The wife and I are getting really good at pizza making. We’ve pretty much nailed NY-style pizza, so now we’re trying to perfect Neapolitan-style pizza. I can make either variety in my homemade pizza oven based on how much charcoal I use and whether or not I burn wood.
We had a low-key Easter this year, so we decided to make a few pizzas instead of the standard holiday fare. We usually make very simple Neapolitan pizzas, but we decided to get creative with flavor combinations this time.
Here’s everything lined up and ready to go.
I usually make the dough, the wife preps the pizzas, and I man the oven. She’s gotten very good at stretching the dough. I email her the topping combinations for each pizza and she pulls it all up on her phone like a restaurant ticket system. It’s kind of funny, but it works.
Spicy pizza
Base: Blended (uncooked) San Marzano tomato sauce with grated garlic and kosher salt.
Toppings: Hand-shredded whole milk mozz, fresh torn mozz, hot soppressata, sliced salami, hot Italian sausage, grape tomatoes, diced red peppers, Paremsan, torn basil, dollops of chorizo ragu. This is basically an attempt to recreate the Porreca Piccante pizza at Varuni in Atlanta, which is the best pizza I’ve ever had.
Check out that char on the red peppers and how the tomatoes blistered and burst, releasing their sweet juice onto the spicy pizza.
White pizza
Base: Olive oil
Toppings: Hand-shredded whole milk mozz, fresh torn mozz, dollops of ricotta, dollops of taleggio, soppressata, spicy Italian sausage, parmesan, basil, roasted garlic.
Check out how the soppressata and sausage crisped at the top and how the basil stayed moist because of the olive oil.
Everything pizza
Base: Blended (uncooked) San Marzano tomato sauce with grated garlic and kosher salt.
Toppings: Lots of the leftover ingredients form the previous pizzas. Additions include sliced pepperoni and salami.
Here’s the pizza in the oven. We cook our pizzas on pans until they’re about done and then we place them onto the stone to get some color. Finally, we pull the pizza out with the peel. We keep them warm in the oven until they’re all finished cooking. Each pizza takes about 3–5 minutes to cook, depending on how hot the oven is running.
The sliced meats crisped up very well.
It was warm enough to eat outside.
These pizzas came out super thin and were a bit soupy in the center, just like traditional Neapolitan pies. The crust was airy and we got great texture and char on the bottom. This is probably our best Neapolitan-style bake to date.
