Pizza is the favorite dish of Italians, and it’s the queen of all tables around the world.
Pizza makes you happy, it is a symbol of sharing and it is good to taste it everywhere: from the most rustic to the poshest pizza place.
But the desire for pizza can call you at any time, and this is why the ideal solution for all pizza lovers is learning how to make it at home. And we know that you are many!
"Whatever the result is, smile: because pizza must have a Neapolitan soul... always good and cheerful".
Davide Civitiello’s word, World Champion of the Caputo Trophy, chief pizza chef of Rosso Pomodoro and Technical Consultant of Mulino Caputo.
It is with the exclusive recipe of Davide, an award-winning Neapolitan pizza chef, that we will see step by step how to make an excellent Neapolitan pizza made with the (right) home tools.
INGREDIENTS
The traditional recipe normally includes 4 ingredients only: water, salt, yeast and flour.
For homemade pizza, however, two more ingredients are indicated: oil and sugar.
The first allows to obtain a more fragrant pizza, the second instead helps in coloring without affecting the rising.
The quantities used for this recipe (*) are:
00 flour 1600 gr
Water 1 lt
Salt 50 gr
Yeast 2 gr
Sugar 20 gr
Evo oil 50 gr
(*) to obtain from 8 to 10 round pizzas
Phase 1 - Preparing
In a rather large bowl, add half of the flour provided, 1 liter of water, the salt to dissolve in the water and the yeast to crumble in the flour.
Be careful never to let the salt come into contact with the yeast; important that when we put the yeast into the mixture, the salt has already well dissolved in the water.
First we begin to mix these four ingredients by hand from the bottom upwards, obtaining a very soft "pastetta" which will act as the base for which, gradually insert the sugar, the oil and gradually the rest of the flour, continuing to knead the dough until a more compact consistency is obtained.
At this point, transfer the mixture to the work surface, and continue to knead it for 15 to 20 minutes, until we obtain a shiny, uniform and elastic dough, which we will rest for 20 minutes.
Phase 2 - Shaping
After about 20 minutes of dough rest, helping us with the dough cutter cut the dough loaves in the same size and same weight; with the doses used it will come out 8/10 for pizzas with a diameter of 28/32 cm.
foto credits @ilpizzaiolo
Once cut, play with it a little by rolling it up to create all the same and well-rounded balls.
Remember that "what matters is not the technique but the final result".
At this point, insert the loaves in the appropriate plastic trays, cover them with a damp cloth and let them rise from 6 to 8 hours.
In the meantime, we dedicate ourselves to the preparation of the tomato following the tradition, that is, working it well with hands.
Davide recommends not whipping it and consuming it raw so as to maintain the authentic flavor, typical of Neapolitan pizza.
Salt the tomato (recommended 1 gr of salt for every 100 gr of tomato), enriching it with some basil leaves and a drizzle of olive oil.
It is recommended to prepare the sauce a little before the use, so that the basil drains its flavor and the oil increases the shine of the tomato on the pizza ... "because, if you didn’t know, you know? You can eat the pizza with your eyes as well".
Now cut the mozzarella into medium strips with a simple knife, avoiding other machines that do nothing but separate the milk from the mozzarella.
Phase 3 - Stretching
After the 6/8 hours of rising our dough will be doubled in volume!
At this point, we take the balls of dough from the box with the help of the flexible spatula to move on to the stretching phase.
The first trick for Neapolitan pizza is to touch it just a little, wet your hands slightly and with your joined hands go stretch out the dough by spreading it with decisive gestures, three times on each side (above and below); we will naturally obtain a nice uniform ledge that will also frame the ingredients for the filling.
At this point we take our loading pizza peel to put it in the oven or https://gimetal.it/en/product/aluminum-round-pizza-peel-short-handle on which to drag the dough and continue with the dressing.
Make sure that the dough disc is able to move slightly on the blade.
Thanks to the measuring spoon, take the tomato sauce in the ideal quantity (in this case the 90gr capacity is fine), and with the flat bottom we distribute evenly the seasoning with spiral movements without leaving the edge.
At this point we put the right dose of mozzarella (about 70 / 80gr), fresh basil and a drizzle of olive oil.
Our pizza is ready to be baked!
Open the oven previously heated and brought to the maximum temperature, and we lay the dough on the refractory stone to start cooking.
Normally in the wood oven the pizza cooks in 90 sec, in the home oven it will take about 5-6 minutes.
When the cooking is complete, take the pizza out of the oven with the special small peel or simply with the aluminum server on which you can cut your steaming pizza with the pizza wheel cutter
You are ready to enjoy your home-made Neapolitan pizza prepared with the right home tools!
The tools recommended by Gi.Metal
In this article we have recommended:
plastic trays for dough balls rising
Loading peels:
Linea Azzurra rectangular perforated with 30 or 33 cm head and 60 or 120 cm handle or the 30 cm short handle peel always from the Azzurra Line
measuring spoon with flat bottom