Autentica Pizza Napoletana (Authentic Neapolitan Pizza)

We ate pizza all over Italy, including Brandi di Vincenzo Pagnani in Naples (Brandi for short) where the Pizza Margherita (the first modern pizza) was created in 1889 and found none that resemble Italian-American pizza. While Italian-American pizza is topped with a cooked sauce and cow mozzarella and is anywhere from ¼ to ½ inch thick, authentic Italian pizza is topped with uncooked, crushed tomatoes (preferably San Marzano tomatoes from Naples), real buffalo mozzarella and has a crust that is between 1/8 to ¼ inch thick.

Note that this recipe calls for a pizza stone and a peel, but it can be adapted to work with a round, metal pizza pan. However, but I highly recommend acquiring the stone and peel.

To prepare the sponge:

1. Set aside 1 cup of flour for use to prepare the sponge (reserve the remaining 2 cups of flour for the dough). Place 1 cup lukewarm water in the large bowl of a heavy-duty mixer. Sprinkle 1 package yeast (reserve the remaining yeast for dough) and 1/4 teaspoon flour (from the reserved 1 cup of flour) over the water. Let stand until yeast dissolves and mixture looks spongy, about 4 minutes.
2. Add the remaining flour (from the 1 cup flour set aside above) and whisk until smooth; scrape down the sides of the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow this “sponge” to rest at room temperature in draft-free area overnight (or for at least 12 hours).

To prepare the dough:

1. Add the remaining 1/2 cup lukewarm water (110°F to 115°F), salt, and the remaining 1/3 package of yeast to the matured sponge in the bowl. To this add the reserved 2 cups of flour (1 cup at a time), beating with a dough hook to blend after each addition. Continue to beat until dough is smooth and comes cleanly away from the sides of the bowl, and is only slightly sticky to touch, scraping down the bowl occasionally, about 5 minutes. If the dough is very sticky, beat in more flour (¼ cup at a time).
2. Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead into a smooth ball, about 5 minutes. Do not skimp on this step, as it develops the elasticity of the dough.
3. Lightly coat the inside of a large bowl with extra-virgin olive oil. Add the dough ball and turn to coat it with oil (be sure to coat the ball or it will stick to the plastic wrap as it grows). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow to further develop for up to 6 hours, punching the dough down when it doubles (after about 3 hours of rising).
4. About 1 ½ hours before baking, dust a baking sheet with flour. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead gently; shape into a 12-inch log. Cut into 2 equal pieces. Knead each piece into smooth ball. Arrange balls of dough on the sheet. Cover loosely with a clean, damp (not wet) kitchen towel and let rise until almost doubled, about 1 to 1 ½ hours.
5. Proceed to form the pizzas.

Forming the pizzas:

1. Place an appropriately-sized pizza stone on the bottom (not on a rack) of your oven and preheat the oven/stone to the highest temperature (usually around 500 to 550° F— in Italy, the ovens usually run about 700° F).
2. On a work surface, place one of the dough balls and, with your fingertips, press it into a disk of dough approximately 12 inches round and about 1/8 inch thick. (If necessary, use a rolling pin to achieve the 1/8-inch thickness. Don’t worry if the pizza isn’t perfectly round. That’s called “rustica” and it’s the way “real” Italian pizza looks in Italy.)
3. Distribute some corn meal over the surface of a pizza peel (this will act as “ball bearings” and allow the dough rounds to move easily over the surface of the peel) and transfer the formed pizza base onto the peel. Lightly spread about ½ of the crushed tomatoes on top of the base, leaving about ½ inch of uncoated dough around the edge to form the crust (see note 1 below). Evenly distribute 1/2 of the sliced (or shredded) mozzarella over the sauce and sprinkle generously with extra-virgin olive oil (see note 2 below).
4. Gently shake the peel to insure the pizza moves freely (if it doesn’t, gently lift the edges of the pizza and distribute additional corn meal until it does). Using the peel, slide the pizza onto the stone and bake the pizza until the cheese is melted and bubbly, about 7 minutes in a 550°F oven. Remove from the oven, slice into 8 wedge shaped slices and serve (see note 3 below).
5. Repeat with the remaining dough, tomatoes, and mozzarella.

Notes:

1. At this point, I occasionally sprinkle some Kosher salt, parmesan and/or Romano cheese, finely chopped garlic and/or chiffonade fresh basil over the tomatoes before adding the Mozzarella cheese.

2. At this point, you can add toppings of your choice, although in some places in Italy, it appeared that toppings were added after the pizza was cooked. In one case, my wife ordered a black olive pizza and it appeared at the table as a pizza with whole olives (pits intact) distributed on top.

3. In Italy, each diner usually has his/her own pizza and, when not using a knife and fork to eat the pizza, they usually just tear the pizza into slices.