Naples, Campania · 1889
Neapolitan
Verace pizza napoletana
Four ingredients, ninety seconds, no argument
Scale this formulaThe one with rules. Flour, water, salt, yeast, and a dome oven hot enough to set the rim before the centre dries out. Everything that makes it good happens in the last minute of the bake, so the dough is built to survive it: soft wheat, moderate water, enough salt to keep a long room-temperature rise honest.
Method
- Dissolve the salt in all the water. Salt first is the Neapolitan order and it is not superstition: it keeps the yeast off the salt until the flour buffers it.
- Whisk in about a tenth of the flour, then crumble in the yeast.
- Add the rest of the flour in three goes, mixing until there is no dry flour left. The dough will look rough.
- Knead 15-20 minutes by hand, or 10 on low in a spiral mixer, to a smooth ball at 23-24C.
- Bulk two hours covered, then divide and ball with a tight seam underneath.
- Proof six hours at room temperature until a poked ball fills back in slowly.
- Open by hand only. Press the gas from the centre outward and leave the last 2 cm untouched. No rolling pin, ever.
Fermentation
| Stage | Time | Temperature | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bulk (puntata) | 2 h | 20°C / 68°F | Covered, in one mass. |
| Balls (appretto) | 6 h | 20°C / 68°F | In a proofing box, not the fridge. |
Times are a guide. How to read the dough instead of the clock →
The bake
Surface. Wood-fired dome, biscotto or refractory floor
Floor around 430C, dome hotter. Turn the pie once with the peel at about 30 seconds. Leoparding is scorched gas bubbles, not burnt dough. In a home oven this dough will disappoint at 250C, so bake it in a small outdoor oven or switch to the contemporary formula.
On top
- Sauce
- Raw San Marzano, crushed by hand, salt only. No cooking, no herbs in the tin.
- Cheese
- Fior di latte torn and drained an hour, or buffalo mozzarella drained longer.
- Toppings
- Marinara is garlic, oregano, oil. Margherita is tomato, mozzarella, basil, oil. Stop there.
You got it right when A rim that is airy and pale gold with black freckles, a centre soft enough to fold, and a wet middle you eat with a fork.