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A Neapolitan-style pizza with bubbly, charred crust, melted mozzarella cheese, tomato sauce, and fresh basil leaves, served on a round metal tray atop a marble surface.

Chewy Neapolitan Style Pizza at home (Beginners guide)

My soft and chewy Neapolitan style pizza is chewy, puffy and has been tested to work in a home oven or pizza oven for an authentic pizza.
Author: Nick Makrides
5 from 2 votes
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep 1 hour
Cook 10 hours
Proof 5 days
Total 5 days
Course Bread
Cuisine Italian
Servings 3
Calories 876 kcal

Ingredients

Poolish (pre-ferment)

  • 200 g water room temperature/cold
  • 5 g instant dry yeast see notes
  • 5 g honey
  • 200 g Tipo 00 bread flour see notes

Pizza Dough

  • 265 g water room temperature/cold
  • 465 g Tipo 00 bread flour
  • 15 g fine salt
  • 8 g olive oil

Pizza sauce

  • 200 g passata I use the Mutti brand
  • 1 tbsp dried oregano
  • 1/4 clove garlic freshly minced a little goes a long way!
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • Good pinch of fine salt.

Cheese

  • Low moisture mozzarella IMPORTANT: see notes!

Instructions
 

Poolish (Pre-ferment)

  • Mixing Poolish - Add the flour and yeast to a medium bowl or lidded container and stir with a spoon until combined. Then add the water and honey and mix until a paste forms. The mixture should look like a thick, sticky paste.
  • Rise #1 (24 hours) - Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to rise for 24 hours.

Pizza Dough (Stand mixer: KitchenAid /Kenwood/Ooni)

  • A note on kneading speed - You will only ever knead this mixture on medium-low speed, about speed 1 or 2 on a stand mixer or 30% on a spiral mixer like the Ooni Halo Pro. This prevents the dough from overheating.
  • First knead (5 min) - Add the poolish mixture, water, flour, salt, and oil to the bowl. Knead until a rough, shaggy dough forms, about 5 minutes.
  • First rest (10 min) - First rest (10 min) - Turn the mixer off and allow to rest for 10 minutes for the gluten to rest and strengthen.
  • Second knead (10-15 minutes) - Turn the mixer back on and knead for 10–15 minutes until the dough is smooth, tacky, and pulls away from the bowl. Add 1 or 2 ice cubes in the final 3 minutes of kneading to keep the dough cool and develop better texture and flavor. It slows yeast growth and makes the dough smoother and stretchier.
  • Second rise (2-3 days) - Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap to seal it, then refrigerate for 2–3 days (3 is the maximum!). This slow cold ferment develops flavor and a light, chewy texture.
  • Shaping the dough balls - Take the cold dough out of the fridge and split into three even sized pieces. Shape into ball shapes by running the bottom of each dough piece between the heel of two hands to tighten the seal under each dough ball and smoothen out the top. You can also pinch the bottom together until it looks like a ball and is smooth on top.
  • Third rest (2-4 hours) - Lightly oil three lidded containers using your hands or a brush. Place a dough ball in each, cover, and rest at room temperature for 2–4 hours. The dough will spread and relax and will more than double in size. You’ll know its ready when you touch it and it feels room temperature and soft but bounces back after being pressed with a finger. It shouldn’t feel fridge cold.

Preheating your home oven

  • Preheat home oven - Place a pizza steel or stone on the top third shelf of your home oven. Preheat to the highest possible temperature on a fan setting an hour before baking. The higher the temp, the puffier your pizza. That’s 280C / 536F for my own oven.
  • Note: Don’t use telescopic shelves if you have them. Take them off before you preheat so that the shelf stays secure as you’re transferring your pizza.

Preheating a pizza oven

  • Preheat your oven on the highest possible temperature for a good 30-40 minutes until it reads about 400C / 750F. I use a temperature gun.

Preparing the sauce and cheese

  • Sauce - The sauce is easy. No cooking required, just throw all the ingredients into a bowl and mix with a spoon. You can prep it a couple days in advance and just pop it in the fridge.
  • Cheese - I like to cut mine into 1cm cubes using a sharp knife. A little bit bigger is ok. If you buy it in bulk, it’s cheaper and then you can just pop it into zip lock bags and freeze it to have ready when you need it.

Shaping/stretching your pizza

  • Coating the dough - Add a good amount of flour or fine semolina to your workbench. Turn the container upside down close to the dish and let the dough gently fall out. What your seeing now is the bottom of the pizza. The top of the pizza is on the workbench. Use three fingers on each hand to press from the center outwards, leaving a 2.5cm / 1-inch border for the crust to puff up. Flip the dough, repeat the pressing, and make sure both sides are coated before shaping out a little more. The dough disc will be about 15cm in size.
  • How to stretch your pizza - I’ve tested all the methods. The easiest way to stretch is to use the outer heel of your hands to
  • Dust your bench - Dust with a thick layer of semolina or flour. Use your fingers to gently loosen the edges of the sticky dough from the container, then tip the dough onto the bench so the top is facing down. Dust the exposed side of the dough with more semolina.
  • First shaping - Use three fingers from each hand to press into the center of the dough, leaving a 2cm border. Work up and down, then rotate the dough 90 degrees and repeat. Flip the dough over and repeat the pressing again. The dough should now be about 12-15cm / 5-inches wide.
  • Stretching out the pizza - Place the outer heels of your hands just inside the border and gently stretch the dough outward. Keep your hands arched to avoid flattening the rim. Rotate the dough and repeat until it reaches about 20cm / 8-inches in size.
  • Transfer to a floured pizza peel - I do this by just lifting half of it first onto the pizza peel and then transferring the rest. It’ll misshape, just reshape it into a round shape again by lifting the edges until it’s round again.
  • Add toppings - Add your favorite toppings. Just make sure you don’t overdo it with the sauce. Less is more with a Neapolitan style pizza.
  • Baking in the oven - Bake for 5 minutes, then use tongs to turn the pizza around so it bakes evenly. Once baked, use tongs to transfer onto a baking tray placed in front of the oven shelf. Let the pizza rest for 5 minutes. Slice and serve!
  • Baking in a pizza oven - Slide the pizza peel in with the pizza on top and let it sit on the hot surface for about 10 seconds, then carefully shuffle the peel back and forth to encourage the pizza to begin shuffling onto the pizza oven floor as you pull the peel away. Turn the oven temperature down to medium. Allow it to bake until you see some color forming on the crust. Then use the peel to shuffle the pizza around by lifting one edge of the pizza up and shuffling it around so the pizza cooks evenly. This takes practice! I burned my first and second pizzas during my testing. Once the pizza is baked, slide the peel underneath and remove. Let the pizza cool for a minute before serving. Turn the pizza oven temp back to the highest temp while you make your next pizza. Repeat.

Notes

Yeast - I used Instant Dry Yeast for this recipe. It’s great because doesn’t need to be activated before using and can be added straight to your dry ingredients. Alternatively, you can use active dry yeast, but that will need to be activated in lukewarm water or milk before using. When left to rest it becomes frothy so that you know it’s active.
Flour - I use the Caputo brand Pizzeria flour. It’s not designed to be a slow fermentation flour, but it seems to do the job well. Plain flour and bread flour will not work for this recipe. They will not develop gluten in the way you want to give you a nice chewy, puffy crust. The flour you use is the single most important ingredient in this recipe. If Caputo is not available to you, opt in for a local flour that is designed for pizza and can be used for slow fermentation. Slow fermentation meaning, a slow rise in the fridge where the gluten and flavor develop for a pizza shop worthy pizza at home. I can not stress enough how important the type of flour you use is and that it’s the correct flour.
Storage - Pizza is famous for being great fresh and straight out of the fridge the next morning. If there’s any left over it can be stored in an airtight container, in the fridge for up to three days.
Nutrition – is an approximate and is based on per pizza. Each pizza makes about 6 generous slices. This would feed three hungry hungry hippos.
A note on measurements – This recipe uses weight measurements for the most accurate results. Cup measurements can vary depending on where you are, which affects the precision needed for a recipe like this. Here is where you can learn more about how to measure ingredients using digital kitchen scales.

Nutrition

Calories:876kcal | Carbohydrates:170g | Protein:29g | Fat:8g | Saturated Fat:1g | Polyunsaturated Fat:2g | Monounsaturated Fat:3g | Sodium:1970mg | Potassium:554mg | Fiber:8g | Sugar:5g | Vitamin A:373IU | Vitamin C:7mg | Calcium:79mg | Iron:4mg
Keyword neapolitan, Pizza
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