Neapolitan Pizza for a Home Pizza Oven Recipe
This recipe for Neapolitan Pizza is adapted for the home cook to be able to make the absolute best version of this dish at home in a high heat pizza oven.
Ingredients
Dough
- 450 g cool water, 73-75℉ / 22-23℃
- .7 g instant yeast
- 665 g 00 flour
- 18 g salt
Tomato Sauce
- 28 oz can tomato sauce
- 7 g salt
Toppings
- 75 g tomato sauce
- fresh buffalo-milk mozarella, torn into pieces
- fresh basil leaves
- extra virgin olive oil
- flaky salt
Instructions
Mix and Ferment the Dough
- Add yeast and salt to 450 grams of 73 to 75°F (23°C) water and stir until dissolved. Add 00 flour and stir with a sturdy spoon until the water has been mostly absorbed and the dough has formed into a shaggy mass.
- Using a wet hand, pinch and squeeze the dough with a claw grip while rotating the bowl. Scrape down the sides and continue until there are no major lumps or dry spots. The dough will still be sticky.
- Cover bowl and rest dough at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- Using a wet hand, grab one edge of the dough and stretch it until you feel resistance. Fold it over the center toward the other side of the dough ball. Rotate bowl and repeat 4-6 times or until the dough starts to tighten. Flip the dough over so the folded side is down and round and tuck it under itself to create a ball.
- Cover and rest for 30 minutes, then repeat the same series of folds once more. After the second fold, it should look and feel like real dough, with a smooth, tight skin and very little stickiness.
- Cover the bowl and leave the dough at room temperature for 8 to 10 hours. It is ready when it has roughly doubled in size, the top is domed, and bubbles are visible across the surface and along the sides.
For best results, I strongly suggest using the gram/weight measurements for the dough instead of volumetric (cups/tsp). Dough requires accuracy which you won't get with the volumetric conversions.
Divide, Ball, and Refrigerate
- Place dough onto your work surface and divide into four roughly 275-gram pieces. Gently degas the dough to eliminate excess bubbles, then fold over the sides and roll it into a taut ball.
- Lightly oil a plastic half sheet-tray cover and place the dough balls on it. Refrigerate uncovered for five minutes so the warm dough can begin cooling without trapping that room temperature heat. Flip the metal sheet tray upside down over the dough as a lid.Cold ferment for at least 2 hours, ideally 8 to 24 hours and up to 3 days.
Prep for Baking
- Remove dough from the refrigerator 60 minutes before baking.
- Thoroughly preheat the pizza oven before you begin shaping. I run the oven at full heat for 1 hour, until the stone is at or around 1000°F (535°C). If your oven gets this hot, time your pizza build so you can turn the flame way down or even off for 5- 10 minutes before baking (if needed) to let the oven floor temp cool to 900°F (485°C) before baking.
- Make tomato sauce by combining a 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes with 7 grams salt. Pulse briefly with an immersion blender, stopping while the sauce is still slightly coarse.
- Flour your work surface and transfer a dough ball onto it. Lightly flour the top, then press from the center outward, leaving the outer inch untouched.
- Pop any large, thin surface bubbles as you go, but avoid pressing down or degassing the outer rim. Once the dough is pressed into an 8-inch round, pull and stretch it as shown in the video until it is roughly 11 to 12 inches across.
- Transfer the shaped dough to a perforated pizza peel dusted thoroughly with flour.
This recipe makes enough sauce for 8 pizzas. The remaining half that you don't use freezes well and can be used the next time you make pizza.
Add Toppings and Bake
- Spread 70 to 80 grams tomato sauce in a thin spiral, leaving about 1 inch of bare dough around the edge. Tear the fresh mozzarella into small pieces and space them evenly around the pizza. Add a few fresh basil leaves, a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil, and a light sprinkle of flaky salt.
- Give the peel a small test shimmy before walking to the oven. The entire pizza should move freely on the peel. If one spot sticks, lift that edge and flick a little flour underneath it. A perforated peel helps extra flour fall away, which means less burnt, bitter flour on the bottom of the pizza.
- Again, if needed, plan to turn your preheated oven temp down or off about 10 minutes before you’re ready to bake to let the floor cool to 900°F (485°C). When you’re ready to bake, turn the oven back up to medium-high heat (or to high if your oven struggles to reach 1000°F (538°C). The stone should be 900°F to 950°F (510°C) when the pizza goes in. If it climbs above 950°F, turn the flame off again for about 5 minutes.
- Launch the pizza into the oven and keep it on the spot it lands for most of the bake. Rotate it a quarter turn every 15 to 20 seconds using a turning peel so every edge gets an even blast of heat from the flame.
- Bake for about 90 seconds total. Pull the pizza when the rim is puffed and spotted, the cheese is juicy and just melted, and the bottom has scattered char.
- Move the pizza to a wire rack for about one minute. Cut and serve immediately.
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