I’m curious why you use a poolish and a biga. I usually use one or the other, I usually use an ischia levain built to float overnight per Ken Forkish method….
Our go-to, mouthwatering Neapolitan pizza recipe
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Time to read 4 min
Our modern Neapolitan pizza recipe
This recipes was put together with much passion and trial and error over the years. Our goal was to achieve the perfect balance in what we look for in a modern Neapolitan pizza: a bit of crunch on the crust, a dough that melts in your mouth, a slice that can hold toppings without flopping easily, and a crust with rich flavor.
We achieved this balance by using a combination of strong high-quality flours and combining two popular pre-ferments (biga and poolish), deeply developing the flavor of the dough.
Please note: this is an intermediate level recipe, due to the combination of techniques used. Because 100% of the flour comes from pre-ferments, the dough tends to develop quite rapidly. It requires careful observation to judge the proper time to bake it. If you are looking for a beginner-friendly recipe, be on the lookout: we will be publishing our favorite intro recipe for neo-Neapolitan pizza in the coming weeks.
Ingredient List
This recipe makes 5 pizzas, roughly 12 inches each (260-270 grams per pizza):
- 780 grams of pizza flour (see below for recommendations)
- 540 grams of water (69% hydration)
- 8 grams of Caputo dry yeast (about 1%)
- 20 grams of salt (2.5%)
- Toppings: we used whole peeled DOP tomatoes and imported fiordilatte di Agerola cheese
As explained below, all ingredients except the salt are all added through preferments (biga and poolish). So the final ingredients list is biga, poolish, salt.
Perfect products to try this recipe
Building the preferments
- We made a biga with 600 grams of flour, 360 grams of water, and 6 grams of dry yeast. This is slightly more hydrated than a typical biga, the reason being to give the dough more extensibility while stretching. The biga was prepared a day early and put in the fridge where it stayed for 24 hours.
- For biga we used Caputo Chef this time. Petra 0102HP or Molino Pasini Napoletana Moderna are an excellent choice as well
- We made a poolish with the remaining flour (180 grams) and water (180 grams) as well as 2 grams of dry yeast. We left the poolish out for 12 hours at room temperature (23C/73F).
- For poolish we used Caputo Pizzeria. Petra 5063 or Molino Pasini Verde are fantastic alternatives as well.
- If you are looking for instructions on how to make biga or poolish, be on the lookout for upcoming blog posts!
Mixing
- Mix biga and poolish together, making sure no clumps are left behind
- Once the gluten started to form, we added the salt
- We ensured the dough fully mixed and passed the windowpane test, before moving it to the counter, where it rested a few minutes before beginning the first rise.
First rise
Once the dough is mixed, the first rise begins. We typically give it a quick fold before putting it to rest in a squared container.
For the first rise, we are targeting an increase in volume of roughly ~75%. The time it will take depends heavily on the temperature of the dough and your room temperature. In our case, the dough temperature was about 21C/70F, and room temperature was about 23C/73F. It took the dough about 2 hours to grow to the target rise.
Balling and final rise
We flipped the proofed dough over the counter, divided into 5 equal pieces (about 260-270 grams each), and shaped each ball individually. We gave the balls good tension by folding them and stitching them as well as rounding them using our dough scraper. This created sufficient tension in the dough the help it keep shape during a long final rise. We put the balls to rest in the fridge immediately after shaping, and they stayed in the fridge about 12 hours before baking.
We flipped the proofed dough over the counter, divided into 5 equal pieces (about 260-270 grams each), and shaped each ball individually. We gave the balls good tension by folding them and stitching them as well as rounding them using our dough scraper. This created sufficient tension in the dough the help it keep shape during a long final rise. We put the balls to rest in the fridge immediately after shaping, and they stayed in the fridge about 12 hours before baking.
Stretching and baking
After 12 hours in the fridge we took our dough balls out, and we let the come to room temperature for about one hour. Note: this step is very important, do not attempt to stretch cool dough as it will not stretch properly.
We flipped each ball into a generous amount of Semolina Rimacinata, and we gently stretched it paying attention to the outer portion of the crust, to avoid deflating it.
We then placed it on a pizza peel, topped it with hand-crushed DOP San Marzano tomatoes and delicious imported Fiordilatte d'Agerola mozzarella cheese. We placed the pizza in a Gozney Dome, preheated for 30 minutes to 450C/850F, and cooked for approximately 75-90 seconds, turning the pizza halfway.
Conclusion
So there you have it: our modern Neapolitan pizza recipe. The combination of pre-ferments gave this dough the perfect mix of crunchiness, softness, and flavor. This recipe is a mainstay for our family and we'll continue improving on it over time. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
If you are looking to use the same ingredients we used in making this pizza, you can find them all in our store.
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Comments
Really interesting post!
Can i use this recipe but bake pizza on a baking steel in regular oven at 500?
Thanks