Basic Pizza Dough #2
Overview
This is a traditional Neapolitan pizza dough recipe. It differs from Pizza Dough #1, as it contains more salt and no olive oil.
It will be chewy and bread like if cooked at a lower temperature, but for best results should be cooked at the highest temperature going and rolled to be quite thin ‘as a pancake’.
Timeline
The dough is mixed together and kneaded, and will need one rise of 5 minutes and a further rise of 30 minutes.
While rising you can also prepare a pizza sauce.
Notes & Toppings
Pizza must be cooked on a high heat, aiming to achieve a crispy base
To achieve a consistent cheese topping, use a grated hard cheese (eg parmesan) and spread evenly over the base.
To achieve nice pools of ‘fresh’ white cheese - use either a fresh mozerella\bocconcini or other fresh cheese and slice into small circles. Add these to the pizza either after cooking, or in the final 3 minutes of the cooking process. This will avoid the fresh cheese either burning or leaking too much water over the rest of the pizza.
Bouquet of fresh herbs in sauce can be replaced by just adding dried herbs and mixing through
Ingredients - Dough
500g plain flour + Additional pinches to feed yeast & knead
2 tsp salt
325ml warm water
1tsp instant yeast (alternative 10gm fresh yeast)
Pinch of sugar
Ingredients - Sauce & topping
300gm tinned plummed tomatoes
Olive oil for dirzling
25gm parmesan
fresh basil
150g mozzarella roughly chopped
Method - Dough Prep
Basic process is:
Revive the yeast by mixing 1 tsp yeast, 325 ml warm water with pinches of flour and sugar
Gradually stir yeast mixture into the bulk of the flour & salt until a soft but cohesive dough forms, leave to rise for 5 minutes.
Knead dough for approximately 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and springs back a little when pressed (If using a stand mixer\thermomix kneading may be completed in 5-7 minutes.)
Split dough into seperate balls (2-3), and allow to rise for 30 minutes
Allow to rise for 1-2 hours (or until doubled), If leaving longer allow to rise in the fridge.
Method - Sauce Prep
Slightly crush tomatoes
season with salt & pepper
Mix well
Method - Dough to Pizza
Pre-heat oven as hot as it will go (typically 260-275c), with pizza stone in place (if using a pizza stone)
Press the balls into flat dough discs - as thin as a pancake with slight thickness at the border.
Apply your sauce and toppings to the disc; tomato should be thin to avoid sogginess
Cook the disc for 7 minutes remove from the oven and dress with olive oil and extra basil.
Genaro Contaldo