Style
Neapolitan pizza at home.
A lean dough, a raw tomato sauce, and a rim that puffs if the ferment and the heat cooperate. The clock is a day, not an afternoon.
Neapolitan pizza, in the tradition associated with Naples, is a small round with a soft rim, a wet center, and very little on top: tomato, fresh mozzarella, basil, olive oil. Associations that certify pizzerias also specify flour, fermentation, and oven temperatures around 800°F (427°C) and above. This page is not a certification checklist. It is a home adaptation that keeps the lean dough and the restrained topping, and it says plainly where a household oven stops.
The dough is 65 percent water, 2.6 percent salt, and 0.2 percent instant yeast, with no oil. Two balls are about 420 grams each from 839 grams of dough. That is enough for two pizzas around 11 or 12 inches, not for two wide New York rounds.
Recipe
Two Neapolitan-style pizzas with a lean 00-flour dough, a 24-hour cold ferment, and an uncooked tomato sauce.
Dough
This dough has no oil and no sugar. One gram of instant yeast is about 1/3 teaspoon.
- 500 g 00 flour labeled for pizza
- 325 g water, cool
- 13 g fine sea salt
- 1 g instant yeast
Sauce and topping, for both pizzas
- 300 g whole peeled tomatoes, hand crushed, juices included
- 4 g fine sea salt
- 8 g extra-virgin olive oil, for the sauce
- 200 g fresh mozzarella, drained, patted dry, and divided in half
- 12 leaves fresh basil
- 16 g extra-virgin olive oil, to finish
Equipment
- Digital scale
- Covered containers
- Baking steel or stone
- Peel or parchment
Method
- Stir 13 g fine sea salt and 1 g instant yeast into 500 g 00 flour. Add 325 g cool water and mix until no dry flour remains. There is no oil in the dough.
- Cover 20 minutes. Fold the dough once from all four sides, then divide it into two balls of about 420 g each.
- Place the balls in lightly oiled, covered containers and refrigerate them for 24 hours.
- Take the dough out 2 hours before baking. Crush 300 g tomatoes with 4 g salt and 8 g olive oil. Divide 200 g mozzarella into two 100 g portions and pat them dry.
- Heat a baking steel for 45 minutes at 550°F (288°C). Heat a stone for 60 minutes.
- Shape one ball to about 11 or 12 inches, leaving a rim. Spread 150 g of the sauce and 100 g of the cheese. Bake about 8 minutes on a steel. On parchment, bake 4 minutes, remove the parchment, and bake about 4 minutes more.
- Add 6 leaves and 8 g olive oil after that pizza comes out. Repeat with the second ball. If the oven’s maximum is 500°F (260°C), start checking at 8 minutes and allow up to 12. In an oven that holds 800°F (427°C) or hotter, this pizza may finish in about 60 to 90 seconds. Do not use the 8-minute home-oven timing there.
What changes in a hotter oven
At 550°F (288°C) the rim sets and browns over several minutes. At pizza-oven heat it sets in about a minute and spots with char. Both can be good. They are not the same timing, and using the home-oven clock in a 900°F oven will burn the pizza. Using a one-minute guess in a home oven will serve you raw dough.
Sauce stays under 150 grams per pizza so the center can dry. Cheese stays at 100 grams per pizza, blotted. More of either turns the bake into a different style. The New York recipe is that other style: bread flour, oil, sugar, a wider pie, and a simmered sauce.
Storage
Bake the dough within about 48 hours of mixing. The written schedule is 24 hours cold plus 2 hours at room temperature. U.S. food-safety guidance is to refrigerate perishable cooked pizza, sauce, and cheese within 2 hours, or within 1 hour if the room is warmer than 90°F (32°C). Reheat leftovers until they reach 165°F (74°C). Raw flour is not a ready-to-eat food, so do not taste unbaked dough. Leftover pizza keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated and should be reheated to 165°F (74°C), in a skillet if you want the bottom crisp again.
Common questions
Will a home oven make a Neapolitan pizza?
It will make a pizza in this style: a tender rim, a lean dough, and a sparse topping. It will not copy a 60-second wood-fired bake. The leopard spotting on the rim is a product of heat this recipe does not assume you have. Judge the home bake by a dry bottom and melted cheese, not by a restaurant photo.
How is this different from the Margherita recipe?
The Margherita page is one pizza on a same-day schedule, with a little more yeast and no refrigerator time. This page is two pizzas, 00 flour, 2.6 percent salt, 0.2 percent yeast, no oil in the dough, and a 24-hour cold ferment. Both use an uncooked tomato sauce and fresh mozzarella.
Can I bake both pizzas at once?
Only if they both fit on a fully preheated steel without crowding. Most home ovens should bake them one at a time so the stone or steel can recover for a minute between pies. The 8-minute timing is for one pizza.