We Cook Neapolitan Pizza At Home

It seems that if you can find people who are indifferent to burgers, then everyone loves pizza . Over the past few years, many new types of pizza have appeared in our country : in addition to the usual version on thin dough , Roman pizza (or pinza), American-style pizza , and, of course, Neapolitan pizza have gained particular popularity . So, let's find out how to cook the last one at home.

Pizza is probably the most famous national dish of Italy, which is basically a round open pie with various toppings. It is generally accepted that the birthplace of pizza is the city of Naples , where pizza appeared around the end of the 15th century. The well- known pizza Margherita with tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil was born thanks to the love for this dish of Maria Carolina of Habsburg-Lorraine and the court chef of her husband Ferdinand IV.

In Naples , pizza is made almost at every step, there are even several pizzerias that are more than 100 years old, where recipes are passed down from generation to generation. Neapolitan pizza is very different from pizza from other regions of Italy and the rest of the world.

First, it is prepared only in a wood-fired oven at a very high temperature, and the baking time is just over 1 minute. Secondly, for the preparation of pizza dough , a special fine flour called 00 is used. At the same time, such flour must have special properties, namely a high protein content and the so-called "flour strength". Third, when preparing the dough , you cannot use any additional ingredients except flour, water, salt, and yeast. Olive oil, sugar, eggs are taboo. Fourthly, only San Marzano tomato sauce is used as a sauce. And, after all, cheese is only fresh, from the milk of cows or buffaloes: fior di latte or fior di bufala.

We are preparing Neapolitan dough

• Live yeast - 1.5 g.

• Flour - 850 g.

• Water - 500 ml.

• Salt - 28 g.

We mix water. Try to work with one hand. First, rub the yeast in your hand with your fingers, and then dissolve it in water until it is completely dissolved. Add ⅓ of the flour to the mixture. Mix everything carefully. Add salt. Since the yeast is already in a favorable environment for them, you can safely add all the salt.

Constantly stirring the dough , add the other part of the flour. The main thing is to knead the dough correctly either by hand or in a mixer, but at medium speed. Knead the dough until it pulls away from your hands. Ideally, you should have a soft and elastic dough , after which it should be allowed to rest: form a ball and leave the dough for about 2 hours at room temperature. To prevent it from drying out, cover the layer with a slightly damp towel and napkin.

After 2 hours, form four balls from the resulting dough , place them in a tray, cover with cling film and refrigerate for 12-24 hours. This is a fermentation process: the dough will become light and bake quickly. It is interesting that fermented dough has fewer calories than dough that does not undergo aging. This is due to the fact that during the fermentation process, the starch in the dough is broken down by enzymes into the simplest sugars, which, in turn, are fermented by yeast. That is why Neapolitan pizza is easy to digest.