Saturday's Neopolitan Pizza

Large Marge

Thanks PBM for the Friday motivation...


The base recipe for classic Neopolitan style crust is here. I'm using Ischia wild yeast (sourdo.com if you want to check that out), Caputo 00 flour, water and salt. No oil allowed! Refrigerated 5 days after mixing.


This is after 5 mins. Note cubed fresh mozz instead of shredded melts down over time and allows the crust to crisp up nicely. Another trick I tried with success: No plate setter...just direct pizza stone over coals at 425 (and the lump was low - if you fill it up you'll nuke the crust too fast). Crisps nicely with just enough char.




Money shot - no soggy pizza here!

Also...sauce is very basic if you want to try (and also at that Varasano's link I posted). Just follow his steps for "de-seeding" a can of good plum tomatoes (I used Cento San Marzano), and "washing" them by filtering the crushed puree in its own juice, removing the bitter clear liquid. I used about 1/8 cup grated romano, a pinch of sea salt, and about 1 tbs of crushed dried oregano. For years I made a stewed tomato sauce and finally tried this fresh, uncooked trick - it cooks nicely on the BGE (and fits the purist's desire to cook everything on the egg), and stays very fresh and sweet. Goes great with fresh sliced mozz. Best of luck - Marge

Fidel

Looks great Joe -- do you get the Caputo locally?

Car Wash Mike

Nice pie Joe and thanks for the link.

Mike

fieroguy

Marge - Looks GREAT! I also do mine direct but on a raised grill. Bottom of stone is 3" above the felt line and the stone is at 450-500* before pie is installed.

You have a wonderful day

Large Marge

Ron - yes, in Dunwoody - here. He also sells his own mix which works pretty well too. I also get the fresh cheese there.

Large Marge

typo- meant Rod!

Hungry Celeste

I did a napoletana on Friday...used DelVerde flour, but I wasn't particularly happy with the results. I was happy to find Cento's San Marzano puree in a bottle; that makes life a little easier...here's a pic of the pizza...

Large Marge

Yeah I started with a raised stone-- certainly much easier to get pies in and out. But my lump was so low I moved it to the direct grid and it came out perfect. Will try higher lump, same temp or closer to 500 and raised grid next time. At 500 though it charred too fast and the top of the crust didn't finish right. I'm totally hooked on this - total challenge compared to "baking" a pie with tons of cheese and toppings while ignoring the crust. The challenge is greater because while the BGE is a great baking oven it isn't optimized like a pizza oven is. Cheers

Large Marge

that looks like it still ate well! I haven't tried the bottled puree - is it seedless?

BENTE

wow joe that looked great i have been thinking sbout adding sliced tomatoes to a pie or two. but have not done it yet. but i will just got to get the ka working again :(

Carolina Q

Cento has a seedless puree in a can, but not San Marzano - at least not that I've found. Pretty good though. I tried Varasano's straining method, but didn't think it was worth the bother - or the mess.

Your pizza looks GREAT!!

Hungry Celeste

Yes, the Cento San Marzano puree in the bottle (labeled as "passata") is seedless. I was happy to find it; saves a bit of time, and I like the re-closeable glass bottle. I found it at Whole Foods. The container is wide-mouth, tapering bottle--perfect for recycling as a vinagrette cruet, etc.