Italian recipesItališki receptai

Real Italian Pizza. How to make neapoletan dough?

Tikra itališka picaThere’s no other Italian word known in the world better as “pizza”, this is, without doubt, our national dish. Personally I never met an Italian who doesn’t like pizza… at least the real italian pizza. I say real italian pizza because the diffusion of this dish around the world has meant that every country has customized the original recipe according to their tastes.

In Napoli they are very proud of their pizza, and they want to preserve its original recipe like a sacred ritual and with a lot of rules to respect, starting from the dough that is hardly influenced from the damp of air and from the limestone in the water etc etc. Furthermore, the most “talebans” of pizzamakers in Napoli say that there are only 2 kind of pizza: Marinara and Margherita, and that’s all they will serve to you. Also in Firenze there is some pizzeria like Caffé Italiano, that serve just pizza Margherita, Marinara o Napoletana. They say you don’t have to add ketchup, mayonnaise or whatever to pizza, or you will cover the original taste.

Infact, I saw many foreign people looking at a pizza Marinara, which is made just with tomato, garlic and oregano, like something was missing out, but I can ensure you Italian pizza Marinara is very good and it’s perfect to make you discover the “real” taste of pizza.

Ingredients:

1 l of water
50 g of fine salt
3 g of brewer’s yeast
1,7 kg of flour

Mix the dough in a stand mixer, by hand or in a bread machine. If you are using a stand mixer, mix it slowly for two minutes, faster for 5 minutes, and slow again for 2 minutes. Cover the dough and let it rise for 1 1/2 – 2 hours, or until double. Punch it down and push out the air bubbles. Form the dough into a large ball, then cut it into three 250 gr equal pieces. To make your pizza balls, shape each piece of dough into a ball. Gently roll your dough into a ball, then stretch the top of the ball down and around the rest of the ball, until the outer layer wraps around the other side. Pinch the two ends together to make a smooth ball with a tight outer “skin.” Set your ball seam-side down where it can rest. Dust your pizza balls with flour, and store them under a damp towel, in a proofing tray, or under plastic wrap. This will prevent the outside of the ball from drying out and creating a crust, and becoming difficult to work with. The top of the pizza ball should be soft and silky. Your pizza balls will need to rest for about an hour to become soft and elastic, so that they can be easily stretched into a thin crust pizza. If you won’t need your dough for more than an hour, refrigerate it until you are ready to start. If you won’t have an hour to let your dough rest, read our Dough in a Hurry strategy. By cutting back each phase of dough preparation by the right amount, you can make great pizza or focaccia dough in as little as an hour.

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