Can You make Authentic Neapolitan Pizzas at Home?

[dcarch]

"--Hey dcarch, you didn't mention how well the naan turned out. On a scale from the worst to the best naan you have made, where does this rank? Specifically I'm looking for comments on the Naan, not the naan-pizza, thanks,

rg"

The shapes of the naans didn't turn out as well. They were all odd shaped. That's because I like my naans soft, so I made the dough very wet, and I did not use a peel to transfer the dough to the pan. However, the taste and texture were top notch.

dcarch

[BadRabbit]

The shapes of the naans didn't turn out as well. They were all odd shaped.

dcarch

I've never seen a Naan that wasn't odd shaped.

[dcarch]

I meant odd shaped.

Not irregular shaped.

LOL!

dcarch

[alanjesq]

Wonder if, while we are on the subject of Naan, you would post your recipe for same. I have a Big Green Egg which will reach 900 degrees. I am told Naan is baked in India by slapping the dough onto the Clay Ovens. My Ceramic BGE has Carbon all over it, meaning top, bottom and sides. If it is representive of a clay oven, can anyone tell me if the Naan made "traditiionally" is pealed from the oven with carbon marks?

I am going to try to make the Pizza on the BGE using the ceramic Stone which will also heat to 9000 Degrees F.

Thanks

alanjesq

[alanjesq]

Actually I want to make that 900 degrees, not 9K. Sorry

alanjesq

[Paul Bacino]

Authentic Neapolitan Pizzas @ home..

What I always question is the yeast, component of making this pizza. Forno Bravo has a good read ( http://www.fornobravo.com/vera_pizza_napoletana/pizza_napoletana.html ) article on making this pizza ( links ).. but I dont think.. I'm positive on what yeast is in the classification?

Ideas?

[Kerry Beal]

Wonder if, while we are on the subject of Naan, you would post your recipe for same. I have a Big Green Egg which will reach 900 degrees. I am told Naan is baked in India by slapping the dough onto the Clay Ovens. My Ceramic BGE has Carbon all over it, meaning top, bottom and sides. If it is representive of a clay oven, can anyone tell me if the Naan made "traditiionally" is pealed from the oven with carbon marks?

I am going to try to make the Pizza on the BGE using the ceramic Stone which will also heat to 9000 Degrees F.

Thanks

alanjesq

Here's the naan recipe I used on my BGE at the last NiEggarafest - I mix in the thermomix - but I'm sure you can figure out how to make it more traditionally

30 grams strained whole wheat flour

400 grams bread flour

15 grams ghee

5 grams sugar

10 grams fresh yeast

65 grams yogurt, beaten

1 small egg, beaten

1 ½ tsp salt

250 grams water

1. Place all in TMX bowl. Knead for 5 minutes.

2. Let rise about 30 minutes, knock down. Form into 8 pieces and roll to about 4 inches. Let rest for 10 minutes, then roll out to about 6 inches. You might dampen the top and spread with nigella or sesame seeds.

3. Preheat stone to about 550º F. Place as many as will fit on stone. Watch bottoms for browning, when brown - flip and brush top with ghee. Flip again and brush other side with ghee.

[Paul Bacino]

Quoto from WSJ

"To call inventor Nathan Myhrvold's "Modernist Cuisine: The Art & Science of Cooking," on sale next month, a "cookbook" is akin to calling James Joyce's "Ulysses" "a story." The book is a large-scale investigation into the math, science and physics behind cooking tasks from making juicy and crisp beer-can chicken to coating a foie-gras bonbon in sour cherry gel. There is precedent in this genre—science writer Harold McGee has published popular books explaining kitchen science, and chefs Thomas Keller and Ferran Adrià have written about sous vide and other techniques of avant-garde gastronomy—but nothing reaches the scope and magnitude of Mr. Myhrvold's book. While it will likely appeal to professional chefs, within its pages are insights that even the humblest home cooks can use to improve their meals. The book puts traditional cooking wisdom under scientific scrutiny, destroying old assumptions and creating new cooking approaches. "

He states:

PROBLEM #3: You love Neopolitan-style pizza, but don't want to invest in a brick oven.

SOLUTION: Make an oven out of a steel sheet.

Get a ¼-inch-thick sheet of steel from a metal fabricator (Google a local one), have it cut to the size of your oven shelf and insert it in the rack closest to the broiler. Preheat the oven at its highest temperature for ½ hour, then turn on the broiler and slide your pizza onto the metal plate. It should emerge perfectly cooked in 1.5 to 2 minutes.

WHAT'S GOING ON: Pizza in a brick oven cooks at about 800 degrees—way hotter than the highest setting of most home ovens. The metal sheet is more conductive than a brick oven's stone, so it can cook just as fast at a lower temperature.

I say it cant be done, well here is the set-up:

3/8 inch stainless plate.. sorry 1/4 inch is wimpy

oops a bit dirty A.. Sorry

In the next week or two I will try this little project.. stay tuned

[dcarch]

I have had good results with a thick cast iron frying pan.

dcarch

[Paul Bacino]

I have a quick question.

The heating of these plates in the house can produce some smokey atmosphere, I want to take mine out side to my weber gas grill.

Here is what I want to do, since getting heat to the top of the pie will be a problem, I want to build a 1/4 to 3/8 inch stainless hood or dome to go over my plate or my stone. The grill has an IR heat source for a rotisserie in the middle of the grill. My grill can hit 600 roughly and possibly higher. What height would you go on the opening.. I would say no higher than 6 ".

Thoughts?

[HowardLi]

Quoto from WSJ

"To call inventor Nathan Myhrvold's "Modernist Cuisine: The Art & Science of Cooking," on sale next month, a "cookbook" is akin to calling James Joyce's "Ulysses" "a story." The book is a large-scale investigation into the math, science and physics behind cooking tasks from making juicy and crisp beer-can chicken to coating a foie-gras bonbon in sour cherry gel. There is precedent in this genre—science writer Harold McGee has published popular books explaining kitchen science, and chefs Thomas Keller and Ferran Adrià have written about sous vide and other techniques of avant-garde gastronomy—but nothing reaches the scope and magnitude of Mr. Myhrvold's book. While it will likely appeal to professional chefs, within its pages are insights that even the humblest home cooks can use to improve their meals. The book puts traditional cooking wisdom under scientific scrutiny, destroying old assumptions and creating new cooking approaches. "

He states:

PROBLEM #3: You love Neopolitan-style pizza, but don't want to invest in a brick oven.

SOLUTION: Make an oven out of a steel sheet.

Get a ¼-inch-thick sheet of steel from a metal fabricator (Google a local one), have it cut to the size of your oven shelf and insert it in the rack closest to the broiler. Preheat the oven at its highest temperature for ½ hour, then turn on the broiler and slide your pizza onto the metal plate. It should emerge perfectly cooked in 1.5 to 2 minutes.

WHAT'S GOING ON: Pizza in a brick oven cooks at about 800 degrees—way hotter than the highest setting of most home ovens. The metal sheet is more conductive than a brick oven's stone, so it can cook just as fast at a lower temperature.

I say it cant be done, well here is the set-up:

3/8 inch stainless plate.. sorry 1/4 inch is wimpy

In the next week or two I will try this little project.. stay tuned

Is that like $150 worth of materials right there?

[dcarch]

I have a quick question.

The heating of these plates in the house can produce some smokey atmosphere, I want to take mine out side to my weber gas grill.

Here is what I want to do, since getting heat to the top of the pie will be a problem, I want to build a 1/4 to 3/8 inch stainless hood or dome to go over my plate or my stone. The grill has an IR heat source for a rotisserie in the middle of the grill. My grill can hit 600 roughly and possibly higher. What height would you go on the opening.. I would say no higher than 6 ".

Thoughts?

Depending on the shape of the IR heat source. IR goes by the point source or lineal source of radiation pattern. 6" may be a little close and you may get uneven heating.

dcarch

[Paul Bacino]

Howard.

That is 60 dollars of material ..

Carch.. give me your height thoughts.. If I heat this for 30 to 45 mins with the base burners and IR.. the IR source is just to boost the decrease in temp upon opening the grill and/or to increase the upper dome temp ? I think I just need to get a read on the height.. 4-6-8 inches.

Edited April 5, 2011 by Paul Bacino (log)

[Blether]

It's the season again, so: house pizza. Ineptly shaped, laid on baking parchment on a room temp. aluminium baking sheet, topped with Marcella's tomato, onion & butter pasta sauce and placed in the top of a 250C oven for 7.5 minutes.

[Chris Hennes]

A saw this kickstarter on Serious Eats this morning: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bakingsteel/baking-steel-create-the-crust-you-crave

[weinoo]

Check this guy out stretching the crust:

http://ny.eater.com/archives/2014/01/amateur_hour_ribalta.php

Seems so simple, doesn't it?!

[weinoo]

Made a couple of pizzas using Lahey's no-knead recipe -- slightly modified by a little kneading, but very little and prior to bulk fermentation. Flour, water, salt, yeast, and time.

 

One thing this jew was never good at - drawing a perfect circle...

 

 

My biggest problem is getting the dough thin enough without it tearing...so this excellent circle is a little thick...

 

 

Both pies are simply canned tomatoes (buzzed up with olive oil, salt and pepper), sautéed mushrooms and roasted brussels sprouts, sprinkled with pecorino. Hard to tell, but I guess they're about 8" - 9" diameter.

 

They were baked on the baking steel, which was pre-heated to 500°F for 45 minutes, and then blasted under the broiler for another 15. The pies baked in 3 - 3.5 minute; not quite Neapolitan time, but certainly the fastest baking I've ever achieved at home.

 

They were very tasty. Now, if I could only get the crust thinner!

Edited February 1, 2016 by weinoo (log)

[paulraphael]

Those look nice, Mitch!

 

Baking this style of pizza (the ONLY style, dammit) is tough, because you've got to manage the heat at the bottom of the pie and at the top of the pie separately. Mitch is hitting the bottom with a very conductive, high-heat-retaining slab of steel, and the top with radiant heat from the broiler. Getting the exact results you want requires a dance between the preheat temperature of steel, the distance from the broiler, and the timing. 

 

Fortunately it's a lot easier to get it right in home oven with an oven-broiler and moveable racks than in a wood oven. I believe a wood oven ultimately can give the best results, but getting a wood oven to work at all can take endless trial and error. I lived a few blocks from Roberta's when it opened in Brooklyn, and witnessed their pizzas rise from ok-but-inconsistent to consistently-the-best-I've had. It took about 2 years!

 

 

[rustwood]

As for the oven problem, if you have a place for a gas grill then a Blackstone oven does a pretty amazing job.  Learning how to manipulate the pie and the gas burner for the best results is a bit of an art though.  I have made a lot of pizza on my kamado grill (aka big green egg) but I never made another one on it after getting a Blackstone.  I still get a thrill every time I use it because it works so surprisingly well.  

 

Here is a link to a previous thread that mentions it here and one of the links within it to a good post on another forum:

 

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=28721.0

 

 

Edited February 2, 2016 by rustwood (log)

[mmille24]

I highly recommend a Blackstone. Trying to replicate Neopolitan pizza using a home oven won't likely work. You need to be 800-900 floor temps with 900+ dome. Sub 90 second cooking times.

Edited February 3, 2016 by mmille24 (log)