Today I'm not just writing a post. I'm going to give you a recipe and take you through my pizza making process from start to finish.

Over the last couple of years I've gotten deep into making pizza. Specifically Neapolitan style with high quality ingredients. I will obviously eat pizza in any variety it comes in but there is nothing better in my opinion that a simple, Neapolitan style Margherita.

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Ingredients

Dough

• 497g Caputo Pizzeria Wheat Flour (Tipo 00).
• Caputo Semolina Wheat Flour
• 15g Marino Fino - Sale (sea salt fine)
• 328g water (room temperature, bottled mineral if you have it)
• 3g Caputo Lievito Dry Yeast
• Farchioni Il Casolare Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Sauce

• 1x can Mutti Polpa Finely Chopped Tomatoes
• Pinch of Marino Fino - Sale (sea salt fine)
• 1 tablespoon Filippo Berio Chilli infused Olive Oil

Toppings

• Parmigiano Reggiano or Pecorino
• Galbani Mozzarella Maxi (fresh Mozzarella)
• Fresh Basil leaves and Olive Oil

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Making the Dough

This recipe makes 3x 280g dough balls with a 66% hydration.

First mix the flour and the yeast into a large mixing bowl. Mix this well so that it is evenly distributed and make a small well in the middle.

Next get your water and mix in the salt until it's fully dissolved. Then pour some water into the well you made in the middle of the flour and yeast in the mixing bowl. Mix the flour into the water until everything is incorporated.

Tip the dough onto the counter.

Stretch the dough and fold it and knead it for a minute or so. It will be very sticky but you're just trying to make sure everything is mixed properly. Now cover with the bowl and leave it for 10-20 minutes.

When you come back the dough will be less wet and sticky and the Gluten will have started to form.

Now you want to simply pick the dough ball up with both hands and turn and throw the ball back down on the counter. Do this a couple of times and the dough ball will rapidly change appearance until it looks like this.

That was with no kneading at all. Just picking the ball up, and folding it as I throw it back down.

Next grease up a mixing bowl with some extra virgin Olive oil and place the dough ball inside. Cover with cling film and leave it to proof for an hour.

It should double in side and look like this.

Now reshape the dough so that it's ready to split into 3 equal pieces.

Before you do this though take some olive oil and grease up 3x storage bowls that you will use to proof the dough balls in. I use the Ooni stack for this.

Note do not just cut the dough into 3 pieces. Instead, pick up one end with both hands holding it with your thumb and fore fingers and use your bottom 3 fingers on each hand to slowly tuck the dough into the bottom of the ball until you feel it's the right size. Then squeeze your index finger and thumb together to cut the dough and pull off a dough ball.

Repeat this step until you have 3 dough balls.

Leave the Ooni stack out on the side for another hour then put it in the fridge overnight. The dough needs to proof in the fridge for a minimum of 12 hours. The longer you leave it in the fridge the better it is. I leave mine for days even up to a week, and it really tastes great!

Making the Pizza Sauce

Pizza sauce for Neapolitan style is super easy to make. I simply pour a can of Mutti Polpa tomatoes into a bowl. Throw in a couple pinches of Sea Salt and add a tablespoon of Chilli infused Olive Oil.

If you have fresh Basil leaves it's good to add a couple and mix into the sauce too! If no don't worry it's good to go just as it is.

Making the Pizza!

Now for the fun part. You've left the pizza dough balls to proof overnight and they now look something like this.

You will want to take your pizza dough ball out of the container and leave it on the side for about 60-90 minutes to allow it to come up to room temperature.

Make a round pile of Caputo Semolina flour and place the dough ball onto it.

You will want to pick it up, turn it over and put it down. Cover both sides in Semolina flour. Gently rub it into all the wet parts of the dough until it looks like this.

Make sure the bottom of the dough is on the top. Leaving the nice smooth side on the bottom. That will be the base of the Pizza when it's cooked and the funky looking side will be covered up by the sauce and toppings.

Now cover the dough up with a mixing bowl and leave it for 60-90 minutes.

Whilst waiting for the dough to warm up you will prepare the cheese. If using fresh Mozzarella it's important that this is dried out before you use it, otherwise the water will ruin the pizza and stop the base from cooking properly.

I take the Mozzarella and slice it up and leave it on Kitchen roll to absorb the water. Then I place back in the fridge until I am ready to use it.

Note: Now is a good time to pre-heat the oven. Whack it as high as your oven will go!

When you are ready to make the pizza. Press the dough in the centre with the bottoms of your fingers. Pushing the air to the edges so make those awesome big crusts. Turn the dough around and repeat. Then add pizza sauce.

Now before you add anything else put the pizza in the oven as it is, with just the sauce on. Leave in the oven for 5 minutes and then take it out. This will pre-bake the dough, and it will start to rise.

When you take it out, add your cheeses.

Here I added Pecorino and then my Mozzarella.

The final step and this makes it extra delicious is to use a brush and spread some Chilli Olive Oil all over the crust on the edge of the pizza and maybe drizzle some across the top of the pizza.

Now return it to the oven for around 10 mins. Just long enough to melt the cheese on top.

Wala!

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You may have noticed that I cooked my pizza today on a regular metal Pizza tray. This was a mistake. I was seasoning a new Cast Iron pan today, and it was in the oven at the same time I realised I needed to put my Pizza Stone in the oven to warm up. That's also why there was no pictures showing my pizza on a Peel or being fired into the stone in the oven. But I assure you my Pizza Peel and Stone game is way strong 😎😂.

Maybe in another post.