Neapolitan Pizza Dough

Neapolitan Pizza Dough and Pizza Margherita History And Recipe. The poor classes of Naples were the first to eat pizza in the 18th century. While Flatbreads were a common meal the tomatoes brought to Europe from South Ameican were the game-changer.

It is said that the poor mariners and other tradesmen began topping their flatbread with these new incredible fruits. This became know as Pizza Mariana a flatbread topped with tomato sauce and no cheese. This soon became a popular item with locals and tourists of Naples.

Then one day a baker, known as Raffaele Esposito. (He Should Be Famous) created the first pizza for Queen Margherita with fresh mozzarella! Hence the name pizza Margherita!

In honor of the Queen, he topped his masterpiece with fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil to represent the flag of Italy. The rest is history and pizza was born and loved by countless millions daily!

So here is the recipe for some authentic Neapolitan Pizza dough. It takes a little practice to handle and cook.  But practice makes perfect! By the way, you have to cook it fast at 900f in 90 seconds so good luck !!

Ingredients:

*Flour—Type 00 (Caputo or San Felice)  is preferred or a mixture of Type 00 with King  Arthur Bread Flour—  2 lb 2 oz. The oo means fine milled

*Yeast—Active Dry Yeast—1/2 Teaspoon

*Salt—sea salt, non-Iodized, fine-grained –.75 oz

*Water—2 .5 cups

Technique:

*First dissolve the yeast in the water, then add the salt to the water and dissolve this as well.

*Next add about 80% of the flour to all the liquid and mix to a stiff batter.  Let sit for about 20 minutes to allow the water to be absorbed by the flour.  (This is known as “Autolyse” which comes from the French word to rest).

*After the batter has rested for about 20 minutes add the rest of the flour slowly while mixing until the batter becomes a dough ball and lifts away from the bowl.

At this point you can either knead the dough by hand or in a mixer at slow speed, adding a bit of flour as needed.  Total mixing/kneading time is about six to eight minutes. You need to form the gluten!

*Form the dough into a large ball and place in a lightly oiled bowl (olive oil) to rise.

*Cover the bowl and let rise at room temperature for about two hours or until double in size.

*Lightly flour a work surface, remove dough from ball and cut dough into 7oz. pieces.

*Form dough balls and place in dough trays evenly spaced.  (This recipe produces eight dough balls which fit perfect in a standard Artisan Dough Tray).

*Cover Dough Tray with Dough Lid or second Dough Tray and place in the refrigerator.  Dough balls are best when given enough time to ferment and can be kept refrigerated three days or so.

*Remove trays from the fridge about 2 hours before use.   Dough balls should be at about room temperature, no colder than about 55 degrees F in order to stretch properly and reduce bubbles in baking. The Neapolitan Pizza recipe makes a very soft dough. That should be covered with blisters and a bubbly crust.

The secret to this pizza is to go light on ingredients. You should also use San Marzano tomatoes and of course fresh mozzarella. Drizzle some olive oil on top when done, or cook some basil on top! Your call.

It should be cooked at 900f and cooked in 90 seconds.

Pizza Neapolitan Cooked in 90 seconds in the Inferno Series Brick Ovens

 Neapolitan Pizza Dough Recipe.  Soft and tender blistered perfectly !!