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The Authentic Neapolitan Pizza
INGREDIENTS
(for 10 dough balls, 270 grams each ball)
Water (cold from the fridge) ________________ 1000 gr (or 35.27 oz)
Strong White Flour (type "00") ______________ 1650 gr (58.2 oz) or 1600 gr (56.44 oz) depending on flour adsorption
Salt ___________________________________ 50 gr
Compressed fresh yeast ___________________ 1,0 - 3,0 gr (0.04 - 0.1 oz)
NOTES:- White Flour should have a flour strength index (called W index) in the range 260-300. However most of the flours do not report this value. In that case protein content might help. The protein content should be in the range (12.5%-13%).
- If you want to use Active Dry Yeast (it is not the same as Instant Yeast) use more or less one third of the compressed fresh yeast amount.
In this thread we are going to show two different versions: the first one, with 24 hours total fermentation/proofing time, the second one with 8 hours total fermentation/proofing time.
Neapolitan pizza has (like for bread) five stages:- Mixing or kneading
- Fermentation of the bulk (in Italian it is called “Puntata”)
- Shaping the dough balls (in Italian it is called “Staglio”)
- Proofing (final rise of the dough balls, in Italian it is called “Appretto”)
- Cooking
Let’s start with the 24 hours version.
a) Pour all the water into a big bowl, dissolve the salt in it and add half of the flour with the yeast
b) Mix the ingredients to obtain a homogenous consistency
c) Add slowly the flour in small portions. Add the next portion only when the latter portion has been properly adsorbed.
d) Repeat point c) until you have inserted all the flour
e) Place the dough into a container and cover it with a lid or with cling film (without lid or cling film the external layer of the dough would dry too much)
For details about how to properly manipulate and knead the dough check out these videos:
After 19-20 hours it is time to shape the dough balls. This is a very important step and it needs to be done properly. Remove the dough from the fridge, dust slightly your working area with dusting flour and place the dough on it. Cut about 270 grams dough from the bulk and shape it into a rough ball. Use your hands to twist and pull the dough ball together (video below). Do the same for another 9-10 portions. Place the dough balls into another container and cover it with a lid. In the following video you can see the shaping stage:
After the last 5-6 hours proofing stage it is time to create the typical disk shape of pizza and add the toppings. It doesn’t have to be perfectly circular! Check out these videos from a very famous Italian pizza chef (Salvatore Di Matteo).
Finally add your favourite toppings. For a Margherita: tomato sauce (it should be San Marzano DOP), fresh mozzarella, few basil leaves, olive oil and pecorino cheese. Place the disk in a pre-heated stone oven at the maximum temperature (if you can reach 500 °C or 930 °F you will get the best result) and cook for 60-90 seconds (depending on the temperature).
8 hours version:
Ingredients
(for 10 dough balls, 270 grams each ball)
Water (cold from the fridge) ________________1000 gr (35.27 oz)
Strong White Flour (type “0” or type “00”)_____1650 gr (58.2 oz) or 1600 gr (56.44 oz)
Salt____________________________________50 gr
Compressed fresh yeast____________________3,0 gr (0.04 – 0.1 oz)
Do not use the fridge for this version. Fermentation time is 3 hours and proofing time is 5 hours. The rest is the same as in the 24 hours version.
Edited by Elpado - 2/10/2017, 21:52.
Authentic Neapolitan Pizza |
