naples

Try Marc Vetri's Naples Style Pizza Dough for Your Next Pizza

(2 2/3 cups) King Arthur bread flour

(1 1/2 cups) water at 45ºF (7ºC)

(1/4 teaspoon) fresh yeast yeast

(1 1/2 cups) water at 55ºF (13ºC)

(1/2 teaspoon) fresh yeast yeast

(4 2/3 cups) King Arthur bread flour

(3 1/2 teaspoons) fine sea salt

If you were to pick a president and el tigre numero uno of the ragù world, it'd be ragù Napoletano, a meaty stew with big chunks of beef, pork, and sausages simmered until fall-apart tender in a rich tomato sauce flavored with wine, onions, garlic, basil, and plenty of good Southern Italian olive oil. It's the precursor to Italian-American Sunday gravy: just add some meatballs, serve it with spaghetti, and you're there. It's also the perfect dish for a lazy Sunday with family or friends at home.

Rag&#250; Napoletano (Neapolitan-Style Italian Meat Sauce with Pork, Beef, and Sausage) Recipe

pork

beef chuck,

extra-virgin olive oil, divided

large onion, finely chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)

red chili flakes

oregano

dry red wine

Parmesan rind (optional)

basil

mild sausage,

Asian fish sauce

servings fresh or dried pasta

Parmesan cheese,

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat oven to 300°F (see note for slow cooker instructions). Season ribs with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large Dutch oven over high heat until shimmering. Add ribs and cook without moving until well browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Flip and cook until second side is well browned, 5 to 7 minutes longer. Transfer to a plate and set aside. Repeat with beef until browned all over and add to plate with pork.

Add onions to now-empty dutch oven and cook, scraping up any browned bits, and stirring frequently until just beginning to brown, about 6 minutes. Add garlic and continue cooking until onions and garlic are lightly browned, about 3 minutes longer. Add pepper flakes and oregano and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add wine and cook until nearly completely reduced, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, Parmesan rind (if using), and 3/4 of basil. Return ribs and pork to pot and bring to a simmer. 

Cover with lid slightly ajar and place in the oven (see note for slow cooker instructions). Cook, stirring occasionally, until the rib bones can be easily pulled from the meat, about 3 hours. Add sausages and continue cooking for 30 minutes.

Transfer ribs, beef, and sausages to a bowl, discard bones, and let stand until cool enough to handle. Discard basil sprigs from sauce. Roughly shred rib and beef with two forks or your hands and return to pot. Slice sausages into disks and return to sauce. Stir in fish sauce and remaining olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

To serve, cook pasta in a pot of boiling salted water until just shy of al dente (about 1 minute for fresh pasta or 1 minute short of recommended cooking time for dried pasta). Drain, reserving about 1 cup of starchy pasta water. Return pasta to the pot you just cooked it in and add half of ragù, half of pasta cooking water, and a handful of grated cheese. Cook over high eat, stirring until the sauce emulsifies with the pasta water and clings to the pasta, adding more pasta water if necessary. Serve immediately, passing additional sauce, cheese, and remaining fresh basil at the table.

This dough is meant to be baked at 500° to 600°F (260° to 316°C), perfect for a home oven and a kamado-style grill. Try this dough recipe when making Kamado Grilled Sausage Pizza. The real secret to flavor in this dough is giving it plenty of time to ferment low and slow.

Marc Vetri’s Naples Style Pizza Dough Recipe at 70% Hydration

King Arthur bread flour

water

yeast

fine sea salt

Day 1: Make the starter. Mix everything together in the bowl of an electric mixer, crumbling in the yeast if it’s fresh or sprinkling the dry yeast over the water. Mix just long enough to make sure all the flour is wet. The starter will be wet and sticky. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let the starter rest at room temperature, about 70°F (21°C) for 24 hours.

Day 2: Make the dough. By this time, the starter should be bubbly and smell like sex. For the dough, pour the water into a small bowl, crumble in the yeast, and whisk them together until no lumps remain; or, if using dry yeast, you can just sprinkle the yeast over the starter.

Mix and knead. Add the water (or water/yeast mixture) to the starter and then the flour, and then the salt. Attach the dough hook and mix on low speed for 8 minutes. Switch to medium-low speed and mix for another 4 minutes. The dough should be somewhat loose, since it has a fair amount of water in it. But if you’re mixer is less than 600 watts (600 J/s) and the mixer is straining, remove half of the dough and mix the dough in 2 batches to avoid burning out your mixer motor. Recombine the dough at the end of mixing both batches.

Ferment. Cover tightly and let the dough ferment in the refrigerator until it proofs, rises, and almost doubles in size, at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours for more flavor. You could also let the dough rise at room temperature for 5 to 6 hours if you’re pressed for time.

Ball up and ferment again. Lightly flour your hands and a bench knife (the bigger the better). Resist the temptation to dust the dough or your work surface with more flour; that will just make the dough stiffer. You want to keep the dough soft. Use your hand to scrape and dump the mass of dough onto a dry work surface. Use the bench knife to cut and divide the dough into 6 pieces, each about 9.5 oz (270 g). Just cut and scrape away a 9.5-oz (270-g) piece from the dough, transferring the piece to a scale to weigh it (at least weigh the first piece so you can eyeball the rest). The dough will be loose, wet, and sticky—especially if you use some fresh-milled whole grain flour. Handle it with authority. Scoop it up with the bench knife and scrape it off with your fingers. Transfer the  9.5-oz (270-g) piece to a 2-foot-square (61 cm) area on the dry work surface. Then scrape and shape the dough into a ball. To do that, position the bench knife at one edge of the dough and then push the dough in the opposite direction, scraping and pushing the dough at least a foot or two away from you. It will swell up and form an oval shape. Remove the bench knife (using your fingers if necessary), reposition the knife on the pointy end of the dough, and proceed to push the dough in a direction perpendicular to the first, tilting the knife down a bit and scraping the dough with some pressure, swelling up the dough again. Repeat this process of pushing, reposi­tioning, and scraping the dough in opposite directions all around the 2-foot (61 cm) square until the dough goes from a loose oval shape to a more organized round one. It’s almost like shaping a water balloon, so it’s a somewhat delicate opera­tion. You want to gently squeeze all around the balloon to swell it up into a round ball, always increasing the surface tension. When the dough becomes a somewhat organized round ball, use the bench knife to quickly transfer the dough ball to a proofing box or a wide tray with a tight-fitting lid. It will flatten out quite a bit, so leave room for the other dough balls. Repeat the process with each lump of dough, transferring the dough balls to the container and leaving several inches between each—you don’t want the balls reconnecting themselves. I don’t dust them with flour. They get plenty of flour when you shape them. Cover tightly and refrigerate for 24 hours. Or leave at room tem­perature for up to 12 hours.

Day 3: Use or chill the dough. After the dough balls have rested, use them imme­diately or chill them for up to 36 hours after that (until the evening of Day 4). Let the dough rest at room temperature for 1 hour before using to take the chill off. That will make the dough easier to shape.

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