No-stick Neapolitan pizza — 75% hydration

***RECIPE, MAKES FOUR 10 IN (25 CM) PIZZAS***

700g bread flour
9g active dry yeast
15g salt
525g water

1 14 oz (400g) can San Marzano tomatoes (or similar product)
olive oil
salt

.5-1 lb (225-450g) fresh mozzarella
fresh basil leaves

Combine the flour, yeast, salt and water in a bowl, and mix with a big wooden spoon until it gets too dry to stir. Kneed with your hands until it gets too wet to work. Go back to the wooden spoon and use it to kneed the dough as best you can until you see it starting to go smooth and stretchy. Cover the bowl with a wet towel and let it rise for an hour or two on the counter.

Take the spoon and use it to punch down the dough, then kneed it a few more minutes to get it as smooth and stretchy as you can. Lay out a couple big sheets of parchment paper on your counter. Divide the dough into four balls and place them on the parchment, spaced far enough apart that they could double in size and not touch. I like to use scissors to portion it out, and if it's too sticky to handle, try wetting your hands, rather than flouring them.

Get each dough ball in a roughly round shape on the parchment, but don't stress too much about shape. Cover each dough ball in a big bowl or anything else that can serve as a dome, and let rise for at least a couple more hours, and as many as five.

Make your sauce by removing the tomatoes from the canning liquid (I discard the liquid) and either crushing them with your hands or pureeing them smooth. Stir in olive oil and salt to taste.

Prep your oven. In this video I used a pizza stone in a wood-fired pizza oven at about 650 F (340 C) though some people prefer more char on Neapolitan-style pizza and bake at upwards of 1,000 F. If you're using a normal domestic oven inside, I would simply crank it as high as it goes and preheat a pizza stone or steel in there for a full hour.

When you're ready to bake, flour your hands and the tops of the dough balls. Press the center of the ball flat, and then slowly widen it outward without deflating the outer ring of dough. Since it's stuck to the parchment, this might take a minute, but keep nudging it and it will gradually spread.

Top with a spare amount of sauce and a few chunks of fresh mozzarella. Optionally, you can brush the outer ring of dough with a little olive oil. Take your scissors and cut off the excess parchment around the pizza, so that it's sitting on a circle of parchment not much water than the pizza.

Transfer it to your cooking surface and cook right on the parchment. When the pizza is done, top it with fresh basil leaves, and peel off the parchment paper.

[johnnyharris]

Quickly turning into my favorite channel. I love the incredible knowledge base, blended with non-pretentious practicality. Such good stuff.

[dr_outcast]

I believe that Adam is still just a college student on the inside because of his minimal utility cooking method and I'm in love with that

[ido]

Adam Ragusea: “you don’t need 200$ stand mixer to make good food at home”
Also Adam Ragusea: *buys 1, 000$ pizza oven*

[vitoiacopelli]

My friend we need to make a pizza video together! ❤️ 🍕 🍕

[bigchungus]

"It has successfully gone 'bleurggh'"

Adam Ragusea - 2020

[mohammedsami]

" this video is sponsores by hot ass"
Hell yeah it is.

[jjpoltergeist]

Adam, this is great. I’ve been working on my NY and neopolitan pizza game since the pandemic started, and although I'm already comfortable handling wet doughs (also baked a ton of sourdough) this is an amazing technique. Makes the whole process much easier and so much more accesible for the average home cook. I’ve never would have thought of the parchment paper.

Also, if anyone out there is intimidated by kneading with a high hydration: You might want to let the dough autolyse before adding the yeast.
At 75% hydration, the dough kneads itself with time. Mix the flour and water, but leave a tiny bit of water in a small container. Mix those two so that there’s no dry flour and let sit for an hour. Once the hour has passed, add the yeast to the remaining water and then add the yeasty water to the dough. Knead for a bit until it’s incorporated, wait 30mins or so and then add the salt and knead for a bit until it’s incorporated again. The autolyse really makes a difference in gluten development.
Also, this works GREAT with pre-ferments like poolish. Give it a shot if you are feeling like it!

[orsivan]

Hi Adam! I use a similar method for high-hydration pizza, and I have another trick!
If you lightly dust the paper with semolina and not cut it, you can take the pizza off the paper after 30-45 seconds in the oven.
That way you still have a few more minutes to allow the dough to get some 1 on 1 time with the pizza stone.

[deadfrg]

75% hydration...

Water, 75%?!

MY GOD. *It’s almost human.*

[thpacemanthpiff]

If you're still in contact with that company, you could pretty easily design an attachment for the grill so it could be used as a super authentic tandoor, just a steel cylinder that fits in the tallish part.

[Neon_Ghost]

So I gotta say, I went to Italy last year and it changed my life, I've been obsessed with pizza and making it ever since. I've watched literally hundreds of videos on pizza dough and struggled to make something I was happy with, some stuff was good but it just didn't have that quality like in Italy. After watching this video and trying it your way, (I actually baked mine in a homemade brick oven) and I just baked the crust to store for later, but this was the most tasty dough I've ever had!!! I can't explain it, but the charred parts almost have a pop corn-esque flavor to it, it's crunchy and savory, and soft and chewy inside! Best dough recipe I've ever used! But also I used 1 party caputo flour and three parts bread flour. Thank you so much!

[LukaBastinHowes]

Adam, you’re almost at 1 million and you deserve it SO much. Your content is impeccable!!!

[keuf]

“I prefer my mashed potatoes chunky style, I just like that heterogeneity”

[cangaroojack]

Adam, i'm Campanian and i live reeeally close to Naples, this is one of the best, more clear, and down to earth video recipes for our pizza that i've ever seen, even from italian chefs, you've made it super duper easy to follow for an everyday home cook! Well done sir! Props to you

[happens]

This is unironically the best YouTube sponsor I’ve ever seen. Local business, innovative and useful product? That’s impressive!

[MrFadeout]

I’ve just learned how to make my favorite crust type. I’ve tried countless times to no avail; but now this make sense. It’s all about hydration. Perfect!

[trygveevensen]

*Just a quick tip:* rise the individual doughs in a room temp oven, if you got enough baking trays that is

I find it to be a great place to rise doughs because it's easy and almost airtight, you can put on a little heat if you want

[TBJ]

Little tip from an Italian living in the US and missing top level tomatoes: a teaspoon of honey in the tomato sauce improves it a LOT

[socallars]

Adam, this is exactly the kind of video I love from you...showing home cooks how to get reasonably professional and authentic results, but within the limitations of our kitchens and skills. The parchment thing is brilliant, I gave up on Neopolitan style pizzas after my first attempts turned into sticky dough & cheese blobs as they exited my peel. Somehow, I never even thought about the roll of parchment paper in my kitchen!

Well done, brother!

[mehdimarashi]

Hey Adam,
suggestion for mixing the high-water-content doughs: use the handle of the wooden spoon instead of its head. Much easier to move around, less dough sticks to your spoon too.