Authentic Pizza Napoletana

[albacore]

I don't know if anyone has seen the pdf from the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana. It describes in detail the "true" method of making Pizza Margherita and Pizza Marinara.

www.pizzanapoletana.org/images/file/disciplinare%202008%20UK.pdf

It's a bit "rigorous" in parts, but nevertheless interesting and I can vouch for the Pizza Margherita that it produces.
I used a mix of 80% 00 and 20% type 0. I would knock down the salt used to 35, maybe 40g max. 55g seems too much to me. Pro-rata down of course for whatever weight of flour you use. Also, the yeast weight is very small - might be alright at Naples temeratures! I used more.
For the tomatoes I now take a tin and pull out the green centre stalks and as many seeds as you can, drain in a sieve, put the tomatoes in a pan, mash them with a potato masher, add some plain passata and boil gently until thick. A pinch or two of sugar also helps if you are using Lidl tomatoes!

[muddy4x4]

I help out at a friends Pizzeria. It always surprised me how much salt they put in when making the dough. They use a slow rise method that takes 24 hours. Fantastic tasting pizzas, even in their electric oven !

[rockrocky]

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[albacore]

Very clever! I hope a<15mm; we don't want an American style pizza!

[rob546454]

Us English don't use salt anywhere near as much as most foreign cultures. The longer you plan on keeping the dough the less yeast you put in. Also don't mix the salt directly with the yeast as it kills it. Even the temperature of the water you use has an effect.

Having the dough at room temperature before you start working with it also makes a difference.

[tonyb]

I'm sure this was posted on the old site at one time. My own feeling is that it is more of a marketing material than actually of practical use: does anybody think restaurants check the pH and density.

Agree on the amount of salt.

I really struggle with the oft repeated comment re salt and yeast, maybe in a lab environment this is true but keeping them apart in a mixing bowl when we are subsequently going to, usually, mix the hell out of the pizza dough, come on. Also I assume that its either the Na+ or Cl- ions that do the damage, but as solids these are crystalline and relatively tightly bound. Once we add water and mix then everything is pretty much homogeneous so does anybody think putting the yeast on one side of the flour and salt on the other makes any difference? I think its is one of those cooking old wives' tales like searing beef seals the juices in.

Happy to change my view based on science if anyone can supply some evidence.

[rockrocky]

Salt in high concentrations can kill yeast yes. So can sugar, though salt is so much better at it. You see both are hygroscopic, meaning that they suck water out of stuff. This induces osmotic stress to the yeast cells leading eventually to cell breakdown (aka death).

On lower concentrations salt will throttle the yeast fermentation producing a richer and more uniform crumb.

Adding the salt early or later in the process will have a big effect on your dough, but that won't be because of the way it messes up with the yeast. Salt is supposed to coagulate gluten proteins, in a sense it "stiffens" the dough. On various situations this should happen late in the process (e.g. see the "Delayed salt method" used for sourdoughs).

For pizza dough I'd add the salt early.

[tonyb]

I'm happy to accept that in a lab situation high(?) salinity can kill or retard yeast growth. I just don't see the physical act of separating yeast and salt in a bowl of flour pre-mixing makes any difference.

I'm familiar with autolyse and tend to use the process when I am bulk mixing a batch of sourdough for a pizza party but tend not to use it if I am cooking one off pizzas. I also find that when I autolyse, the flour has fully hydrated and the salt crystals tend not to dissolve as quickly, though they do eventually. I'm not sure this makes much difference as by nature cooking in a wfo is variable and not reproducible and I don't think my palate is not good enough to register the difference anyway. Maybe I should change my method.

[albacore]

Agree; normally the salt and (instant) yeast are bone dry in a domestic kitchen. Nothing bad is going to happen without moisture, by which time it's all mixing up anyway.
Salt is strange stuff though; a couple of times I've added it deliberately late to sourdough ferments and it can really almost kill off the fermentation, giving a poor final rise. In multi-stage ferments better to add it somewhere in the middle - ie not too soon, not too late on.