Pizza is associated with fast and unhealthy cooking, but it doesn't have to be that way if we choose top quality products and take control of the preparation at home. To achieve this, we asked Gennaro Iommelli, owner of the Pappa Pomodoro and Terrazza Ravello pizzerias in Barcelona, a Neapolitan by birth, heart... and stomach, for his secrets. Because although it seems simple, making a good pizza requires not making basic mistakes.
For example, using a pre-cooked or refrigerated dough is a real sacrilege for someone born in the homeland of pizza: “Pizza doesn't turn out well if you don't put passion and love into it, and that is achieved by making the dough yourself,” we say. says Iommelli, who knows well the work of pizzaioli and pizzas from Naples, considered intangible cultural heritage of humanity since last year.
Do you want to know what mistakes you make so that they don't turn out as soft and crispy as they should? How long should the dough rest? What temperature should the oven be at? How long should it be cooked? Can I mix cheese with seafood? Keep reading and you will find the answer to everything.
Making the pizza dough ourselves is one of the great secrets for a great result. No buying it frozen or pre-cooked, nor going to the other extreme and trying to imitate the complex preparations, slow fermentation and combination of flours that they make in good pizzerias. “There is no need to be scared because it is just a matter of putting it on and we will get a very different pizza from the ones we buy pre-cooked,” says Iommelli.
The Neapolitan expert advises not to mess with flours and choose a basic one, strong white flour (labeled 00), refined enough to have a good result. It usually absorbs a lot of water and will provide plasticity, elasticity and a good structure to our pizza. “In domestic ovens, the most hydrated doughs like this are the ones that work best, and are handled very well,” he points out.
We must also choose the right amount of yeast. It is important to calculate the proportions of each element well. The quantities for one kilo of flour are 25 grams of baker's yeast, 40 grams of salt and 500 ml of water. “The dough is made quickly, in a pizzeria it takes more than 24 hours,” says Iommelli, who with his restaurant Pappa Pomodoro won the prize in the BestPizza BCN 2017 contest. With 250 grams of dough we can make a standard pizza. The recipe for a pizza, for example, with mozzarella and basil requires 250 grams of pizza dough, 100 ml of tomato sauce, 100 ml of buffalo mozzarella and 8 basil leaves.
Once we have all the ingredients ready, the kneading process has its secret: Put flour in a bowl, heat a small part of water (100ml), break up the yeast with the help of a spoon, add it to a bowl with the flour. and knead with your hands. Add the rest of the water and salt and continue kneading from the center outwards until the dough comes away from your hands, “if it hangs from your hand it is not ready yet,” the pizza maker points out. It should be very smooth. Between kneading and kneading it is good to take a 10 minute break. So that the edges look good: “If we don't touch the 2 cm of the tip, they will rise, although we don't have to worry about this because it is complicated.”
When we have the dough ready, we place it in a bowl and cover it with a kitchen towel so that it retains room temperature. The cloth is also linked to tradition: "I remember how my mother would get up at 5 in the morning on Sundays to make ragù, gnocchi, pizza... each thing was covered with a different cloth, the cloth is a symbol of affection with the "We treat the dishes we cook," says Gennaro, who has just opened a new pizzeria, Terrazza Ravello, in the port of Barcelona.
“We must let the dough rest for three hours, or until it doubles in volume,” he points out. Then we will give it the shape and size we want. “You don't have to stress trying to make it round because it is very difficult, it may be ideal to put it on the oven tray and it will be square but perfect,” says the pizza maker. Putting a little olive oil on it before helps it not stick. Although the virgin olive one is very good, Gennaro opts for a milder olive one to prevent its intense flavor from eating away at the pizza ingredients. If we have a round mold we can also use it.
The tomato must be of good quality. If you want to make a pizza with tomato as the main ingredient, our Neapolitan expert recommends buying a good tomato sauce, a passata (Italian tomato puree) or natural crushed tomato, and spreading it on the pizza before baking it in the right amount. Tomatoes contain a lot of water, so we should not go too far "so that the dough does not get wet and become soft", but we should not go too short either because it will be dry. About 100 ml for 250 grams of pizza dough. Although the restaurant has asked for ketchup, he obviously does not recommend it at all.
If we want the tomato to be only a garnish ingredient, we can use small cherries, sauté them in oil and add them when the pizza is finished. Karlos Arguiñano has a recipe for tomato pizza with spinach and cheese: he dices the peeled tomato, sautés it in a frying pan with 3 tablespoons of oil, places it on top of the dough next to the spinach and sprinkles it with cheese. Then bake at 200 degrees C for 20 minutes.
Another basic to obtaining a good pizza is the temperature of the oven. In a good pizzeria they have wood ovens (the pizza is cooked in one minute) that operate at 500 degrees, or professional gas ovens (the pizza is cooked in 3 minutes) at 420 degrees. “It is impossible to work like this at home, but it is very important that the oven temperature is high because cold cooking leaves the pizza dry,” says Gennaro.
We must cook the dough with the oven already preheated to 250 degrees C, 12-16 minutes. The temperature must be high, and the time short. Remember that the dough should not be cold, but at room temperature. Otherwise it will burn. Bake until the edges are golden and crispy.
The mozzarella should be drained and cut into thin slices and spread spread over the pizza dough once we have placed the tomato sauce, before baking. Now, if the pizza is white, without tomato and with cheese, the mozzarella (buffalo recommended) will serve as the base “because it is the ingredient that best withstands high temperatures,” says Iommelli. We can cover the rest of the pizza with pieces of blue cheese, parmesan, gorgonzola... Emmental or cheddar will give it a melting touch. “You don't have to go overboard with the amount of cheese, 4 is enough.”
As with cheese, pizza does not handle excess ingredients well. “If you drown it, you kill it,” says Gennaro. Each ingredient has its cooking time, its share of water, and if we put too many they don't bake well, some will be raw and others will be burnt. Furthermore, if there is a lot of everything, in the end you don't know what the pizza is. The expert would never put “more than three or four at a time.” You should also avoid ingredients that release a lot of water and that can soften the pizza, and if used, cook them correctly. For example, “mushrooms or seafood should be cooked separately and added at the end, on top of the pizza.” The basil should also be placed raw last.
“We Neapolitans are lovers of simple pizzas, in fact with a marinara, a margarita and a calzone, we are already happy” says Iommelli, now that we are experiencing a real explosion of gourmet pizzas, such as truffle pizza or flavor mixes. “It is very good that pizza evolves as long as the preparation, times and temperature are respected,” he says. Food is freedom and any combination of ingredients can be valid even if the expert does not like combining parmesan with seafood. "On the other hand, something as simple as a pizza with a tomato base, and when you take it out, add a little garlic with oil, anchovy and oregano, it turns out great."
It can also be made with mortadella, pistachio and burrata, although we must remember that the ingredients must be added at the end of the pizza. “It is very delicious with tuna, and if you put it fresh, you will find it fresh,” says Gennaro, who advises undercooking fresh foods to highlight their quality.
When we have leftover pizza, we tend to reheat slices in the microwave. The owner of the Terrazza Ravello pizzeria, decorated with ceramics from the beautiful Amalfi town, does not approve of this practice because the pizza is cooked more on the inside than on the outside and does not turn out well. It may appear burnt or melted. “It is better to reproduce a conventional oven on the stove by placing a frying pan with a little oil, insert the pizza, cover it and in about three minutes it is crispy again,” he says. Of course, if it is very cold, before reheating it in the pan we can give it a touch of half a minute in the microwave.
If we have left a piece of pizza, it can be stored in the refrigerator for a day, covered with film, “but no longer. It is very easy to make it, and it is always better to make it and eat it than not keep it.” We can also freeze leftover pizza dough.
