The Neapolitan-style pizza recipe that I recently released produces amazing pizza even for being created in a regular oven in Maine (instead of a wood-fire oven in Naples, Italy). That being said, it is a hard recipe to make. I still mess it up sometimes. Neapolitan pizza uses no oil, needs to be kneaded, while also being a wet dough.

I have been trying to find a way to replicate this pizza, but make it a bit more user-friendly while still maintaining the airy-crust and deep flavor. I have decided to just call it “woodfire-style pizza” even though I don’t make it with a woodfire oven. Maybe one day!

You will need to make the dough the day before you use it!

RECIPE

Making a sponge first allows for you to add the fermentation flavoring without making the dough as soft as the Neapolitan-style pizza is. Easier to work with, but still full of flavor! Also – this takes multiple steps similar to my bagel recipe.

Sponge recipe

• 300g of 00-flour (can use all purpose if you do not have 00)
• 300g Water
• 5g instant yeast
• 5g Honey

dough recipe

• 400g Water
• 700g 00-flour
• 25g Salt
• 10g Olive Oil

You will have 6-7 pizza dough balls once you are done!

INSTRUCTIONS – DOUGH

1. Create the sponge: Combine the sponge recipe ingredients together and cover in plastic wrap and leave to sit at room temperature for 6 hours
2. Create the dough: Combine the sponge with the water, flour, and salt from the dough recipe amounts
3. Start kneading the dough and once the dough is combined into a ball add in the olive oil and thoroughly knead into the dough
4. Once the olive oil is mixed in, let the dough rest in an oiled covered bowl for 10-15 minutes (this lets the gluten rest)
5. Knead the dough until it is smooth and springs back when you poke it (5-10 minutes)
6. Leave the dough to sit at room temperature in an oiled, covered bowl for 6 hours
7. After 6 hour, put the dough in the fridge overnight to rest
8. 3 hours before you want to make the pizza, take the dough out of the fridge and let sit at room-temperature to warm up for 1 hour
9. Form the pizza balls and let them rest in a lightly floured covered bowl for 2 hours
   • This youtuber has helped my pizza recipes a lot and inspired this recipe – at the 11 minute point in this video he has a great explanation of how to form the dough balls
10. If you won’t use all of the dough, at this stage you can freeze the dough balls and they are preserved perfectly!

INSTRUCTIONS – BAKING

1. Set your oven rack to the top setting, and turn your oven to the highest temperature point. My oven goes up to 550°, so that is what I use.
   • I also use my pizza stone, so I make sure to have that warming up while the oven pre-heats.
   • If you do not have a pizza stone, you can use an inverted baking sheet. This will need to preheat as well (We use this to help cook the pizza bottom faster and evenly)
2. Making Pizza Sauce: I combine tomatoes, basil, and salt to taste. Feel free to add in any Italian seasonings you like. I combine in a blender.
3. Once the oven is preheated, I will start stretching my dough, making sure to not press on the crust area. Make sure you use flour while stretching the dough, to make sure it doesn’t stick.
   • Not stretching the crust is a very important step! I still struggle with this, but it is so worth it for the crust to rise and be so beautiful!
   • Here is a great video from a channel I really enjoy, Vincenzo’s Plate, on how to stretch the dough!
4. Time to assemble your dream pizza! If you have a pizza peel that is sweet – feel free to use that to assemble the pizza on. Or just pull out the preheated surface you plan to cook on, and assemble your pizza on that.
5. Once I put my pizza in the pre-heated oven, I turn on my broil setting and let it cook. I check it to make sure it is not burning, but crisping beautifully.
6. Time depends on how my oven is feeling that day. Just keep an eye on it, usually it is 5-10 minutes until it is cooked though.
7. Enjoy!

Such a user-friendly pizza recipe and WORTH the time it takes. This is way less finicky and so full of flavor. Honestly it looked so good, that I took more pictures and wanted to share them because look how beautiful it was.

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