The closest thing you will find to a Neapolitan pizza in a domestic home oven. Normally, to achieve the perfect pizza base Neapolitan style, you need a very hot oven such as a powerful commercial electric or a woodfired oven. Pizzas should be cooked in 60-90 seconds in a 430C°-480C° (800F°-900F180
°) oven, that is hot!!! Domestic home ovens are lucky to get half that amount of heat. If you’re lucky enough to own a pizza oven, this recipe is still an excellent pizza base to use in super hot ovens. You will be amazed at the results, in any type of oven!

So, what makes a good Neapolitan pizza base? It is the raised swollen edges, softness in the crust, fluffy texture with toasted spots on the outside. It should not weigh more than 280grams 35cm in diameter and be approx. 0.25 centimetres thick. Now don’t worry too much about specifications, this is for home use it, doesn’t matter, it’s just a guideline.

For the base, I use a starter called “poolish”, made from mixed yeast, water and flour, I also use a little honey to help feed it. It is then proved in the fridge overnight; long cold proofing, 8 to 24 hours is the secret to any good pizza base. Plus you won’t feel as bloated afterwards.

The pizza is cooked twice, once covered in a pan with steam and then finished under your oven grill (Broiler). This method gets you closest to the real deal of a Neapolitan pizza base

If you want to keep your pizza dough for the next day, no problem, simply retighten pizza dough into round balls and place in oiled or floured covered container in the fridge. To use the next day, remove from fridge and bring back to room temperature before use. Continue as per recipe.

Remember that a pizza is actually a small bread roll, some tomato and topping and cheese. Therefore if you use fresh quality ingredients, it’s no different than eating a salad roll with cheese. The pizzas you buy from a lot of franchise restaurants are very unhealthy due to the amounts of cheap oil, inferior flour and loaded with sugars, plastic cheeses and other additives not required. So don’t worry, genuine or homemade pizza is not an unhealthy food!

Enjoy Neapolitan Pizza at Home today!