authentic pizza

This Cast Iron Pizza is inspired by Chicago&#039;s iconic Pequod&#039;s Pizza.  A hybrid of Chicago&#039;s deep dish, Detroit style pizza and Sicilian pizza, this hearty pie takes very well to cooking on your grill or smoker.

Pequod's Inspired Cast Iron Pizza

Slices Deli Style Provolone Cheese (divided)

Slices Low Moisture, Deli Style Mozzarella (divided)

Cup Shredded White Cheddar Cheese (divided)

Ounce Can Italian Crushed Tomatoes

Ounce Can Tomato Sauce

tea Basil

tea Oregano

tea Parsley

tea Garlic Powder

tea Crushed Red Pepper

450 Grams Pizza Flour (about 3 Cups)

Cup Cold Water

Cup Warm Water

tea Diastatic Malt (or White Sugar)

1.5 tea Active Dry Yeast

Salt

Pepperoni, Sausage,

Drain the excess watery liquid from the crushed tomatoes and combine with the tomato sauce and spices/herbs.

Sauce

Proof the yeast by whisking it into 1/4 cup warm (not hot) water. It should bubble and foam. If the yeast clumps all together and floats on top it is dead and you will need to get new yeast.

In a stand mixer with a dough hook, combine the flour with the diastatic malt powder.  If you do not have diastatic malt powder replace with white sugar or honey.

With the mixer on low add all but a couple tablespoons of the cold water, followed be the yeast mixture.  Use the remaining cold water to rinse the yeast bowl and add to the mixer.

Mix for 2 minutes, scaping the sides of the bowl if needed.  Add in the salt and mix for another 1-2 minutes.  The dough should be evenly mixed at this point.  If the dough appear too dry add a tablespoon of water and mix for another couple minutes.

On a clean work surface knead the dough for about 3-5 minutes.  If the dough is too sticky add a small bit of flour to keep it from sticking.  Cover with a damp cloth and allow to rest for about 1 hour.

After an hour, cut the dough ball into 2 equal sized pieces.  Form into balls by gently stretching the dough then folding the pulled section underneath.  Rotate 1/4 turn and repeat this process.  Continue to repeat this process until the gluten in the dough is nicely stretched and smooth, then pinch the seam at the bottom and place the dough ball on an oiled cookie sheet.  Repeat with the other piece of dough.  NOTE: If the dough is tearing, you are pulling it too much.  You just need to gently pull it to stretch the gluten.

Cover the dough balls with plastic wrap and let the dough rise at room temp for about 2 hours.   NOTE: Make sure the balls are far enough apart that they will not touch as they rise.  Also I have found it helpful to spray the plastic wrap with a little cooking oil to prevent it from sticking to the dough.

After the 2 hour rise, grease each cast iron pan with a tablespoon of softened butter and a teaspoon of oil.  Spread the dough out to fill the cast iron pan.  Allow to rise at room temp for 1 hour.

Making the Dough

Preheat your grill, smoker, or oven to 500 degrees.  Set up for indirect heat.

Bake the dough for 5-7 minutes then remove from the heat.  Allow to cool to room temp.

Layer on the provolone and mozzarella cheese, dividing between the 2 pizzas.  Add your toppings of choice.

Stuff 1/2 a cup of the shredded white cheddar between the edge of the pan and the crust, for each pizza.

Bake the pizza at 500 degrees for 7 minutes, with the lid of your grill or smoker closed.  Turn the pizza 180 degrees then top with sauce.  Cook for an additional 7-10 minutes.  If you have a lot of toppings it may require a little extra time.

Remove from the grill and allow to rest for about 5 minutes before slicing and serving.

Making the Pizza

Authentic Neapolitan Style Italian Pizza Dough Recipe! Chewy and crisp this is the type of pizza you get when you are in Naples. The pizza dough you've been waiting for is here! Jordan, my husband, is the real master behind perfecting this dough. Neapolitan pizza is largely defined by its pillowy, chewy crust. It is unique and recognizable at first glance by the slightly charred bubbles and puddle of red sauce with circles of white melted mozzarella and fresh green basil leaves. There you have it, the icon Italian flag colors painted in one the most memorable images to Italian cuisine- "la pizza Napoletana". From my heart and cucina to your table, I hope you enjoy this recipe time and time again. A true taste of Italia to your table. You will  hear the voices of the Italians saying, Mangia! Mangia! (eat!) after you make this pizza, pizza, pizza the authentic way! Enjoy. 

Authentic Neapolitan Pizza DOUGH RECIPE

kg – 35 oz Pizza Flour, Tipo 00

salt

dry yeast

Pour water and add salt into a large mixing bowl. Mix well with your hands to help dissolve the salt. Add 100g (10% flour) to the water and mix it through with your hands until the flour dissolves. This will result in a crepe/pancake consistency. Next, add the yeast to the salt, water, and flour mixture helping it melt in the water using your fingers. Mix with your hands until completely combined.

 Important: start adding the flour a little at a time. Add flour with one hand and mix to combine with your other hand as you go. Scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure no flour is wasted. 

Once the dough has started to come together really well, flip it out on to a bench and start to knead it with both hands absorbing all the remaining flour. Keep working the dough until you find it has come together and has a smooth consistency. Knead the dough by stretching it and fold it over itself to strengthen the gluten strands, and to add air into the dough. But be careful not to stretch the dough so much that it tears. This will develop the gluten in the dough, and make it elastic and stretchy. The kneading process will take around 15-20 minutes. To check if your dough is ready to rest: press down on the dough ball with one finger and if it bounces back, chances are, it’s ready!

Once ready, place the dough aside to rest on a flat surface, covering it with a damp cloth so it doesn’t dry out. Leave this to rest for at least 2hr.

Once 2hr have passed, it’s time to make your dough balls. To do this, cut a piece of your dough and weigh it on a scale aiming for 250g/8.8oz. You should have about 8 dough balls. To make the dough ball, the easiest way, "pinch and tuck method": place small dough chunk on floured surface push down on four corners of the dough with thumb and index fingers.  Pinch thumb and index finger together grabbing the dough. Lift the dough up off the floured surface and tuck and pinch the corners together on the underside of the dough. As you do this, the dough on the upward facing portion should stretch creating a smooth surface. Place the pinched side facing down on the floured surface and rotate the dough a quarter turn. Repeat 4-5 times until a nice ball has formed

Once you have made the dough balls, place them in a flat surface air tight container. Leave this in an ambient location with a temperature between 60.8 degress F – 64.4 degrees F for 24hr. IT IS WORTH THE WAIT! 

After 24hr your dough balls should have risen and are ready to use. Sprinkle flour on to the bench, placing the dough on top and starting an inch from the bottom and working your way an inch from the top, press down using your fingers. Then stop, turn it over and repeat until you have a small round base with a “cornicione” (crust).

Gently stretch this by then picking up the dough and slightly stretching it onto one forearm then flipping it onto the bench. Repeat this before shaping it into a circle and then resting it on your bench.

 Heat Oven to hottest setting 550 degrees F with pizza stone in the middle rack, or heat your professional pizza oven to 750-900 degree F. If using your regular oven, let it heat for 30 minutes with the stone to get the stone really hot. 

Add tomato puree as desired onto the flattened dough and put pizza in the middle rack of the oven on a pizza stone, baking at 550 degrees F. about 10-15 minutes. If using a real high heat pizza oven of 900 degrees F the cooking time is 5 minutes. Add the fresh mozzarella half way into the baking time in the regular oven. Other ingredients such as extra virgin olive oil and basil should be added at the end of cooking about 1 minute before taking out of the oven, or simply add after baking. If desired you can add the fresh mozzarella after the pizza and sauce are completely done cooking and the cheese will remain "fresh".  MANGIA! MANGIA! (EAT!)

Best pizza ever! We made this for a Christmas party with little cousins and it was so much fun! And then to top it off, everyone decided it was the best pizza they have ever had.  You can’t buy something that delicious.  We added a little olive oil and Maldonado salt to the crust, I couldn’t stop eating.

An authentic taste of Italy in your home!

Authentic Neapolitan Style Italian Pizza Dough Recipe! Chewy and crisp this is the type of pizza you get when you are in Naples. The pizza dough you've been waiting for is here! Jordan, my husband, is the real master behind perfecting this dough. Neapolitan pizza is largely defined by its pillowy, chewy crust. 

Once 2hr have passed, it’s time to make your dough balls. To do this, cut a piece of your dough and weigh it on a scale aiming for 250g/8.8oz. You should have about 8 dough balls. To make the dough ball, the easiest way, "pinch and tuck method": place small dough chunk on floured surface push down on four corners of the dough with thumb and index fingers. 

Pinch thumb and index finger together grabbing the dough. Lift the dough up off the floured surface and tuck and pinch the corners together on the underside of the dough. As you do this, the dough on the upward facing portion should stretch creating a smooth surface. Place the pinched side facing down on the floured surface and rotate the dough a quarter turn. Repeat 4-5 times until a nice ball has formed

Once you have made the dough balls, place them in a flat surface covered in plastic wrap, or air tight container. Leave at room temperature for 24hr. IT IS WORTH THE WAIT! 

After 24hrs your dough balls should have risen and are ready to use. Sprinkle flour on to the bench, placing the dough on top and starting an inch from the bottom and working your way an inch from the top, press down using your fingers. Then stop, turn it over and repeat until you have a small round base with a “cornicione” (crust).

Best recipe ever, and I’ve tried a few. I love how Elena sees into the future and anticipates my questions like which yeast and flour to use and how to put the dough balls in air tight containers. My kids love “making” pizza, usually just putting toppings on at the end, but I will take what I can get for such an awesome product at the end. You realize when you take that first bite that all the details go so far in the end.

This is a recipe straight from Italy. If you want to make authentic pizza Napoletana at home this is your one stop recipe for detailed step by step instructions  to get you the result you desire. Enjoy!

This pizza dough is heavenly! Amazingly fluffy and tender with a crispy exterior that melts in your mouth!

Making pizza again this weekend and this is our family go-to recipe!!

I always look forward to thin crust pizza when I go to Italy, and I miss them when I come back. Our pizza's made with your pizza dough brings me right back to warm summer evenings in Italy. Wonderful!!

Delicious!  I never thought I would make that picture perfect Neapolitan pizza but with this recipe I did. I added fresh ricotta dollops and it was amazing.

Great recipe, this my 5th time and it had produced great pizza every time!! Well worth the time and energy!

I’m not normally one to leave reviews, but this was SO good! I wanted to try just crushed tomatoes as the sauce so I could focus more on the flavor of the dough and I was amazed by how yummy it was! Will definitely save this recipe for later. Thank you for the great recipe!

If using the 250g weight for each dough ball, roughly what size of a pizza does that yield? Could I instead cut it into 6 balls to make them slightly larger?

A Fantastic website with authentic Italian recipes!! This is be far the  BEST Neopolitan  pizza recipe with clear, step-by-step, instructions  and explanations of each procedure (down to the “science” of each ingredient).

This pizza crust was amazing! Best one I’ve ever tried.

We had just been gifted an early Xmas gift… a pizza oven but we were having the hardest time using the manufacturer’s dough recipe… it was too sticky and hard to work with, it would shrink and it would puff up in the oven. That’s when I came across your blog. I bought the special yeast, flour and dough proofer. GAME CHANGER!!! Even my husband was impressed! This will give us so much more confidence to have friends over for pizza night! I’m excited to try your other recipes!

I made this recipe using half, and with all purpose flour and it turned out really nicely! I'll definitely be using it again, thanks for the recipe!

https://mediavine-res.cloudinary.com/video/upload/t_original/v1655781175/naqys7suzvkh1c84uult.mp4

Authentic Neapolitan Pizza Dough Recipe with a step by step guide to help you achieve optimal results! Neapolitan pizza is largely defined by its pillowy, chewy crust with a simple tomato sauce and puddles of fresh mozarella cheese. This is a recipe you will make time and time again.

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Pequod's Inspired Cast Iron Pizza

Authentic Neapolitan Pizza DOUGH RE...

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Top 3 authentic pizza recipes from across the web

The most viewed authentic pizza recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

Top Tags

Pequod's Inspired Cast Iron Pizza

Authentic Neapolitan Pizza DOUGH RE...

Authentic Neapolitan Pizza DOUGH RE...

The most viewed authentic pizza recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine