Pizza 2025

 My pizza journey has evolved over the past 15 years, with strange ebbs and flows. Sometimes it seems easy; other times, I can't figure out why I'm not getting the results I want. I can chalk some of that up to changes in temperature, humidity, a pretty mediocre oven, and small inconsistencies. I may just need to be ok living with those imperfections. It always makes people happy, but the creator always knows the truth.

Neo-Neapolitan Pizza

This recipe makes approximately 5 pizzas that are 240g each. Each will be about the size of a dinner plate.

Levain

We start making a levain that is called "poolish." Combine 200g of flour, 200g of water, 5g of instant yeast, and 5g of honey. Let it sit at room temperature for about 45 minutes (should double in size) and then stick it in the fridge for a day. This begins the slow ferment process.

Dough

Next day, bring poolish to room temperature. Combine with 500g tipo 00 flour and 330g water and 21g salt. (I use a standing mixer) This will produce a dough that is approximately 75% hydration. Let dough rest for an hour.

Knead

To knead the dough, use stretch and fold method 3-4 times, with about 10 min in between each. This turns the dough from a sticky mess into something that resembles Jell-O. Add olive oil to the kneading surface to aid in the process. 

Cold proof

4. You can either divide up your pizza balls now, or you can leave it all in a single dough ball and divide it up later, but it needs to go into the fridge for another 24 hours at least. This allows 2 chemical processes to happen - the yeast eating the sugars, which produces the gasses in the dough, and the enzymes that break down the starch to produce more simple sugars. The former process works fast, the latter, slow. So putting it in the fridge slows down the former so the latter can catch up. 

On the day you want to bake, remove the dough at least an hour before you plan to bake, and preferably bring to room temperature, but not so long that the dough starts to rise again. The dough will still be a little sticky, so what I do is have a bowl of flour handy, and I pick up the dough ball, drop it into the bowl so it is coated, and now you can shape. 

Baking

Shape the ball of dough so it is relatively round and the cornicione (crust) still has air bubbles. 

When ready to bake, you'll need to decide how you want to do it. If you don't have an outdoor pizza oven, you can simulate the heat needed in a conventional oven by hacking the process. You can preheat a baking steel in the oven, or use a cast iron skillet. You want it to retain heat so the bottom of the crust cooks evenly with the top of the pizza.

The goal is to bake it as hot and as fast as you can, b/c that creates the best rise without drying out the dough. What I do is preheat the steel at the hottest temp the oven will go, and then load on the pizza and after a couple minutes, hit it from the top with the broiler. The whole process takes maybe 4 minutes. But, because of the amount of heat you're applying, consider adding the cheese at the very end, not at the beginning, or else the crust will burn or dry out before the cheese melts.