Gino's Neapolitan Pizza Dough

Preparing your own pizza dough ahead of time makes your at home pizza night much more enjoyable. Once the dough is ready you can prepare pizzas in minutes, meaning you have more time to socialise!  

Taking time to make your own dough is rewarding and gives you a more realistic Neapolitan experience.

I have used much less fresh yeast than you might find in other recipes, but this is not a typo! In Naples, we give the dough longer to rise, so it doesn’t need as much yeast. Also, using less yeast gives a far lighter and easier-to-digest pizza base.

MAKES 10 DOUGH BALLS 

Ingredients

FOR THE DOUGH

- 1.5kg ‘00’ flour, plus more to dust
- 3g fresh yeast
- fine sea salt

Method

MAKE THE DOUGH

First make the dough. Place the flour and 45g salt into a large bowl and mix to distribute the salt evenly. Pour 1 litre water, at room temperature, into a jug, add the yeast and stir to combine. Pour the water and yeast into the bowl of flour a little at a time, mixing everything together with the handle of a wooden spoon to create a wet dough.

Turn out the dough on to a well-floured surface and knead it with your hands for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Shape into a ball and return it to the large bowl. Cover with cling film and rest it at room temperature for 1 hour.

Lightly dust a work surface with flour and place the dough on top. Divide equally into 10 pieces and roll each piece into tight balls, making sure there are no air bubbles in the middle.

Dust 2 large trays with flour and place the balls inside, about 10cm apart from each other. Cover with cling film and let rest at room temperature for 4 hours.

NEXT STEPS

Choose one of my pizza recipes or create your own! I recommend starting with Pizza Neapolitan!