Neapolitan pizza · a chef’s method
The Neapolitan pizza bible
Here I bring together everything you need to understand to make a real Neapolitan pizza: what temperature does, how gluten is structured, how to choose flour, which protocol to follow, and a bake that takes less than two minutes.
Key figures
- 23–25 °Cdough temperature at the end of kneading (73–77 °F)
- 60 %hydration of traditional Neapolitan dough
- 6–8 °Cideal range for a rest in the fridge (43–46 °F)
- 60–90 sbaking time for a traditional Neapolitan, at 430–480 °C (806–896 °F)
My method comes down to one word: structure
A successful pizza depends on the structure of its dough, meaning its gluten network. That network has to strike the right balance between two qualities: strength, its resistance when you stretch it, and extensibility, its ability to spread out without fighting back.
To set that balance I have only two levers. The protocol first: the preparation steps and the resting temperatures. Then the ingredients: flour, water, yeast and salt. Everything you will read here comes back, one way or another, to one of those two levers.
Basics
Traditional or contemporary Neapolitan: what sets them apart.
Course
Chef Stefano Di Napoli’s online course: waiting list and programme.
Ovens & baking
Wood, gas, electric: how heat bakes a Neapolitan pizza in under two minutes.
Ingredients
Flour, water, salt, yeast, malt, tomato, mozzarella: what each one does.
- Pizza flour: W, P/L, ash content and types 00 to 2How to read a pizza flour: ash content, W strength, P/L, protein, Italian and French types from 00 to 2, and which strength to pick for your dough schedule.
- Salt, water, malt and oil in pizza doughWhat salt, water, malt and oil do in Neapolitan pizza dough: baker's percentages, hydration, water temperature, and when each ingredient is worth using.
- Tomato and mozzarella for Neapolitan pizzaRaw tomato sauce salted at 1 %, San Marzano and datterini, fior di latte, bufala, provola, burrata: what goes on before or after baking, and how to drain it.
- Fresh, instant dry or active dry yeast for pizzaFresh, instant dry or active dry yeast: what yeast does in pizza dough, how to convert between types, how to store fresh yeast and why the dose varies so much.
Tools
Calculators to prepare your dough with precision.
- Biga calculator for Neapolitan pizzaWork out the flour, water and yeast of your biga, then the final mix: first water to 63 %, 75 % final hydration, salt, malt and the biga water temperature.
- Convert °C to °F (and °F to °C) for pizzaCelsius ↔ Fahrenheit converter and a table of the key temperatures for Neapolitan pizza: fridge, dough, biga, active dry yeast and oven baking.
- Pizza dough ball weight by diameterWhat dough ball weight for a 30 or 33 cm pizza? My reference points for traditional Neapolitan, contemporary direct dough and biga dough, with no guesswork.
- Neapolitan pizza dough calculatorNumber of dough balls, ball weight, hydration, salt and yeast: get the flour, water, salt and yeast for your Neapolitan pizza dough, in grams.
- Pizza dough schedule: when should I knead?Pick a protocol and the time you want to bake: the schedule works backwards and gives the clock time of every step, from kneading to taking the dough out.
- Salt for pizza tomato sauce: the calculationHow much salt goes in the tomato sauce of a Neapolitan pizza? 1 % of the tomato weight, or 0.8 % for a milder sauce: the calculation in grams.
- Water temperature for pizza dough: the calculatorWork out the water temperature that brings your pizza dough out at 23–25 °C (73–77 °F), by hand or with a mixer, plus the water for a biga.
- How much yeast for pizza dough: the calculatorNumber of dough balls, hydration, salt, fridge hours and fridge temperature: get flour, water, salt and fresh, instant dry or active dry yeast in grams.
- Convert fresh, instant dry and active dry yeastConvert fresh yeast to instant dry (÷ 2.5) or active dry (÷ 2), and back, with a reminder of how to reactivate active dry yeast in warm water first.
Dough
Gluten, kneading, bulk fermentation, balling, final proof: what happens inside the dough.
- Bulk fermentation, balling and final proof for pizzaWhat bulk fermentation, balling and final proof do, room temperature vs fridge, dough ball weight by pizza size, and the temperature to reach before stretching.
- Fermentation and maturation in pizza doughWhat yeast produces, what amylases and proteases do during maturation, how it all links to the Maillard reaction, and why temperature controls both processes.
- Gluten: strength and extensibility in pizza doughWhat the gluten network is, why strength and extensibility have to balance, and how your protocol and ingredients set that balance for Neapolitan pizza.
- Kneading pizza dough: by hand, spiral or stand mixerWhat kneading does, which mixer speeds to use, when to add salt, the dough temperature to aim for, and when autolysis or stretch and folds are worth it.
Protocols
Direct, biga, poolish: protocols with exact figures, step by step.
- Biga for Neapolitan pizza: how it works, my protocolBiga, the stiff preferment for Neapolitan pizza: hydration, short mix, water at 50 − room temp, acidity, the 18 h at 18 °C reference and a 50 % biga protocol.
- Direct or indirect pizza dough: how to chooseDirect vs indirect pizza dough: definitions, steps, hydration by method and how the 24, 36 and 48-hour direct protocols work, so you can pick the right one.
- Poolish for pizza: the 100 % liquid prefermentPoolish, the liquid preferment at 100 % hydration: mixing, final temperature, flour, signs that it is ready and what it brings to pizza dough versus biga.
Temperatures
Temperature drives the dough. What to measure, and why.