The Elements of Pizza

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Until about 1920, all pizza was made with a natural levain (also known as a wild yeast culture), levitazione naturale in Italian, and each day’s batch was leavened with a piece of the previous day’s dough. Then, when commercial monoculture yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) became available in Naples around 1920, many pizzerias switched to this becau

It took a while to realize what was right in front of my eyes: think like a pizzaiolo, not like a bread baker. Pizza dough and bread dough have different needs. Bread wants to expand to its maximum volume; pizza does not. Pizza dough has structural needs—to stretch without breaking and without being too elastic.

Pizza has been called il sole nel piatto—the sun on a plate—

The active time to make pizza dough is simply the time it takes to measure the ingredients with a scale (which is faster and more accurate than using cups and measuring spoons) and mix by hand—about 5 minutes total. Then you let it rest for 15 to 20 minutes and knead the dough very briefly, 30 seconds to a minute. The dough rises in the same 6-quar

To shape the dough balls: 1 Take a piece of dough and stretch one-third of it sideways until it resists, then fold it back over the main piece of dough. Repeat, working your way around the dough and forming it into a round. The emerging dough ball will develop tension and form a smooth outer skin as you repeat this folding action. Stop when the dou

Fill your water container from the tap with hot and cold water until you get it to 90° or 95°F (32° or 35°C). If you don’t have a digital probe thermometer, guess at the temperature: water gets pretty hot to the touch at 105°F (41°C).

Cut through the dough five or six times and fold it over itself a few more times. The fold comes from just reaching under half the dough, stretching it out, and folding it over the remaining half. Repeat this process for just 30 seconds to 1 minute, alternating between cutting and folding. Then you can squeegee the doughy bits off your active hand

You want a wooden peel measuring about 14 inches wide with a short or medium length handle. I find the dough is more likely to stick to a metal peel.