How to make pizza like a Neapolitan master • Hacker News Board

Re: How to make pizza like a Neapolitan master

#251

Post by 9nGQluzmnq3M » Fri, Apr 24, 2020, 11:46 PM UTC

oggy wrote: post #245

albmoriconi wrote: post #52

I am from Naples and eat regularly at Gino Sorbillo's and Ciro Salvo's places. As it often happens here, everyone will swear by its pretty small and obscure "favorite place", but they are masters without doubt ;) The dough recipe from the article is pretty legit and exactly the way I do it at home; the main problem I see is that it would be pretty hard to find good Mozzarella or Fiordilatte cheese (Fiordilatte di Age…

Sorbillo's is the best I've tried. I remember walking in front of the shop a few times and thinking it's some kind of tourist trap (it's on the possibly most touristy street in the city), but decided to try it out in the end. Absolutely fantastic. The pie was great, but TBH I think there were other places in town whose pies were as good, but the quality of the toppings... just wow. And I was surprised that the price…

Switzerland is next door to Italy and there's a significant Italian minority, so you can generally find pretty good Italian food if you look.

Re: How to make pizza like a Neapolitan master

#252

Post by 1024core » Fri, Apr 24, 2020, 11:58 PM UTC

carlesfe wrote: post #192

A question for italians: do you use raw tomato puree, or do you fry it? I've always used fried tomato puree (fried at home with olive oil)

I'm not Italian, but from what I've seen (from watching YT videos on pizzas) they say always use the raw puree.

Re: How to make pizza like a Neapolitan master

#253

Post by basch » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 12:38 AM UTC

gomox wrote: post #220

basch wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would it be better with two slabs of steel, one above one below?

Intuitively, I don't think so. The steel is colder than the actual oven, what it does better is transfer heat by conduction into the dough (better than stone at that). That only works if it's touching the pizza.

You would heat the metal to temp before putting the pizza in. Dark metals have higher radiant heat, so maybe cast iron above it would be even better than steel.

Re: How to make pizza like a Neapolitan master

#254

Post by ricardobeat » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 1:17 AM UTC

matteuan wrote: post #67

leemac wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few years back I gave the Roccbox a shot ( https://us.gozney.com/products/roccbox ). It takes a special flour (Tipo 00 is what I use) so it doesn't char at 850F. The oven is certainly not cheap and there are cheaper alternatives, but I wanted something portable and more rugged-makes camping fun and we cook more than pizza. It get's me that nice charred bottom, but I typically tend to overcook the cheese. I still co…

Tipo 00 is not special but very common flour n. 405 (german system). Many tutorials refer to this flour like there is something special inside that will make the pizza better...but there isn't.

It makes a huge difference to the characteristics of the dough, you can feel it instantly when stretching.

Re: How to make pizza like a Neapolitan master

#255

Post by ricardobeat » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 1:18 AM UTC

carlob wrote: post #146

telesilla wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find a pizza stone is a great addition to the regular home oven for crispy bases.

Yes! Pizza stone! Best 12 euros I've ever spent. This[0] is the kind of results I'm able to get in a normal Ikea electric oven that maxes out at 250 C. Another thing you can do with it is experiment with a Weber-like barbecue... [0] https://imgur.com/a/7MDWyv4

Do you pre-cook the base? At the point the crust would start looking like that, my cheese would be extremely dried out.

Re: How to make pizza like a Neapolitan master

#256

Post by Ididntdothis » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 1:29 AM UTC

9nGQluzmnq3M wrote: post #251

oggy wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorbillo's is the best I've tried. I remember walking in front of the shop a few times and thinking it's some kind of tourist trap (it's on the possibly most touristy street in the city), but decided to try it out in the end. Absolutely fantastic. The pie was great, but TBH I think there were other places in town whose pies were as good, but the quality of the toppings... just wow. And I was surprised that the price…

Switzerland is next door to Italy and there's a significant Italian minority, so you can generally find pretty good Italian food if you look.

Same in Germany. A lot of pizza places are run by actual Italians.

Re: How to make pizza like a Neapolitan master

#257

Post by heelix » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 1:56 AM UTC

devchix wrote: post #204

dangerboysteve wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use packed dry yeast but I have always let my dough do a slow rise in the refrigerator for a minimum of 3 days up to 6 days. I use 00 flour and cook the pizza's using my Roccbox pizza oven or a custom Baking Steel 23x19 3/8" steel in the oven. Also if you want a good guide for NY style pizza then this is a good read. http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm

He hacks his home oven to use the self-cleaning cycle to bake at 800°F. :blink: I'm not comfortable doing that. I rarely crank mine to 500°F, when I do there's quite a bit of smoke that has to be vent.

We like doing pizzas on our grill, which can get to 500F+ easy enough. A cheap pizza stone works really well on there and has a bonus of not heating up the house in the summer.

Re: How to make pizza like a Neapolitan master

#258

Post by nwsm » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 2:04 AM UTC

syedkarim wrote: post #202

Nothing beats Neapolitan-style pizza. If you are ever in Chicago, skip the deep dish and instead head over to Spacca Napoli on the city's northside. https://www.spaccanapolipizzeria.com/ Supposedly, the owner shipped in Italian raw materials for the clay oven, as well as Italian masons to build it. I don't know that the oven is the reason for why their product is so good, but it is just miles apart from any other typ…

Personally prefer both NY style and deep dish over Neapolitan. Neapolitans are beautiful and have good flavors, but I think the floppy structure is much worse.

Re: How to make pizza like a Neapolitan master

#259

Post by patrickthebold » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 2:20 AM UTC

loriverkutya wrote: post #246

fenwick67 wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mozzarella is surprisingly easy to make at home in less than an hour.

Where you get the water buffalo milk from?

Water buffalos.

Re: How to make pizza like a Neapolitan master

#260

Post by voldacar » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 2:21 AM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #197

misiti3780 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ciao, Come siete ? I'm not sure if you have ever been to NYC but an interesting observation I have had with Gino Sorbillo is the pizza in Napoli is very good, but he/they opened a restaurant in NYC and it's absolutely average at best. I assume they import everything, but quality wise, the places are polar opposites. Also curious your thoughts of Da Michele?

Given the stories I hear from pretty much everyone in my circle who's been to the US, there's a general problem with food there tasting bland, in comparison to Europe. Like others, I suspect the ingredients in the States are worse for some reason (perhaps they've been optimized too much for shelf life).

>perhaps they've been optimized too much for shelf life

this has definitely happened to tomatoes. Supermarket tomatoes vs heirloom varieties are night and day