(Unedited)
The key to any pizza crust is a hot oven, ideally around 860F (460C). Unfortunately, no normal household oven can get that hot. Instead, I preheat my oven to broil (500F) for an hour. I used to have a pizza stone but now use a 3/8”carbon steel plate that I had cut to size by a local metal worker. Steel definitely retains heat better and thus delivers a crisper crust. In fact, getting the pizza steel as hot as possible is probably more important than the actual oven temperature. In the future, I will probably get a compact outdoor Ooni pizza oven that uses gas.
The overall dough recipe comes from a pizza maker (pizzaiolo) who owns his own pizzeria in Napoli. I'm using Dallagiovanna Napoletana 00 flour, recommended by a couple YouTubers from Napoli. See the Flours page for a more detailed discussion on American vs. Italian flours. A similar flour would be Caputo Pizzeria 00 (red).
I use the same Napoletana crust for both the traditional Pizza Napoletana and for my white pizza (pizza bianca). Both pizza toppings are shown below. The cooking technique is the same for both.
Dough (for 3 pizzas)
500 g (1.1 lb) Dallagiovanna Napoletana 00 flour (else Caputo Pizzeria 00 red)
300 ml water (room temperature)
0.5 g active dry yeast (note: wet yeasts such as Italian lievito di birra would require 1.5 g)
15 g salt
1. Note that you will need to make the dough at least 9 hours in advance of cooking the pizzas.
2. Mix yeast and water in one bowl, mostly dissolving it. But you need not proof the yeast.
3. In a larger bowl (in Napoli, they actually use a wooden box), mix the salt and flour with your fingers.
4. Gradually add the liquid to the dry ingredients, mixing with your fingers.
5. Once you have the dough pretty well together and the ingredients are just about all off the sides of the bowl, remove the dough and place it on a lightly floured surface with extra flour available for the next steps.
6. Punch the dough down.
7. Lift the dough in the middle to elongate it, pull it toward you, then fold it over away from you.
8. Rotate and repeat this a few times, adding flour to avoid its getting super sticky, but you don't want it to be dry, so slightly sticky is ok.
9. Put it back into the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let it sit at room temperature for an hour.
10. Remove the dough and place it back on the lightly floured surface, and sprinkle a light coat on the top.
11. Shape the dough into a log about 3-4 inches wide.
12. Use your thumb and index finger to cut off 3 equal sized shapes (about 275 g each). As you do this, shape each into a ball, kind of like how they pinch off mozzarella balls if you are familiar with that.
13. You can put the 3 smaller doughs into the same tupperware container (if enough room) or separate containers. It is ok if they grow toward each other and touch. That is normal.
14. Cover and let doughs sit at room temperature for at least 8-9 hours. Some people do it for 24 hours. If you are going beyond that, put them in the fridge, but get them back to room temperature before rolling out.
15. Preheat the pizza steel (or stone) to broil 500F for one hour with it on the second highest rack.
16. There are many techniques for rolling out the pizza dough into the size of a pizza, but they all start out in the same way.
17. Have plenty of flour available, with a little under the dough.
18. If the dough is not already in a circular form, reshape it with your hands to be as circular as possible, adding some flour if it's super sticky.
19. Begin by flattening the dough in the middle area using your fingers, leaving a nice border. Try not to press down on the border.
20. Flip it over and do the same on the other side.
21. Flip it back over and gradually spread it out while rotating it in the circular fashion, being careful not to add holes in it. If you add a hole, quickly fix it. It happens often.
22. Some people pick up the dough at this point and slap it down on the counter.
23. Others do the technique where you put the tops of your hands underneath and try to widen the dough that way.
24. For a beginner it's probably easier to just keep the dough on the counter and use your hands with a circular motion of the pizza dough to spread it out gradually, even if it takes a little longer.
25. Spread a little cornmeal or semolina onto the paddle and place the dough on the paddle before adding any ingredients. More experienced pizza makers add the ingredients first and then spread out the pizza a little more as they move it onto the paddle. Either way, try to spread out the dough a little more as it goes onto the paddle. It's helpful to have a paddle that is wider than then pizza at this point.
26. I make a couple different toppings which are described below. I'm going to describe the cooking process here because it's the same for both.
27. Before trying to put the dough onto the pizza steel, shake the paddle a little to make sure the dough is loose on the paddle and will slip off easily.
28. Slip the pizza onto the hot steel (or stone) and close the door.
29. The oven is still on broil (500F), so set an alarm for one minute. Turn the pizza 180 degrees. Pizza spinners help with this. Set the timer or keep an eye on at all times.
30. Keep turning the pizza every minute.
31. The toppings will likely cook faster than the crust, so you may want to drop the temperature to bake 450F or even crack open the door to keep the ingredients from burning while you wait for the crust to get to the point you want it.
32. Total cooking time will be 3-4 minutes if your steel is on the 2nd highest rack.
33. Remove pizza, switch back to broil (500F) if you had switched to bake.
34. Prepare the next pizza and repeat steps above.
35. As stated in the introduction, a better cooking technique would involve using something like an Ooni compact outdoor oven that can get much hotter. One of these days I will succumb.
Neapolitan Tomato Puree (Passata di Pomodoro, for 2 pizzas)
2 28 oz cans Cento Certified San Marzano tomatoes (not the Organic variety)
7 g salt
later on the pizza
10 whole basil leaves
mozzarella - cut NY mozzarella balls into 1/2" x 3/4" pieces (dry between paper towels)
36. Remove area of tomato where stem was attached. No need to remove seeds unless there are many.
37. Pour tomatoes into a fine-mesh strainer over a bowl. We are trying to save the pulp, NOT the liquid. Use your fingers to break up the tomatoes in the strainer and let the liquid fall through.
38. Let the tomatoes drain their liquid for 10 minutes. Save the pulp and discard the liquid.
39. In a small bowl, combine pulp and salt.
40. Originally, I added other things to this sauce, like garlic, oregano, etc. I highly recommend you leave it simple like this. It comes out MUCH better. However, I do think it's important to use those San Marzano tomatoes!
41. Puree the tomatoes and salt using a hand-held blender or a small food processor.
42. Allow the puree (passata) to sit covered at room temperature for a few hours OR refrigerate up to 4 days.
43. You should get 2 pizzas with this recipe. We often make two of these and one white pizza below, depending on whom we are serving. Kids tend to like this more while adults tend to like the white one more.
44. Add sauce to pizza. In Napoli, the sauce stays about an inch from the edge of the pizza. I let it get a little closer than they do (1/2"), but still leave nothing over the border. Avoid putting too much sauce on the pizza. You don't want it swimming in sauce.
45. Add approximately 10 whole basil leaves. Some pizza makers wait until the pizza is cooked to do this. Others do it this way. I liked it this way.
46. Spread cut-up mozzarella pieces over the pizza to your liking. Don't completely cover it, obviously.
47. Add a thin spiral stream of extra virgin olive oil.
48. Cook it according to instructions above.
White Topping (Pizza Bianca)
extra virgin olive oil
whole milk Ricotta – (freshly made is ideal, otherwise Calabro brand)
10 whole basil leaves
mozzarella – cut NY mozzarella balls into 1/2" x 3/4" pieces (dry between paper towels)
49. Follow directions above for preparing dough and getting it onto the paddle.
50. Distribute the ingredients on the pizza in the above order. You may want to use a brush for the olive oil. I use more olive oil here than with the previous tomato-base topping.
51. The last time I made this, it needed salt. That was strange because it had never been a problem. Ideally, if you're going to add a little salt, you'd first mix it in well with the ricotta. So you might want to taste the ricotta or make one without salt, then modify for the second pizza.
