Neapolitan Style Pizza: God's Greatest Gift to this Earth
If you want to make pizza, there’s no better way to do so other than the original way - Neapolitan style. This perfect art of pizza making, hailing from Naples, Italy, takes some patience, but when it’s all said and done, your taste buds will be thanking you for the gift.
This week we’re making Margherita pizza the traditional Neapolitan way, with fresh mozzarella, basil, and San Marzano tomato sauce, in our home oven - or if you’re fancy, in our 900 degree Ooni Pizza Oven.
Ingredients
Neapolitan Style PIzza Ingredients
1520 g (12 cups) 00 Flour
1034 ml (4.4 cups) water
40 g (2 tbsp) Kosher Salt
800 g (28 oz) canned San Marzano Tomato
40 ml (2 tbsp) Greek Extra Virgin Olive Oil
450 g (1 lb) Fresh Mozzarella Cheese
Basil
How to make Neapolitan Style Pizza from Scratch at Home
Homemade Neapolitan Style Pizza Recipe:
Listen, when it comes to pizza, there are literally thousands of ways to make it, but to me, there is no better way than Neapolitan style. I could eat like 4 whole pizzas in a sitting if no one stopped me. The fluffy dough, the fresh mozzarella, the perfect tomato sauce, the basil, the olive oil, and the parmesan…. Oof someone wake me up from this dream.
Ok, so let's get started. Today’s recipe is meant to make ten - 260-gram dough balls at a hydration of 68%. Don’t know what that means, let me help you understand.
Simply put, it's the amount of water you put into your pizza dough recipe and is usually referred to as a percentage. For example, 1000 grams of flour and 680 milliliters - that's 68% hydration. However, not all flour can handle high hydration, so it's best to use high gluten flour like 00 flour.
Ok so now to the dough. So since we’re making 10 dough balls at a 68% hydration here, we’ll start by mixing 1034 milliliters or 4.4 cups of lukewarm water - 100 degrees Fahrenheit preferred - with 2 grams of active dry yeast and letting it sit for 8 to ten minutes to bloom.
Once the yeast is activated, pour all of the wet ingredients into a large mixing bowl, where we’ll then add 1520 grams or 12 cups of 00 flour and 20 grams or one tablespoon of kosher salt on top.
Once everything is added, turn on the mixer to its lowest setting and allow the dough to mix for 10 minutes until it looks nice and elastic.
Now the dough might be a little tacky, but that’s okay. Just work the dough for a few more minutes and the gluten network will develop and it will become nice and smooth.
After the dough is ready, place it into a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap, where we’ll then set it aside for around 2 hours for its first rise.
Once the dough has finished its first rise, take it out of the ball and using a scale measure out pieces to come to exactly 260 grams.
After you’ve got the right amount of dough, begin to shape it into a ball, and do the same thing until it’s all done.
Now that we’ve got our dough balls, we’re gonna move it on to the next phase where it will rest overnight in the refrigerator.
In a plastic container, pour some semolina flour on the bottom to avoid sticking and place the dough balls inside making sure to leave some space between them so they can expand. Place the lid on top, move everything into the fridge and say bye-bye until the next day.
On the day that we’re going to make the pizza, be sure to take the dough out at least 3 hours before it’s time to make the pizza.
Ok, now onto the sauce - which will be the easiest sauce you’ve ever made in your life. Seriously guys, no need to be a professional here.
First, we’re going to start by taking a 28 oz or 800 gram can of San Marzano tomatoes and adding it to a mixing bowl, to which we’re going to add one tablespoon of kosher salt, one teaspoon of minced garlic.
Next, take 4 to 5 basil leaves, place them on top of each other, roll them up like something you don’t want your parents to catch you with, and begin to slice the basil nice and thin. Once sliced up, put the basil into the mixing bowl where we’ll then add in 2 tablespoons or 40 ml of extra virgin olive oil.
Now we mix, using an emulsifier tool, or a food processor, quickly pulse a few times so all the ingredients can get to know each other and that’s it. A perfect tomato sauce for our Neapolitan pizza.
Onto the cheese. This part is extremely simple. Take 1 pound or 450 grams of fresh mozzarella cheese and pull it apart into smaller pieces. I do this because I like smaller pieces of cheese distributed on my pizza instead of big slices. Honestly, there’s no right or wrong way, so just do what you like.
Ok, so let’s make some pizza now.
Finally. After two days. This guy takes forever. Am I right? Listen guys, good things come to those who wait. Amazing things come to those who follow my directions.
So to start, being sure to flour your hands, take the dough out of its container, and then give the dough a light dusting of flour on both sides.
Once floured, using your fingertips in a triangle shape, carefully press the dough in the middle, being sure to press the air to the crust. Flip over and continue to do that until it gets a little larger in size. Side note, it’s super important to make sure that the air does not escape the crust, that’s what makes the whole crust nice and airy when we’re done.
Now to get the perfect circular shape, take the dough and using your fists, let the dough drop from fists letting the weight of the dough stretch itself, and continue to turn the dough as if you were turning the wheel of a car.
Once the dough is at our desired size, grab a pizza peel, sprinkle some semolina on top to prevent sticking, and place the dough on top - giving it a nice back and forth motion to again make sure it doesn’t stick.
Next, take 2 to 3 tablespoons of our sauce and spread it across the pizza.
Place on the fresh mozzarella evenly across the pizza, and we’re ready to bake.
In an oven, preheated to as high as it will go, in my case that’s 550 degrees Fahrenheit or 280 degrees Celsius, launch the pizza onto your pizza stone and let it cook for about 8 minutes.
At around 6 minutes, turn the heat off and turn the broiler on hi so the top of the pizza can get some char effect, a similar effect to the wood-fired ovens traditionally cooked to make Neapolitan pizza.
Once your pizza is ready, take it out of the oven, add some fresh basil and extra virgin olive oil top - I also add some oregano - and there you go. A beautiful, delicious pizza.
But Evan, how does it taste? Actually, it’s quite good, but the texture and dough ended up resembling more of a New York Style instead of a Neapolitan style. Still awesome, just not what we’re looking for.
Don’t worry though, here’s where we get to have some fun. To make true Neapolitan style pizza at home I’m going to use my Ooni Koda 12. This propane-powered pizza powerhouse (say that 3 times fast) gets up to 900 degrees Fahrenheit, 480 Celsius, and pumps out pizzas in about 90 seconds. So hot. So sexy.
I really do believe that this is the best tool anyone can use to get as close as possible to Neapolitan-style pizza at home without spending thousands on building or purchasing an outdoor oven. Anyway, back inside we go.We’re going to go through our process of opening the dough again, then adding our San Marzano tomato sauce, our mozzarella cheese, and some extra virgin olive oil on top.
Once it’s ready, take the pizza, which is now on the pizza peel, and launch it into the Ooni oven, which I regulated its temperature to about 850 degrees Fahrenheit or 450 celsius.
Side Note: Every 20 seconds or so make sure to turn the pizza so it doesn’t burn since the flame is only coming from the back of the oven.Now that the pizza is cooked. Take it back inside, drizzle some olive oil, top it with some basil, and there you have it, a traditional, albeit slightly charred, Neapolitan style pizza - one of God’s greatest gifts to this earth.
So I guess there’s just one question left for all of you. You want some pizza?
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