Neapolitan Pizza
No need for a trip to Naples—bring Italy to your kitchen with this recipe!
you're making mealtime meaningful.
A pizza that needs absolutely no introduction. It’s a technique to make pizza using the highest heat you possibly can produce. This has been a challenge to make in a regular oven, but I think we cracked the code with the broil feature. This classic Italian favorite is known for its soft, chewy crust with blistered edges and simple ingredients. It’s a four ingredient dough made with flour, water, salt, and yeast. Topped with a very simple San Marzano tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella cheese, and garnished with basil leaves.
The dough is important in all pizzas, but for this technique to work in your home oven you have to set up your oven first. Arrange the two racks in the oven to reach the top most rack and the bottom. The goal is to preheat the oven at the highest temperature with a pizza stone at the bottom, slide the pizza on the stone, turn the heat to broil and cook the pizza for 4 minutes to create a golden crust. Then you will move the pizza to the top rack to caramelize the cheese mimicking a wood-fired oven. It’s much simpler and practical in action.
Okay now that the ovens set-up let’s make some pizza dough. The secret to a quick and easy Neapolitan dough is the flour. 00 flour is the finest grind of flour, much finer than all purpose. Think of it as the powdered sugar of flours. This flour helps the ingredients meld together faster to create the chewy fluffy dough. It may cost more money than regular flour, but it makes for easy work of pizza and pasta doughs.
Are dough is made and our oven is hot, let’s talk about toppings. Put anything and everything you want on here, but top with moderation. Do NOT stuff with tons of cheese or other toppings. Layer it skillfully and artfully. This is your Picasso. The fresh mozzarella doesn’t need to be everywhere. The best part of this pizza is it doesn’t have to be just a cheese fest. You get to eat a whole pizza to yourself!
I have become an oven Neapolitan believer after this recipe. It is possible to make this pizza at-home without those expensive gas or electric pizza ovens. Save your money and try this recipe on. You won’t regret it!
Neapolitan Pizza
Yield(s): Makes 2 pizzas
35m prep time
6m cook time
3h inactive
Diet: Vegetarian
you're making mealtime meaningful.
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups '00' flour
- 1 1/3 cup water
- 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast.
For Toppings:
- 1 lb. fresh mozzarella, torn
- Fresh basil leaves
- Fresh tomato sauce (28 oz. whole peeled tomatoes + 1/2 teaspoon salt)
Preparation
- Roughly mix the dough in a mixing bowl, then cover. The dough will look wet. Let it rest for 20 minutes.
- Wet your hands and stretch and fold the dough four times, then twist the dough to create a smooth dough ball, then cover with the mixing bowl for 15 minutes.
- Wet your hands again, then spread the dough on the countertop until very thin. The dough may tear, and that’s okay.
- Fold the left side into the center, then repeat with the right side, top, and bottom, fold together, and twist into a ball. Place in a greased bowl, cover, and let the dough rest for 3 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 500 - 550ºF, adjust one rack to the topmost spot in your oven, and place a pizza steel directly on the bottom of the oven.
- Dump the dough ball into a bowl of flour and lightly stretch the dough to maintain a crust.
- Transfer to a pizza peel dusted with semolina. Sauce it up top with cheese and fresh basil, then drizzle with olive oil, then transfer to a stone in the oven and immediately turn on the broiler to high.
- Cook for 3 - 5 minutes, then rotate the pizza to the top rack for 20 - 30 seconds to give that signature char. Rotate the pizza once and continue to cook for an additional 20 - 30 seconds.
- Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack. Slice and enjoy!