour, as you want the dough to stick to itself and seal at the bottom). With your palms facing upwards, gently pinch the bottom of the dough with the blades of your hands while simultaneously dragging one hand towards you. Your dough ball should appear smoother as the tension created by these hand motions results in a tighter surface.

4. Place each dough ball into individual greased containers and cover with a lid and put in the fridge for another 2 days to cold proof, or up to 4 days. Cold proofing for longer periods of time help develop more flavor.

Pizza toppings

• Tomato puree*

• Fresh mozzarella

• Freshly grated parmesan

• Basil leaves

• Olive oil

*Note, tomato sauce is usually already seasoned with Italian seasonings.

For the cheese*: The block mozzarella cheese will give you the classic cheese pull. Make sure it’s low moisture, as regular will waterlog the pizza. Fresh mozzarella is really the best option, but make sure you drain it and squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can.

*Note: Do not use pre-shredded cheese. This cheese is coated with an anti-clumping agent that won’t make it as melty.

Steps to make the pizza

1. Pull the dough out of the fridge at least 2 hours in advance of forming the pizza. This will allow the dough to come to room temperature and rise a little more.

2. Preheat your pizza oven at least 20 minutes before you are ready to cook your pizza. Your pizza oven should be 800-850 F.

3. Turn out your dough ball onto a floured work surface and sprinkle the dough with more flour. Gently press the dough into a rough 8-inch circle, leaving the outer 1-inch higher than the rest. Stretch the dough into a 10 to 12-inch circle about 1/4-inch thick by draping it over your knuckles and gently stretching. Transfer to a pizza peel sprinkled with semolina flour.

4. Use up to 2 tablespoons of the tomato puree and evenly spread over the pizza. Grate fresh parmesan over the sauce. Break up pieces of the fresh mozzarella and sprinkle over the pizza.

5. Transfer the pizza into the pizza oven, rotating every 20 seconds or so to evenly cook.

6. If you’re cooking multiple pizzas, place the already cooked pizzas in a warm oven (use the Keep Warm setting, or the lowest temperature of your oven).

Serve it up

Drizzle some olive oil over the top, grate fresh Parmesan, and top with torn basil leaves.