M is for Margherita Pizza

First and foremost, let me say that the most important rule for pizza is to just eat what you like…, but Neapolitan Pizza is more regulated than Wall St and TSA combined and maybe that’s why Naples has some of the best pizza in the world no matter which pizzeria you go to. Seriously, I lived there for a month and didn’t have a bad pizza once. It’s impressive, but THAT is what rules are for. Not to condemn other pizzas as inferior, but to maintain a quality that you can count on. Bravissimo, Napoli! La tua pizza è buonissima.

Warning: This recipe really doesn’t work out too well if you are cooking in a home oven. You really need something like a @gozney Arc or an @oonihq pizza oven to get up to a high enough temperature… or a friend like @leannecitrone who has the setup of my DREAMS.

Thanks so much for having us over for an amazing pizza night.

For anyone who want’s to try their hand at an authentic Margherita… here you go! It’s in metric because… it’s Italian.

Ingredients:
– Water 1l
– Salt 40-60 g
– Yeast (based on temperature and humidity):
Fresh yeast – 0.1-3 grams
Mother Yeast – 5-20% of flour used
Dry yeast – 1/3 of fresh yeast used (1 gram of dry for 3 grams of fresh)
– Flour 1,600-1,800g

Mix the dough in the order of the video, water, yeast, flour, and then salt once the dough has formed.

Knead for a few minutes, but most of the gluten will develop during the first 2hr rest under a damp cloth.

Form little balls of 200 – 280 g, to obtain a pizza with a diameter between 22 and 35 cm. Rest those covered for 2 hours, then place them in the fridge for another 6-22 hours.

Remove the doughballs an hour before you’re going to cook them so that they can return to room temp.

Spread them in as little flour as possible, and top with

Peeled and crushed San Marzano Tomatoes 60 – 80g (1% salted)*
Buffalo or cow mozzarella/ fior di latte** 80 – 100g
Fresh basil some leaves
Grated hard cheese (optional) 5 – 7g
Extra virgin olive oil 6 – 7g (tolerance +20%)

*Peeled S.Marzano tomato from Agro Sarnese-Nocerino. D.O.P. The use of fresh or industrial peeled tomatoes “Roma type long tomatoes”, preferably Italian, is permitted
The procedure involves preparing the tomato sauce by salting it and not adding salt directly to the pizza disc. In detail, for 1kg of peeled tomato the quantity of salt to add is approximately 10-12g, in the case of S. Marzano tomato, which is already a tastier product, the quantity to add is approximately 7-10g per kg.

**Mozzarella Buffalo mozzarella from Campania D.O.P.

#margherita #pizza #italianfood #margheritapizza #neapolitanpizza