Napoli Style Pizza Dough
When Tom and I went to Napoli in 2018 I made sure I booked myself into a pizza making course. It was truly the most insightful cooking lesson I’ve ever had and the dough recipe is an absolute winner! When we got home my Mum and Tom bought me a pizza oven for my birthday and I use this recipe every time we make pizzas, I have never looked back!
Ingredients
1.6kg - 1.7kg of Tipo 00 flour (lately I have found that 1.7kg is perfect but I would say start with 1.6 then add if needed)
3g yeast (I roughly use half a packet of the dried yeast you buy from supermarkets - works a dream)
1 litre water (ideally the temperature should be around 12 degrees, so just make sure it’s not cold)
50g salt (I use old school Saxa Table Salt!)
Method
Dissolve all the salt in the water.
Add 10% of the flour (approx. 170grams) to the salted water and mix.
Dissolve the yeast in the water and flour.
Gradually add the remaining flour and knead (with Kitchen Aid using dough hook if you have one) for about 15min until the dough reaches the desired consistency (soft, slightly sticky and slightly elastic). Do not add more flour than indicated as the dough has to have be slightly sticky.
Leave dough to rest for 30/45 mins and knead slightly to stretch the surface of the dough giving it elasticity and a smooth non sticky surface for 5 and leave to rest again for 10 min.
Separate dough into single doses of 250/260g and leave to rise, covered and at room temp (18 to 22 degrees celcius) for at least 8hours max 14hours.
If you want to leave the dough to have a longer leavining reduce the amount of yeast to 1.5g and let grow for max 24hours.
The use of a refrigerator at a temperature of 4/5 degrees celcius for leavening gives you a more controlled atmosphere hence a more stable and constant growth of the dough. Its use stretches out the leavening time from 8 to at least 16 hours. Before you use dough make sure it has been at room temperature for at least 1 hour.
The ideal room temperature is 22 degrees celcius.
The only thing that has to be added to the tomato sauce is 10g salt per kilo of tomatoes.
If you use a regular home electric oven add 4 actual table spoons of extra virgin olive oil to the dough while kneeling, just after you have incorporated the first 10% of flour and dissolved the yeast. This will give the pizza that extra crisp and golden color you can’t really get a low temperatures. Preheat the oven at max temp (generally between 280 and 310 degrees celcius) and if you have a pizza stone preheat that too. If you use a regular oven tray use some cooking paper.
The cooking time depends on the max temp of the oven and if you use a pizza stone or not. In general you know the pizza is done when it becomes a nice golden color on the crust and the cheese has melted.
Toppings as per taste