10 Pro Rules for Making Neapolitan Pizza at Home · PrimedTable
Italian🍞 Bread & bakery
10 Pro Rules for Making Neapolitan Pizza at Home
⏱ 1500 min🍽 Serves 4
This video condenses a decade of pizza-making experience into 10 key rules for making professional-quality Neapolitan pizza at home, covering dough hydration, long fermentation, shaping technique, sauce simplicity, oven temperature control, and flavor balance.
canned whole Roma or San Marzano tomatoes~2 cans (400 g each)est.
salt (for the tomato sauce)to taste
olive oil~3 tbspest.
frozen minced garlic cubesoptional, for a richer garlic tomato sauce variation~2 tspest.
Parmesan cheese~50 gest.
fresh mozzarella cheesecubed~200 gest.
fresh basil leaves~8-10est.
fine semolina flour mixed with all-purpose flourused as a non-stick dusting when shaping the dough~100 gest.
Steps
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1
Combine 900g bread flour and 100g whole wheat flour (1000g total), add 700g water (70% hydration), 15g salt, and 1 tsp instant yeast, then mix in a stand mixer for about 10 minutes until a dough forms.
2
Transfer the dough to your work surface, perform a few stretch-and-folds, let it rest 20 minutes, then do one final fold until the dough looks smooth and strong.
3
Place the dough in a sealed container for the bulk rise—about 3–4 hours at room temperature, or 12–24 hours refrigerated—until it has doubled in volume.
4
Once bulk fermented, lightly dust your work surface with flour, divide the dough into 250g balls, and place them in a lightly floured or oiled proofing container.
5
Let the dough balls cold-proof for another 12–24 hours in the fridge, or proof at room temperature for 1–2 hours until they spring back slightly with a light indent when pressed.
6
For the sauce, drain the excess liquid from the canned tomatoes, crush them by hand, and season with salt for a simple Neapolitan-style sauce.
7
For a richer variation, heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat, sauté minced garlic until fragrant and colored, then add the canned tomatoes and simmer until it reaches your desired consistency.
8
Preheat your pizza oven to a high temperature (ideally around 900°F/480°C; for a home oven, use the highest setting with a pizza stone or steel).
9
Generously coat the proofed dough ball and work surface with the semolina/flour blend so it won't stick when shaping and transferring to the peel.
10
Press around the edge with your fingers first to lock air into the crust, then gently push out and stretch the center using gravity to form a thin base.
11
Place the shaped dough onto a floured peel, spread a thin layer of tomato sauce (leaving a few visible pale spots), sprinkle with Parmesan, then scatter cubed fresh mozzarella on top.
12
Finish with fresh basil leaves, drizzle a little olive oil over them to prevent burning, and add a pinch of salt to taste if desired.
13
Use an infrared thermometer to confirm the oven's ambient and stone temperatures roughly match (around 750°F is fine), slide the pizza in, rotate it for even cooking, and adjust the flame lower if it browns too fast—bake for about 90 seconds to 3 minutes total.
14
Remove the pizza and enjoy it hot, optionally dipping the crust in extra tomato sauce, and use what you learned to tweak dough thickness or oven temperature on your next pizza for continuous improvement.
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