Pizza Napoletana Dough
There is no potato in this dough, just flour, yeast and salt (and a tiny bit of sugar). The quantity of serves depends on how you use it. This amount will make a large tray.
Ingredients
350 grams flour
3 grams salt
1 gram sugar
10 grams yeast ( you may need more yeast in winter or when your kitchen is cold)
300 ml approx of warm water (plus extra on the side)
15 ml oil
Method
Dissolve the yeast in the water, as much as it absorbs, and it might take more than the quantity given.
Add salt and sugar. Mix with your fingers and then pour yeast water into the middle of flour with a good spoon of olive oil ( in the north of Italy, they used to use pork fat instead of oil in these doughs) Mix flour into the middle, pull it in to where the liquid is and keep adding and mixing in flour, from the outside in.
Keep some, extra warm water on the side as you work. When you make this dough by hand, as the dough is kneading, you may find it helps to splash on a bit of water and keep turning the dough over. Work the dough fairly hard, keep pushing and turning till it forms into a ball. As you make the dough it should absorb all the flour on the bench,
The dough should be quite elastic. If it is too hard, break into it, open it up and add a bit more water. Then knead it again, put your fist into the water and then punch into the dough, turn and roll it. As it absorbs the water, the dough makes a popping noise.
It is a really sticky dough Put a little flour out on to the bench when you have finished handling it.
Place in a bowl and cover. Leave in a warm place for up to two hours. You need to check carefully with this mixture because if the dough rises too much, it gets a little bit of acidity.
If you want to speed up the process, you can cover the bowl with a blanket or something warm and the dough will rise faster. But it always depends on the weather,
A draught in the kitchen, can ruin dough making. If the dough catches cold, it stops and takes more time to start again. Once you start you need to keep going, you can't stop and start with dough.
Silvana recalls, ‘when the pasta was bad, in the old days, they would blame the weather. And they’d say that bread should be made before all the doors of the houses were open. I remember my mother she used to get up so early to make the dough because my family had the habit in the morning of opening up all the windows as soon as they got up,’
After the dough has doubled again, punch it down and cut it into four pieces.
Take thin based metal trays and oil them well.
Keep the dough pieces in a warm place. Take one at a time, knead back a bit, form into a round and then leave on pizza tray
After its risen the second time, you beat it down, hard into the tray. Thin as possible and with this you don't need to pre-cook the pizza provided it is very thin.
So you can put your topping directly onto the raw THIN dough.
Cook at high heat for 10-12 minutes.
Little pizzette can be made from the left over bits of dough. These make wonderful snacks and appetizers.
Variations
Make a basic mix of tomato, garlic, salt and olive oil. Use as a base and incorporate other elements to taste.
Anchovy and oregano (do not use basil with anchovies but you can add parsley if you wish). Put anchovies at last moment onto pizzas because they dry out and get too strong and smelly if cooked through.
Mozzarella or provolone cheeses are good on pizza. They need to be sliced very finely with a machine or grated. Bocconcini is, too watery for pizza.
First you dot on the basic tomato mix. Do not cover too heavily. Then pour on some oil. In Naples they eat a lot of oil. It’s important to pour oil over the pizza to get the right flavour. Then you bake it.
Small pizzette need to cook for about 12 minutes.
Pizza Napoli for 10-12 minutes. Put whole anchovies in star shape on top of the pizza when you take out of oven (same as you do for prosciutto which should never be cooked onto the pizza, just draped on to the very hot pizza so that is just warms)
Rulata alla Cipiolla Acciughe
Cook sliced onion in oil till quite soft but not coloured or crisp. Put onto pizza dough, sprinkle chopped anchovies and parsley on top of onion, add more oil and a lot of ground black pepper. Then you roll it like a sausage and then twist into a scroll shape. Then flatten . Leave to rise a bit more. And then flatten again and then cook.
Rulata can be made with many things: Anchovy and potato, Potato and parsley and tuna, Artichoke and chick pea.
Anything piquant can be used to make Rulata with the Napoli dough
Put filling on, roll up the dough like a sausage then , twist and turn it like a scroll. Beat it out, turn it and then leave it and then beat it down again.
This is wonderful for savouries. Piquant and thirst making
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