Homemade Pizza

I knew Sunday I would be feeling for some Pizza so I got started on Saturday with the Dough. I made a Neopolitan-style pizza but I think my Italian friends on here and in the real world would beat me if I called it a Neopolitan pizza. To make a real Neopolitan pizza you have to follow all the rules, there is a standard to it held down by an association in Napoli. Some things I just can not get ahold of here, like 00 flour and the proper canned tomatoes. And then I am just a jerk and like to break rules because I can and I am an American so I will do something like put steak on a pizza. I promised my Italian friends though I would not send them pictures of that sort of perversion, but that does not spare you here today. You will get to see everything.

So starting on Saturday night I combined the following ingredients.

360g of Water
640g of Flour
14g of Salt
1g of Dry Active Yeast

I mixed everything up with my hands and kneaded it into a big ball and put it in a container with a damp towel over it. I left it over night. Probably at around 18 hours, I could see that it had really over-rised and was over-proofed. So I beat it back down and let it rest for another hour. I then made it into 4 dough balls around 250g each.

I let those sit for about another 3 hours.

While that was going on I got started on the pizza sauce.

Tomatoes
Garlic
Olive Oil
Oregano
Salt

I stewed it together and then hit it with the blender to make a nice salt. Once again this would be against the true Neopolitan rules, they wouldn't use a blender or garlic, or dry spices in the sauce. But this turned out nicely for me. I also marinated and cooked some steak to use as a topping. I cut onions, tomatoes, green and orange bell peppers and had them ready.

The first pizza I did was just cheese and veggies. It was a little bit of a challenge to get the pizza dough ready and into the very hot oven but I did it.

The result tasted good and looked pretty good.

The crust was not as fluffy and light as it could have been but it still had some good air pockets in it. When I do it again I will use a little more water, much less yeast, and also work on my folding and ball preparation. I also need to not spread any of the sauce onto the outside of the crust portion. I do not have a high-temperature oven so I may not get as much of a puffy and lightly charred crust as what is traditionally done too.

The next one to come out of the onion would be a major violation to any Italian. They do not put beef or chicken on pizza. This pizza I had steak strips on and my wife and I really enjoyed it.

In all I did 2 steak pizzas and two veggie pizzas. We had pizza in the fridge for a few days after that as you can imagine. Thanks for reading and please do not insult me for being non-traditional.