Neapolitan-style pizza
Gennaro Contaldo knows a thing or two about pizza. But his easy pizza recipe from Naples holds a few surprises!
Ingredients
For the dough
For the topping
- 300g canned plum tomatoes
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 30g/1oz Parmesan, freshly grated
- a few fresh basil leaves or some dried oregano
- 140g/5oz mozzarella, roughly chopped
- extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
For the additional toppings
Method
Preheat the oven to 250C/500F/Gas 9.
In a large bowl, place the flour and salt together. Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water and gradually add to the flour. Mix well until you obtain a dough. If you find the dough too sticky, just add a little flour.
Shape the dough into a ball and leave to rest covered with a cloth for 5 minutes. After this time, you will find the dough much more pliable to work with. Knead the dough and split into two. Knead each piece for a couple of minutes each and form into balls. Sprinkle some flour on a clean kitchen cloth and place the dough on it covering with a slightly damp cloth. Leave to rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.
Place the tomatoes in a bowl and squash them slightly, add salt and pepper and mix well.
Sprinkle some flour on a clean work surface and with your fingers spread the dough into a roughly round shape with a border. Make the dough as thin as a pancake but beware not to split the dough. Sprinkle some breadcrumbs on two large flat baking sheets and place the pizza bases on them.
Spread a little of the tomato evenly over each base - not put too much as the pizza will go soggy. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with parmesan cheese, add a few basil leaves or sprinkle some oregano and top with pieces of mozzarella cheese. Then add topping of your choice.
Place in the hot oven for 7 minutes (a couple of minutes longer if you prefer your pizza crispy). Remove from the oven, drizzle with some olive oil and eat immediately - pizzas are not very nice cold or reheated!
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