I use Caputo as well, but buy the stuff in 25kg bags....
I use Caputo as well, but buy the stuff in 25kg bags....
Someone who lies about the little things will lie about the big things too.
Just ordered a 15kg of Caputo blue and a 4kg mutti pizza sauce. Will be the first time using 00 so let's see if it's much different from using very strong white flour.
Will be miles different if making Neapolitan pizza.
Re the pizza sauce honestly no need. Just get a tin of San Marzano tomatoes. Drain the liquid, crush the tomatoes by hand. Snip in some fresh basil, salt, pepper and olive oil. Job done. No need to cook the sauce as it will cook in the high oven temperature
I must admit to buying a pre made tomato puree, like the one with a little added olive oil...spread it around the fork pricked base, back of a spoon does the job, sprinkle of mixed herbs, crush some pepper and off you go...comes in perfect size small cartons, cheap as well, um...chips used to be.
Happy baking.
Last edited by Passenger; 29th May 2023 at 13:34.
[QUOTE=gorrie;At £1 a ball, I can see me using plenty more of these over the summer for much easiness!![/QUOTE]
I have a pal who does just this all the time.
He loves pizza, knocks out cracking pizza but the whole dough thing does nothing for him.
This is what is great about the whole churning out pizza thing at home, to each his own how deep you dip your toe into the whole process.
Ya pizza looks great and enjoy the journey.
Pitch
Last edited by Pitch3110; 29th May 2023 at 14:50.
The reason you drain the juice is to avoid the dough getting too soggy.
I'm new to this game and no expert but I've watched a ton of videos on YouTube from various neapolitan pizza chefs and this is the way they all do it (and it tastes great btw). You are trying to preserve the great taste of the expensive San Marzano tomatoes which cook in the pizza oven and cooking them beforehand will erode that taste as you'd end up overcooking them in the hot oven. Also cooking your pizza sauce in Naples is likely to see you receive a visit from the Camorra!
Now if you do NYC pizza or deep pan pizza which require longer cooking times at lower heat then yep go ahead and cook the sauce before hand (usually they add other ingredients such as dried herbs, sugar, garlic etc) but then again for those recipes you don't need San Marzano tomatoes anyway.
The Ooni recipe is for a classic tomato sauce as opposed to a Neapolitan style sauce and I've actually tried it out myself. Pretty good but different to a true Neapolitan style (and says you can use any tomatoes as opposed to SM ). The Neapolitan sauce is far easier to make and gives a different, 'fresher taste' from the higher quality SM tomatoes.
For Neapolitan pizza you absolutely do need SM tomatoes and from memory there is even a local 'law' depicting what you can and can't put on a pizza and it remain 'Neapolitan'!
Last edited by ryanb741; 30th May 2023 at 07:37.
Here's the rule book:
https://www.pizzanapoletana.org/en/r...zza_napoletana
Someone who lies about the little things will lie about the big things too.
I've ordered a wooden peel to put the pizza in the oven. I'll still use the metal one to remove it but the dough does tend to stick to the metal peel, particularly if there are more ingredients than usual that weigh the pizza down and I hear the wooden peels are far less sticky
I use a wooden peel to prep the pizza on then slide it off that onto my semolina prepped metal peel. Never sticks when launching when I do this.
The Neapolitan style pizzas are usually a but soggy in the middle- apparently the way to eat them in Naples is with a knife and fork or if you slice it you fold the end in a bit, then the pizza in half and eat it that way.
I had a mare tonight - started off with a margherita but added olives, then Nduja, then ended up adding a whole skinned and crumbled Italian sausage until the whole thing was so heavy on the metal peel that it needed copious amounts of semolina wedged under with the spatula to get it to budge. Pizza came out fine but then the excess semolina combusted in the Sage Pizziola and I had something of an inferno in the kitchen that was thankfully confined to the pizza oven.
Less is more with Neapolitan style I guess!
I top mine on the peel as well (but give it a little jiggle to check it’s still moving fine before doing so).
Sage Pizzaioli currently on offer from Brand Alley. £499 (32% off) plus a further £15 off for your first order over £75 with code INSIDER.
https://www.brandalley.co.uk/1807672...fault_products
Andy.
Ooni 16 owners. Do you turn the heat down when you put the pizza in or keep it on max?
That could be the problem squire. But …… when I began I always made mine on wooden peels and then launched straight off, many a time a complete mess in the oven. LOL.
I tend to stretch mine on the worktop but not to the finished size, top, slide onto the peel, stretch big and then rearrange toppings if needed.
Hope that helps
Pitch
Pizza Party is in the house. Now to work out when I can get a few minutes to set the whole thing up!
Aren’t Neapolitan bases supposed to be soggy!??
My family prefer them crispier so I do turn heat down a bit and give it a little more time on the stone. But maybe this is not the true Neapolitan way!
Last edited by Boss13; 1st June 2023 at 17:58.
I normally keep it on full. It's hard though not to burn the crust. Think the next batch I'll keep it on full just to compare the 00 flour with strong white flour. After that I'll try turning it down just before launching. I don't have a thermometer so never shore how hot the stone is that's why I keep it in high. I always wait 20mins after firing the ooni up.
Good process to check, but an IR thermo is cheap to know where you are.
I drop it to low so I can control the cook better, will be interesting to see what difference my biscotto stone makes on the cook...another learning curve I am sure.
Holds heat for longer, thicker than Ooni stone so the crust and pizza is higher in the oven.
My stretch game has thankfully improved as I've gotten more experience
Yep I have one and I really like it. I bought it from very.co.uk by setting up a credit account (29% APR!) But they give 20% off for 1st orders so it cost £400 based on the promo price of £500 (usual RRP is £730) and then I paid it off in full in the 1st month so paid no interest.
Last edited by ryanb741; 2nd June 2023 at 21:07.
Thanks and yes I will try basil after the bake next time as it does get a bit burned in the high heat. I did a hot Margherita - so added chillies and Nduja. Strong lighting makes the Nduja look burned in the pic but it wasn't.
I've also had to learn to not overdo the toppings. Always seems like you should add more tomato sauce but that makes it too soupy (I use 2 tablespoons only) and also a 125g ball of Mozzarella does 3 pizzas so a third each time plus a sprinkle of Parmigiano.
Last edited by ryanb741; 2nd June 2023 at 21:11.
You are doing fantastic Ryan and picking the tricks up.
Your pizza looks great and quite right on the toppings in keeping them light. Also when I knock garlic bread out I generally give the base no more than a min and then take out and brush garlic butter all over including the crust and then straight back in, prevents burning. It can be too much adding loads on before the initial bake.
Pitch
Excelent progress RyanB, you have picked it all up very quickly!
Are you using semolina?
I’ve had the Ooni for a couple of weeks now, but so far haven’t done dough made from scratch.
Any suggestions? What equipment do you use for storing during the rise? Can it just stay in the mixer bowl for the first rise? And then what do you put it in once divided up into balls?
The pizza trays on Amazon are expensive!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Welcome fella.
Download the pizza app and use that as a start regarding quants and times, but in principle the more time to prove less the yeast.
I bulk prove in big airtight containers and then when balled you can use proper boxes, I use GI Metal ones, but anything big and flat, I did use under bed boxes from home bargains.
I think there is a theme here but the GI dough scraper is a superb bit of kit for lifting dough balls out.
Pitch