Bread
Pizza
Base recipe for a spectacular pizza

Makes 4 pizzas (ca. 30 cm)
The long rest time makes this pizza dough wonderfully aromatic. In this recipe I use the fine wheat flour type 00, as it is usual for Neapolitan pizza.
I learned many things that contribute to a great pizza, such as the techniques necessary to make dough, on Vito Iacopelli’s YouTube channel.
Schedule
- Dough: 40 minutes preparation, 60 minutes proofing, 12h maturation, 6–48h refrigeration
- Tomato sauce: 30 minutes preparation
- Baking: Preheat oven for 1 hour, 5 minutes preparation, 5 minutes baking
Ingredients pizza dough
- 500g wheat flour type 00 (Pizza flour)
- 350g water (35°C)
- 0.4g dry yeast
- 10g fine sea salt
- Olive oil
Prepare the dough
- Dissolve the yeast in 2 tablespoons of the water; put in a small container and set aside
- Mix the flour with the remaining water in a large, sealable bowl until all of the water has been absorbed; put the mixture aside for 20-30 minutes (autolyse)
- Sprinkle the salt over the autolyse dough, pour the yeast mixture over the dough
- Note: the dough is quite sticky. If this is too inconvenient, you can dip your hand in water to work the dough; this step can be repeated 2 to 3 times during kneading
- Mix by hand until all ingredients are completely absorbed; then turn the dough out onto the work surface and knead it vigorously with your hand for 10–15 minutes
- It doesn’t matter if the dough still has small bubbles and knots in it; these dissolve through the long maturation time
- Lightly coat the bottom of the bowl and the surface of the dough with olive oil to make the dough easier to remove from the bowl
- With a little olive oil on your hands, shape the dough into a tight ball and place it in the bowl
- After 30m and 1h of proofing at room temperature, the dough should be thoroughly stretched and folded; then, using a little olive oil, shape it back into a tight ball
- Let ripen at room temperature (20–22 ° C) for 11 more hours
Prepare the dough pieces
- Dust the work surface lightly with pizza flour
- Using floured hands, carefully turn the dough out of the bowl and onto the work surface, without exerting too much pressure
- Use a pastry card to divide the dough into four equal pieces
- Carefully shape the dough pieces into a ball; to do this, turn the dough on the underside inwards with your fingers; also work with caution here so that the surface does not tear and not too much air escapes from the dough
- Place dough balls in a pizza ball box, leaving some space between the dough balls, and cover
- Alternatives: either place dough balls on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and lightly floured, or place each dough ball in a cereal bowl; lightly flour the surface of the dough balls, then firmly cover with cling film
- Refrigerate for at least 6 hours (6–8 °C, top shelf); continue processing within the next 2 days
- Take the dough out of the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking
Ingredients tomato sauce
- 1 can of peeled tomatoes (400g); e.g., from the brand “Mutti”
- 1 small shallot
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/2 mild peperonchini (without seeds)
- 1 table spoon olive oil
- 1 tea spoon oregano
- Salt, pepper
- 1 table spoon sugar
- 50–100ml passata as needed
Prepare the tomato sauce
- Heat the tomatoes in a small saucepan and chop them with a hand blender
- Add olive oil
- Peel and crush garlic cloves
- Peel the shallot, cut into 3 large pieces
- Cut the peperoncini into thin strips and remove the seeds
- Add garlic, shallot and peperoncini
- Add oregano and sugar
- Let the sauce simmer for about 15 minutes
- Remove the garlic, peperoncini and shallot pieces from the sauce with a fork
- Season with salt and pepper
- Let cool in the pot
- If you like your pizza with a bit more sauce, 50–100ml passata can be added before simmering
Baking ingredients
- Rasped parmesan cheese
- Fresh or grated mozzarella cheese
- Semolina
Bake the pizza
- Approx. 1 hour before baking, set the oven to the highest temperature (min. 250°C) and heat up with the pizza stage (i.e. bottom heat + convection); alternatively use top and bottom heat
- Heat up a rack with pizza stone in the lower third; alternatively use a baking tray
- Carefully turn the pieces of dough into a small pile of semolina and dust them on both sides
- Then shape each piece of dough into a pizza round; first push the dough with your fingers from the center to the edge, leaving the edge slightly thicker so that the air bubbles collect there; then the dough can be stretched further by pulling and turning until a roundish form of about 30cm in diameter is formed
- Work carefully so that the dough does not tear in the middle
- Place the dough onto a pizza peel or baking paper, spread with tomato sauce and place directly in the oven
- Bake the dough until the edges are clearly browned; then lift the pizza out of the oven with a pizza shovel
- Now add the other ingredients to the pizza: first sprinkle some Parmesan over the tomato sauce, then spread diced or grated mozzarella on the pizza
- If you really want, you can of course add other ingredients to the pizza
- Put the pizza back in the oven and bake until the cheese starts to throw little bubbles
Note: The recipe for the dough is based on the “Overnight Straight Pizza Dough” from the book “Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast” by Ken Forkish (pp. 220–221; see books) but has been adjusted compared to the original.
Last updated: 01.07.2023