RCP: Neapoloitan-style Pizza: Success at last!

I love Neapolitan-style pizza - thin, chewy, tasty crust and thin toppings. There is a restaurant not too far from us that does it really well (Queen Margherita Pizza). It's the only pizza I've had locally where I like to eat the crust as much as the toppings. It's better than what I got in Sorrento or Firenza (we never made it to Napoli).

My efforts never even came close - the crust tasted like slightly crunchy bread - no chew, and not a lot of taste. Lat night I tried out the pizza from a new (for me) book: My Pizza, by Jim Lahey, and lo and behold, a chewy flavourful crust. The big innovations for me (and I'm not sure which is more responsible for the success) are:

1. A no-knead dough that develops at room temperature for 18 hours,
2. Getting the pizza stone really hot by using the broiler, and
3. Cooking it under the broiler to get a blistered and slightly charred crust

Voilà - a chewy and tasty crust, although not as good as QMP's. (I don't have a wood-fired oven, after all.)

He also provided a ridiculously easy and tasty tomato sauce. Here are the recipes I used: (P.S. I got the book on special at the KIndle store when it was $1.99.)

Jim Lahey's Pizza Crust

This is half the recipe, which was [almost] enough for two people

250 grams (8 3/4 oz or about 1 7/8 cups) all purpose flour (I used type '00')
1/2 gram (1/8 tsp) active dry yeast
8 grams (1 tsp) fine sea salt
175 grams (3/4 cup) water

In a medium bowl, mix the flour, yeast and salt. Add the water and mix thoroughly.

Cover the bowl and allow it to rise at room temperature for 18 hours or until it more than doubles. I suspect, although I am not sure, that this is what gives the crust its flavour. I'll try leaving it longer next time for even more flavour.

Scrape out the dough onto a floured work surface. Fold the dough from the four sides into the centre, then shape it into a ball and turn seam side down. Mould the dough into a circular round. If the dough is sticky, add more flour. Stretch the dough into a 16- to 18-inch round, using your fingers, or stretching it on your knuckles, and place it on a pizza peel which is covered in flour or parchment paper. (Actually, the parchment paper didn't work so well, because the broiler really burnt the exposed paper.)

To cook the pizza, put a pizza stone in the oven 8 inches below a gas broiler or 4 inches below an electric broiler) and heat the oven at 500°F for 30 minutes, then turn on the broiler for 10 minutes. Top the pizza and slide it onto the stone. Cook under the gas broiler for 3-4 minutes or a little longer for an electric broiler.

Jim Lahey's Basic Tomato Sauce

700 grams (1 1/2 lb) ripe plum tomatoes or a 28 oz can peeled Italian plum tomatoes
20 grams (2 Tbsp) extra-virgin olive oil
2 grams (1/4 tsp) fine sea salt

If using fresh tomatoes, cut out the stem and boil 2 or 3 tomatoes at a time for 5-10 seconds. Cool and peel. In either case, cut the tomatoes into several wedges and run through a food mill, or simply squish them with your fingers. Stir in the oil and salt.

Pizza Margherita For Two

1 dough recipe above
140 grams (1/2 cup) Basic Tomato Sauce
140 grams (4 1/2 oz) fresh mozzarella, pulled into 10 clumps
20 grams (6 Tbsp) finely grated Parmesan
Pinch of fine sea salt
12 basil leaves, or to taste

Top the dough round on the peel with the tomato sauce, leaving an inch of the rim untouched. Distribute the mozzarella evenly over the sauce. Slide the pizza onto the heated stone and broil for 3-4 minutes (gas) or a little longer (electric), until the top is bubbling and the crust is nicely charred, but not burnt. Remove the pizza and top evenly with the Parmesan and salt, Distribute the basil over the top. Slice and serve immediately.

Souinds great, Ted!

18 hours is something of an inconvenient amount of time for supper pizza, though, just in terms of having it ready for supper. Did you go 18 hours or more?

18 hours is something of an inconvenient amount of time for supper pizza, though, just in terms of having it ready for supper. Did you go 18 hours or more?

Probably 19 hours. It only takes 3 or 4 minutes to make the dough (no kneading!), so I made it around 11pm, processed it around 6 or 6:30 the next day, and ate it around 7pm.

18 hours is something of an inconvenient amount of time for supper pizza, though, just in terms of having it ready for supper. Did you go 18 hours or more?

Probably 19 hours. It only takes 3 or 4 minutes to make the dough (no kneading!), so I made it around 11pm, processed it around 6 or 6:30 the next day, and ate it around 7pm.

Thanks - that would be the way to do it. That's a bit late for me to be doing that sort of thing on a work day, but I would guess that the dough would freeze well. I'll have to give it a shot!

That's a bit late for me to be doing that sort of thing on a work day, but I would guess that the dough would freeze well.

Lahey says you can wrap the dough balls in plastic and refrigerate them for up to 3 days, then leave them out for 2-3 hours to warm to room temperature when you're ready to use them.

You could also leave the dough for a little less than 18 hours - make it just before going to bed, and let it rise until just before supper the next day. I found that most of the rising happened in the first 12 hours, so leaving it for anywhere from 15 to 24 hours should work.

Lahey says you can wrap the dough balls in plastic and refrigerate them for up to 3 days, then leave them out for 2-3 hours to warm to room temperature when you're ready to use them.

You could also leave the dough for a little less than 18 hours - make it just before going to bed, and let it rise until just before supper the next day. I found that most of the rising happened in the first 12 hours, so leaving it for anywhere from 15 to 24 hours should work.

I've had no problem leaving dough in the refrigerator for several days, it only gains flavor. (I've never gone long enough to the point where it would spoil) And it's such an easy thing to make that in my cause there is no reason not to make it in advance. But, that's because Saturday night is pizza night, so we know it's coming. If you want to make spontaneous pizza then I guess you have to sacrifice some flavor. But that's ok, it will probably still be delicious!