Have you heard about real Italian pizza? You must have been spellbound to learn about its delicious taste, and would love to give it a try.
Indeed, Authentic pizza Neapolitan or traditional Italian pizza is famous for its matchless taste that you can only enjoy in Italy. But did you know that you can bake authentic pizza at home in just a few easy steps?
For this purpose, first, you must know what an original Italian pizza is, what techniques make it exceptional, and the dos and don’ts of baking a perfect Italian pizza.
Where can you find all this info?
Here is this article. Why not know? Let’s move!
What is a Real, Authentic Italian Pizza?
Pizza has been the street food of Italy for several centuries. Yet, the history of authentic Italian pizzas going viral dates back to 1889 when a Neapolitan pizza maker, Raffaele Esposito, made a pizza named Margherita pizza in honor of Queen Margherita and King Umberto I of Savoy, who visited Naples.
This pizza had a combo of green basil, red tomato sauce, and white mozzarella, representing the colors of the Italian flag. Apart from these, authentic Italian pizza didn’t have meat or other inorganic flavors.
Since then, the pizza from Naples has been standard, what we call an authentic Italian Pizza. And rest is all the interventions that this delicious pizza has gone through over the ages and regions.
What are the Primary Ingredients of Authentic Neapolitan Pizza?
Not all pizzas are the same, and of course, the real pizza is exceptional.
The primary ingredients of pizza include:
- Flour
- Mozzarella Cheese
- Baking Powder
- Yeast
- Chili Flakes
- Tomato Sauce
- Green Pepper
- Water
But in the case of authentic Italian pizza, you’ve to add some classic Italian ingredients in this Italian dish, such as:
- Italian Sausage
- Anchovies
- Provolone
- Prosciutto San Daniele
- Salami
- Black Olives
- Artichokes
- Fresh Basil (for topping)
What Makes Real Italian Pizza So Special?
Making authentic Italian pizza is almost the same as making an ordinary pizza. But you’ve to be very careful when preparing the three primary components, or you’ll have to do everything from scratch. Following are the three primary components In a Neapolitan pizza recipe:
1. Dough
To make perfect authentic pizza dough, you must follow the best pizza dough recipe. Authentic Italian pizzas have a thin base with a crispy crust. Experts use 00 flour to make the dough as this floor is easy to make a thin pizza base.
The dough of authentic Italian pizza includes yeast, salt, water, and flour. Apart from these, the authentic Italian pizza dough doesn’t have any artificial flavors.
2. Sauce
Pizza sauce is one of the main ingredients in every pizza recipe. Unlike other pizzas, authentic Italian pizza uses tomato sauce made of San Marzano tomatoes.
These tomatoes are an essential part of every Italian kitchen. It might sound surprising, but authentic Italian pizza uses just these tomatoes to make pizza sauce, no matter the recipe.
3. Toppings
Authentic and real Italian pizza is unique in flavor, texture, and look. These are the toppings that give a finishing look to the pizza.
In an authentic Italian pizza, there are only three ingredients used for toppings:
- White mozzarella cheese (or buffalo mozzarella)
- Green fresh basil leaves
- Red tomato sauce.
All these colors in traditional Italian pizza symbolize the Italian flag.
So, these are the top three reasons that make authentic Italian pizza so special. It doesn’t matter which type of authentic pizza you want; you’ll see all these characteristics in all of them.
Tips to Make Original Pizza At Home-Authentic Pizza Recipe
Now that you understand why authentic Italian pizza is so special, let’s jump on and see what you must follow to make an authentic pizza at home.
1. Follow Exact Real Italian Pizza Dough Recipe
Every pizza starts with pizza dough. The dough is the most important part differentiating a regular pizza from Neapolitan pizza or traditional Italian pizzas.
In the Neapolitan pizza recipe, many experts recommend using 00 flour instead of ordinary flour. 00 flour is the most refined variety of flour. It’s known for tolerating prolonged proofing and cooking at higher temperatures.
If you don’t have 00 flour, you can go for the all-purpose flour as it’ll also do the job if you follow the best pizza dough recipe. But remember, the pizza won’t be most authentic at all
2. Use only 00 flour
In the Neapolitan Margherita pizza recipe, many experts recommend using 00 flour instead of ordinary flour. 00 flour is the most refined variety of flour. It’s known for tolerating prolonged proofing and cooking at higher temperatures.
If you don’t have 00 flour, you can go for the all-purpose flour as it’ll also do the job if you follow the best pizza dough recipe. But remember, the pizza won’t be most authentic at all
3. Go for Fresh Yeast, preferably
Take an appropriate quantity of yeast to fill the dough. It’ll be a better option if you can find fresh yeast. If not, you can use active dry yeast because there isn’t much difference.
4. Use cold water
Next comes water. In many dough-making recipes, experts prefer warm water for many reasons. But warm water will not do the job if you make a Neapolitan pizza. So, make sure to use cold water to get that matchless crisp and made-in Italy flavor in your homemade pizza.
Now, add some salt as per your recipe, and this is it.
How can you Make Authentic Italian Pizza at Home? Step by Step Guide
Every Neapolitan pizza recipe uses only these four ingredients for making the best dough for pizza. Here, you have to keep the base as thin as possible to make a crispy pizza base.
In ordinary pizza recipes, chefs add different flavors to make pizza taste unique. However, it isn’t something you see in traditional Italian pizza.
You ingredients the ratio will be:
100% flour, 65% cold water, 3% sea salt, and 0.2% yeast.
After having all four ingredients (flour, water, salt, and yeast), you are ready to make the dough. Here is the recipe to make Italian style dough:
- Take an empty bowl and pour water into it.
- Add salt (as per your needs) and stir it using a spoon.
- Add some quantity of flour before adding the yeast because yeast isn’t compatible with salt.
- Now, add the yeast and then the remaining flour into the bowl.
- Mix everything gently, preferably with your hands. If not, you can use a stand mixer.
- Once the material is in shape, wait for a few minutes and let the pizza dough sit out for 12-24 hours to rise before baking your pizza.
Note: The quantity of ingredients varies with the pizza size. If you want to make a bigger pizza, you’ll have to increase the ratio of the ingredients accordingly to make a big and thin pizza base.
For a better idea on this, you can check out this video to test the pizza dough recipe
Make Tomato Pizza Sauce
After giving the pizza dough a decent shape, it’s time to make the pizza sauce. When making authentic pizza, you have to go for peeled Italian tomatoes (San Marzano tomatoes) to make pizza sauce, as these are an essential part of every kitchen in Italy.
Tomato pizza sauce will make the real taste of your pizza, so perform this step carefully. One wrong step, and you’ll have to follow the recipe from scratch again.
We understand that your time is precious. That’s why we are here with an easy recipe for Italian sausage.
Once you’ve fresh San Marzano tomatoes, follow the recipe below:
- Wash San Marzano tomatoes and dry them.
- Make slight cuts on one side of each tomato.
- Take a bowl, add some water, and put it on the stove to boil.
- Put San Marzano tomatoes in the bowl and cover the bowl.
- Let the tomatoes boil for a few minutes.
- Now, take the tomatoes out and let them cool down.
- Hand peel the tomatoes.
- Put peeled San Marzano tomatoes in a bowl and blend them.
- Add salt, extra virgin olive oil, red pepper flakes, and fresh basil.
- Cook for a few minutes, and your San Marzano tomato sauce is ready. Normally, the prep time for San Marzano tomato sauce is 10 minutes. But you can rest it longer to get the taste of the original tomato sauce in your pizza.
Here is the video of how they make tomato sauce in Italy.
Stretch your Pizza Dough Ball to get original Italian Pizza
Stretching your pizza dough for a perfect Italian Pizza is an art. Once your pizza dough is ready to be shaped, place it on a floured surface and make its core thin by pressing with your fingers while leaving a thick boundary.
Now, turn the pizza dough upside down and repeat the same process. In this way, you’ll get a traditional dough with a thin center, which is important to have a crisp crust.
Prepare Pizza Toppings
Apart from pizza dough and pizza sauce, pizza toppings make Italian pizza so special. After making the pizza dough and preparing tomato sauce using San Marzano tomatoes, the last thing you’ve to focus on is pizza toppings. Unlike ordinary pizzas, real Italian pizza (or Margherita pizza) has fewer toppings.
However, you have to choose quality items for the toppings to give your pizza the real touch of authentic pizza. For this, you have to use buffalo cheese or mozzarella, but make sure it is fresh.
Also, you’ll need some pecorino cheese to sprinkle. Lastly, you’ll need some fresh basil leaves to give the final touch.
The typical toppings on a traditional pizza represent the colors of the Italian flag. This process is a piece of cake as it takes only a few minutes. Here is a quick recipe to make pizza toppings:
- Take buffalo mozzarella cheese or Fiordilatte Mozzarella cheese, which is easily available.
- Directly add some quantity of these fresh ingredients to the top of the pizza.
- Now, sprinkle some pecorino cheese as per your needs.
- Lastly, add a few fresh basil leaves, and you’re done.
Here, we recommend adding fresh basil leaves before mozzarella because the mozzarella will prevent the leaves from burning.
This is the easiest way of making pizza toppings for a perfect pizza. Prepare your pizza toppings, spread tomato sauce on the pizza base and load it with toppings.
Get a Perfectly Cooked Pizza
Once you’ve added everything, it is time to apply some quantity of extra virgin olive oil over your pizza. Transfer it into the oven using the pizza peel.
To get the exact Margherita pizza smell and taste, you have to cook it at high temperatures of 450 degrees Celsius in a wood-fired oven. It’ll take only one and a half minutes (90 seconds) to get a perfectly cooked pizza with a crispy crust.
If you don’t have a wood-fired pizza oven, you can make authentic pizza in a regular pizza oven. However, it’ll take around 10 more minutes to make pizza because these ovens cannot generate extreme heat. Try using a pizza stone instead of a regular plate to make the crust crispy because a pizza stone retains heat for a long time.
Make sure you preheat your pizza stone and use your pizza peel with the skill to transfer your pizza to the hot stone.
Keep an eye on the pizza when you place it inside the oven, and take it out once you think it is completely prepared. Cut the pizza into small slices and enjoy your delicious homemade, authentic Italian-style pizza.
You can also check out this video tutorial.
What Makes a Traditional Real Pizza Unique From Other Variations?
Despite different pizza variations and pizza-making techniques, authentic pizza taste is matchless. Not just that, real Italian pizza has many differences when you compare it with the US Pizza or the Canadian Pizza.
So, let’s check out the difference.
US Pizza vs. Italian Pizza
In the USA, some pizza varieties have a very thick crust that makes you feel as if you are eating freshly baked bread. Apart from this, pizza in the US doesn’t use San Marzano tomatoes for pizza sauce. Instead, chefs use tangy sauce flavors to add a unique flavor to the pizza. For this purpose, they slow cook the tomatoes.
Another difference is the use of meat. In a Neapolitan pizza recipe, there is no need for meat. But in other Italian style pizza recipes, you get only one type of meat. On the other hand, pizzas in the American version use different types of meat because they love eating meat. It might sound delicious, but Italians don’t like it.
Italian Pizza vs Canadian
Pizza in Canada also has some differences from authentic Italian pizzas. Like authentic Italian pizza, the Famous Canadian pizza uses the same ingredients, including tomato sauce and fresh mozzarella cheese.
Canada’s pizza also includes other ingredients, such as bacon, pepperoni, and mushrooms.
Interestingly, people don’t find much difference between Canadian and US pizzas. But when you compare them with any Italian-style pizza, there is a huge difference in the ingredients, taste, and look. For this reason, Italians still hold the title of making the world’s best pizzas.
FAQS about Original Italian Pizza
Are microwaves of any worth to bake your Italian pizzas?
Yes, you can use your microwave oven by following a pizza-making recipe and putting the pizza in the microwave at 200° C (392° F).
It’ll take around 20 to 30 minutes, and your cooked pizza with a crispy crust and a thin base will be there. This method is being used for making different types of pizzas.
What is the difference between Neapolitan and Margherita Pizza?
The Neapolitan pizza can be called as a variety of pizza made in Naples, Italy. Yet, the Margherita is the specific variation of pizza Neapolitan that uses San Marzano tomato sauce, a few basil leaves, cheese toppings, and some olive oil.
Can you make original Italian pizza in a countertop pizza oven?
A pizza oven is again a frequently used method for making pizzas. A pizza oven can work at high temperatures, making it one of the easiest options for making authentic Italian pizza.
You just have to add olive oil and pizza to a plate and put it in the oven. Now, set the timer and wait to get the cooked homemade pizza.
Can you make Authentic Italian pizza on a stovetop?
Those who don’t have access to a pizza oven or microwave can make pizza on a stovetop. Nowadays, you get cast iron pans or non-stick pans, which are the best options for making a homemade pizza.
Take a pan and add some olive oil to it. Then, put the pizza in and start the cooking process.
You can’t make authentic Neapolitan pizza using a stovetop because you don’t get enough temperature required to prepare an Italian-style pizza.
Are specialty ovens and appliances any good for making Authentic Neapolitan pizzas?
With the technology innovation, you get specialty pizza ovens only for making pizzas. A specialty pizza oven is a perfect option for home cooks who love making pizza easily. Most of these ovens are small in size, making them a perfect option for small-sized pizzas.
Similarly, you can find the latest types of appliances for making pizzas. These appliances allow you to cook pizza at 370 degrees in under 15 minutes. You just have to press a button, and the dough tray will come out. Now, add some olive oil to the tray, put the pizza dough on it, and wait for 15 minutes to enjoy your delicious homemade pizza.
Can you make original Italian pizza on a grill or griddle?
You can make authentic Italian pizza on a grill or griddle like Blackstone. Just take a grill pan, add some olive oil, put the pizza in it, and let it cook on a grill.
This method is convenient if you want to make a pizza while camping. Many experts use this technique for preparing the famous grilled Margherita pizza.
Final Thoughts on Original Italian Style Pizza
Making authentic Italian pizza is an art, but you can enjoy Italian-style pizza at home in just a few easy steps. Authentic pizzas don’t include any artificial flavors, which is why they feel fresh and healthy to eat. In this modern age, you get a lot of appliances that you can use to make authentic pizza at home.
We hope we made it all clear about authentic Italian pizza, Neapolitan pizza, or Margherita pizza. If you want to taste them, you should visit Italy because you can’t enjoy the same taste anywhere else. Yes, you can make one at your home, but still, there would be some difference.
Do let us know in the comments if you’ve ever tried to make authentic pizza or any other pizza variation at your own home. Thanks!
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