Neapolitan pizza is a style of pizza made with San Marzano tomatoes, Mozzarella cheese and soft, elastic, tender, flavourful and charred dough. Interestingly, the art of making this pizza is included on UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage. The dough must always be fat and sugar free. It must be made with strong flour.
Now this is where it gets very interesting: The flour that is most used in preparation of this pizza is called Manitoba flour, even in Italy, thanks to the strong strain of cold-resistant wheat that originated in my beloved home Province!! As it stands today, all flours with the Chopin Alveograph rating of greater than 350 (very elastic, low in starch and rich in gluten) are defined as Manitoba flour, regardless of where they were produced.
The pizza must be baked for 60-90 seconds at very high temperatures (we are talking 900F!!) But here’s the tricky part, you can barely get a home oven to go to 550F. As such, I’m employing a method of preheating a pizza steel (or stone) in the hottest setting for close to an hour, baking the pizza for just under half of the cooking time, then finishing the pizza under the broiler, giving you the desired char that you would otherwise only be able to achieve with a wood-fired oven.
The recipe proportions and inspirations are derived from Jim Lahey who described a no-knead method in his book My Bread. And no, not Jim Lahey from Trailer Park Boys, even though that comes up first on Google lol. However, I’m decreasing the salt and increasing the yeast (as I’ve found that the original recipe didn’t provide enough rise.) In addition, I find pizza dough benefits from long proofing which allows it to ferment until gluten is well-developed. Therefore, I add additional 2 days of proofing the dough in the refrigerator.
Truly a piece of art!
Pizza Margherita aka Typical Neapolitan Pizza / Pizza Napolitana
Ingredients
4 cups bread flour
2.5 tsp kosher salt
1 package of instant yeast
1 2/3 cup water, room temperature
- For the Topping:
28 oz whole San Marzano type tomatoes
1 lb fresh Mozzarella cheese, cubed into 1/2 inch chunks
fresh basil leaves
kosher salt
olive oil
Directions
- Mix flour, salt and instant yeast with a wooden spoon in a large bowl. Pour water and keep mixing with a wooden spoon and your hands until all the flour is moistened and no dry flour remains. Cover the bowl well with plastic wrap and leave on the counter for 8 hours. A bit more is ok, but don’t go over 12 hours.
- Divide the dough into 4 portions and transfer into large resealable bags. Refrigerate for around 48 hours. I wouldn’t go over 3 days in the fridge.
- When ready to make pizza, remove from the fridge 2-3 hours prior to baking. Punch the dough to deflate and remove air from it. Transfer each dough ball to an oiled medium sized bowl and cover well with plastic wrap. Allow to rise at room temperature for 2-3 hours.
- While the dough is doing its final rise, place tomatoes into a fine mesh sieve. Press them down gently with your hands or a spoon to remove moisture. Let it drain for about an hour in a sieve set over a bowl. Place Mozarella on top of paper towels, top with some more paper towels and press down with something hard (such as a skillet.) This should step should remove moisture from the tomatoes and the cheese, which will prevent your pizza from becoming too soggy.
- Place the oven racks into the second highest row. Place pizza steel, pizza stone or a the very least heavy baking sheet into the oven and preheat it to 550F for at least 45 minutes. I use pizza steel, baking sheet may not provide the sufficient heat for this style of pizza.
- To make sauce: blend drained tomatoes with 1/2 heaping tsp of kosher salt until smooth.
- When ready to cook, dust the surface with flour. I do this on top of parchment paper to prevent the pizza from sticking. Stretch the pizza out into 12 inch circle. Try your very best to never use a rolling pin. Stretch gently, until the pizza is no more than 3 mm thick (except the edges – allow those to be bit thicker.)
- Spread about 3 TBSP tomato sauce on top of your pizza. Season with some more kosher salt. It’s very little sauce, but this pizza is all about the quality of the dough. Place 1/4 of your cheese chunks on top of the sauce. Drizzle lightly with some olive oil. Transfer the pizza to the oven, placing it on top of your preheated baking steel. Bake for 2.5 minutes, then switch the broiler to high and broil for an additional 2 minutes until the pizza is nicely charred in spots.
- Remove the pizza to a cutting board, top with some fresh basil. Cut into pieces and enjoy immediately. It should be soft, elastic, tender, fragrant and maintain its shape when you fold it while devouring it! Repeat with the remaining dough balls.
