How to make Neapolitan pizza at home!
What is more delicious than a fragrant Neapolitan pizza? But... how to make it at home in you oven? After years of experiments, I found the perfect way ... that I share here with you!
Servings: 4 people
Calories: 800kcal
Cost: $2
Equipment
- bowl
- stand mixer (optional)
- flat plate
- baking tray
Ingredients
- 400 gr water
- 640 gr flour
- 20 gr salt
- 1 gr yeast
- 8 gr sugar
- 20 gr extra virgin olive oil
- 200 gr tomato sauce or peeled tomatoes
- 2 gr salt
- qs extra virgin olive oil
- 8 leaves basil 4 for the tomato sauce, 4 as topping
- 300 gr fior di latte cheese mozzarella if you cannot find fior di latte
Instructions
- Start adding about half the flour in a large bowl or in the stand mixer one, and the yeast on top of it.
- Aside the flour, pour the water and the salt in it. Let the salt dissolve into the water (use your hand for this).
- Start stirring the 4 basic ingredients. Use low speed. After 1-2 minutes, add the oil.
- While stirring, slowly add the rest of the flour and the sugar. Keep stirring.. the whole procedure takes at least 20 minutes.
- Remove the dough from the bowl and work it by hand on the countertop.
- The result must be a smooth and elastic dough, that you will cover.
- Let the dough rest for 20 minutes.
- Cut the dough into 4 chops and give them the shape of small dough balls.
- Cover the balls and let them rest for 6 to 8 hours, depending on the temperature of your kitchen.
- While the dough is rising, prepare the tomato sauce, adding salt (1 gr every 100 gr), some extra-virgin-olive-oil and 3-4 basil leaves.
- Cut the fior di latte into thick slices and then sticks. Put it in a strainer, so that the water in excess can be removed.
- About 40 minutes before rolling out the dough, light the oven at the maximum temperature available. With my oven, it will be 300 °C (about 570 °F).
- It's time to roll out your dough. Describing this is tough, so I link here one of the best videos I found online to explain this phase. It is in Italian (of course ;) ) but audio is not relevant. You are creating the rim that will become the delicious crust of your pizza.
- Now, if you have a pizza shovel, put the dough on it! Since I don't, let me suggest a great workaround. Use a flat plate, just sprinkle it with some flour so the dough won't stick to it.
- First, the tomato (about 1.5 table spoon each pizza), with circular movements, avoiding the rim. Then add the fior di latte, some extra-virgin-olive-oil and one basil leaf and...
- ... and make the pizza slide from the shovel (plate) onto the hot baking tray. Keep the tray high in the oven and after 5-6 minutes the pizza is ready! Enjoy :)
Notes
- the yeast must stay in contact with the flour
- the salt must avoid contact with the yeast, that's why you will dissolve it into water
- use peeled tomatoes if possible, they have a better behavior in the oven
- fior di latte is the traditional choice in Naples and I personally prefer it to the more common mozzarella
- 80% of the success of your homemade pizza stands in how you cook it. Ideally, 90 seconds in a wood oven. At home, it requires 5 to 6 minutes if you cook it directly on a hot baking tray (no oil, no baking paper), with oven at the maximum heat.