Traditional Neapolitan Pizza
Neapolitan Pizza (or Pizza Napoletana) is the most popular and replicated style pizza in the world.
The traditional Neapolitan pizza was originated in Naples, Italy and it is prepared with simple and fresh ingredients: a basic dough, raw tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese, fresh basil, and olive oil. That’s all!
Authentic Traditional Neapolitan Pizza Requirements
Neapolitan Pizza dough must be made with only water, salt, fresh yeast, and type 0 or 00 refine flour.
Also, the dough should have hydration of 58-65% and it must be kneaded by hand or with a low-speed mixer.
The ingredients used to make Neapolitan Pizza are tomato drained and crushed by hand for a better consist. Mozzarella, either Buffalo or Fior di Latte, basil leaves that should be added before mozzarella cheese to avoid burning them during cooking. Finally a splash of extra vergine olive oil.
The main characteristic of a traditional Neapolitan pizza is that there is often more sauce than cheese. This leaves the middle of the pie wet or soggy. Also the crust around the edges of about 1-2cm high (1/2in to 3/4in), soft and airy.
Neapolitan pizzas are cooked at very high temperatures (800 F to 900 F) for no more than 90 seconds due to low hydration.
Origins of Neapolitan pizza
The Neapolitan pizza recipe is among the oldest recipes that characterize the Neapolitan traction. The pizza Margherita, in fact, was born in 1889 by chef Raffaele Esposito. The pizza takes the name “Margherita” because it was prepared in honor of Queen Margherita of Savoy. In addition, the margherita is prepared with simple ingredients that recall the colors of the Italian flag. Red is like tomato, white is like mozzarella, and green is like basil. Let’s see how pizza is made.
Neapolitan pizza ingredients
The Neapolitan pizza is characterized by its high and soft cornice. The ingredients for the preparation are the classics:
– Waterfall
– Strong flour
– Fresh yeast
By strong flour, we mean flour with a higher strength than classic flour. Strong flour is characterized by high protein content, by a greater absorption capacity that helps leavening. This will ensure that the dough is more elastic and more resistant to leavening thanks to the firmer gluten mesh.
How to recognize the strength of pizza flour?
The symbol for strength is “W” followed by a number. The higher the number, the stronger the flour will turn out. Strong flour is usually W 260-350. Another method is to check the amount of protein, which must be greater than 13 grams.
Neapolitan pizza dough
Once all the ingredients are ready, the dough must be prepared. To obtain professional dough, as in a pizzeria, you must proceed with the preparation of the preferment. The preference is nothing more than a mixture of water and flour, in equal quantities, to which yeast is added. It must be prepared the day before the final preparation of our pizza.
The next day, more flour is added to the preference, kneaded well, and only at the end is the salt added. At this point, you will have to proceed with the creation of the folds. Just take some edges of the dough and fold them on themselves. This step serves to incorporate air into the dough so as to obtain a high and soft result.
Rising pizza
The leavening of the dough continues until doubled. Once doubled, it is divided into blocks of about 270-280 grams and left to rest for a few more hours. At this point the dough is ready.
Pizza cooking
Neapolitan pizza requires very little cooking time. If you have a wood-burning oven, 5 minutes will suffice. If, on the other hand, you do not have a suitable oven, we recommend the double cooking method.
Roll out your dough, cook first in a pan, previously heated, until it is golden brown underneath. Then arrange the ingredients you like best to season it and spend 2 minutes in a hot oven.
Your Neapolitan pizza is ready.
