The Authentic Neapolitan Pizza Dough Recipe
With a classic high and puffy cornice, this thin and soft round Neapolitan pizza dough is based on simple ingredients: water, flour, and yeast.
Ingredients
Neapolitan Pizza Dough Recipe Ingredients (6 pizzas)
- 770 g flour "00" Type 0, or "00" Italian finely milled ground flour is perfect for a Neapolitan pizza with its distinctive thin, crispy pizza crust.
- 17 g salt We need to use about 2.5 to 3% fine sea salt.
- 500 ml water The water should be around 20°C as the temperature will automatically increase when kneading the dough.
- 4 g fresh yeast or 2g dry yeast
Pizza Margerita Toppings
- 720 g tomatoes peeled. Alternatively, you can use fresh tomato puree.
- 1 pinch salt a pinch
- 600 g fiordilatte or fresh mozzarella
- 6 tbsp OIL (a drizzle per pizza)
- 10 g basil (a handful)
Instructions
Neapolitan Pizza Step by Step
- In a large bowl, add 500ml water and the yeast.
- Add the flour little by little to the bowl slowly mixing the salt. Work with your hands. The mixture will be quite moist.
- Continue to mix and work with your hands until the flour absorbs the water. At first, the mixture will look dry but continue to work until there are no more dry crumbs in the bowl. If you push the dough with your thumb it should feel soft and smooth like a baby's bottom.
- If the mix is too dry you can add a tablespoon of water at a time until you get the desired result.
- Once the dough is solid enough you can move the dough into a floured work surface.
- Pull one side of the dough and bring it to the middle. Then pull the opposite die and pull it over into the middle so it overlaps. Turn the dough 90 degrees and pull over the sides like in the previous steps. Repeat this process until you can pull the dough and stretch it thinly without breaking. This process can take up to 20 minutes.
- Flip the dough so that the folded sides are facing downwards and place it in a large bowl rubbed with olive oil.Cover the dough ball with a damp cloth and let sit for 1 hour.
- Repeat the process of pulling the sides over and then turning the dough 90 degrees and pulling over the sides again. Cover back again and let sit for another hour.
- Uncover the dough, dip your hands in the flour and divide it into 6 pieces. For each ball repeat the process of pulling over to the sides, turning 90 degrees, and repeating the process.
- Cup your fingers over the dough and work in your hands in a circle forming a nice ball. Repeat until you have 6 smooth dough balls.
- Place on a floured tray and cover with a damp town for at least 2 - 4 hours until double in size. You can leave it overnight to rise.
Notes
Recipe Notes:
- The salt in the dough helps to extend the fermentation time, improves the texture, and helps the crust to get brown and crispy when baking! So if you thought about skipping the salt - DON'T! I suggest dissolving the salt with the water first and avoiding direct contact with the yeast as much as possible.
- Once ready, you can seal the pizza and store it in the fridge for 2-3 days. Alternatively, you can also freeze the dough. In either case, before rolling out the pizza leave it to stand for an hour at room temperature. Then before using it sprinkly with flour, make 4 folds and then you can use it.