Pizza is a typical delicacy of the Neapolitan cuisine. Today, together with pasta, it is the most known Italian dish, both in Italy and abroad. This name, almost unknown outside the city of Naples, was used to indicate cakes, and most of the time their sweet version. It was only at the beginning of the 19th century that pizza took its current connotation. The worldwide success of the dish led to define in the same way any similar preparation.
VARIATIONS
If you have a wood oven or baking stone for home oven, you can use this particular technique that consists of cooking the dough for a few minutes without any condiments before placing the final topping. This allows the dough to dry out a bit so that you can cook your pizza without drying tomatoes and cheese in a few minutes.
- Preheat oven to the maximum temperature.
- Roll out the dough and place it on a baking tray (a perforated tray that allows heat reach the dough would be the best). Cook for 2 minutes at maximum. You will see that the dough starts to form bubbles. Do not let the bubbles rise up more than 2-3 cm.
- Remove the tray form oven, add the toppings and bake again. Finish cooking.
This recipe is for 3 pizzas (about 30cm wide)
Ingredients
- 450-480g 00 flour (W230-260)
- 250g warm water
- 10g salt
- 2g fresh brewer’s yeast (or 1.5g brewer’s yeast powder)
- 150g tomato sauce seasoned with oil and salt
- 6 bite-sized fior di latte mozzarella cheese
- Basil leaves
Instructions
FIRST LEAVENING
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Knead 250g of flour with water for 2 minutes. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes. This helps the autolysis process that gives more elasticity to the dough.
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Add yeast, previously dissolved in water, and 50-70g of flour. Once flour has been absorbed, add salt and the remaining flour.
- Knead for 15-20 minutes until the dough is smooth and compact. Let it rest on the working surface, covering the dough with plastic wrap so that it does not form a crust. Cover with a dishcloth and let rise for 2 hours.
SECOND LEAVENING
- Break the dough into 250-300g pieces. Press lightly folding each dough over itself.
- Shape into round balls and place into a floured container to rest for 5-6 hours. Cover the container.
PREPARATION
- Preheat the oven to the maximum temperature: 300°-400 °C. Meanwhile, prepare the ingredients you will use to season your pizza: flavour the tomato sauce and cut mozzarella by hand into small chunks.
- Once oven has reached the right temperature, start pressing the dough leaving a 2cm border. You can even use your hands to pull the dough. Add tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and one basil leaf.
- Bake for 4-6 minutes.