Pizza Alla Napoletana Recipes

Steps:

• Make the dough: Combine the warm water and yeast in a small bowl, stirring to dissolve the yeast. Combine the flour and salt in a medium bowl. Add the yeast mixture to the flour and stir to make a shaggy dough. (The dough should be tacky. If it feels too wet and sticky, add flour, 1 tablespoon at a time; if it's too stiff, add a little water.) Transfer to a lightly oiled surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 3 minutes. Place an inverted bowl over the dough and let rise slightly, 30 minutes. Divide the dough into 4 pieces and form each into a ball; arrange 3 inches apart on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Rub the tops of the dough lightly with olive oil and cover the baking sheet with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.
• Remove the dough from the refrigerator about 2 hours before baking; let sit, covered, until ready to use. One hour before baking, put a pizza stone or inverted baking sheet on the middle oven rack and preheat to 500 degrees F (or 550 degrees F if your oven goes that high).
• Make the sauce: Combine the tomatoes and their juices with 1 teaspoon salt in a blender; blend until smooth.
• Generously sprinkle a pizza peel or an inverted baking sheet with cornmeal. Place 1 ball of dough upside down on the cornmeal using floured hands. Gently pull the dough into an 8- to 10-inch circle, reflouring your hands as needed and being careful not to deflate the dough. Spread about 1/4 cup tomato sauce on the crust; top with one-quarter of the mozzarella. Drizzle with 1 to 2 teaspoons olive oil and season with salt.
• Slide the pizza onto the hot stone and bake until the crust is dark golden brown and the cheese is bubbling, 7 to 9 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board and sprinkle with basil. Let cool 2 minutes before slicing. Repeat to make 3 more pizzas.

Steps:

• Preheat oven with pizza stone to 525 degrees.
• Sprinkle pizza peel with cornmeal; carefully transfer pizza round to peel. Top round evenly with cherry tomato slices and sprinkle with generous pinch salt. Sprinkle pizza stone with cornmeal and slide pizza onto hot stone. Bake 6 minutes. Remove pizza from oven, immediately sprinkle with basil, drizzle on olive oil and sprinkle with remaining large pinch of salt. For a softer crust, dab rim with a moistened brush after first 3 minutes of baking.

Steps:

• Preheat oven 450 degrees F.
• Dissolve yeast in water. Pour flour into a mound onto the counter. Add dissolved yeast, salt, and olive oil to center. Work in flour from outside into liquid with fork until it resembles a dough. Work in rest of flour by hand. Leave 1 tablespoon flour unincorporated. Place dough in bowl. Sprinkle with leftover flour. Cover with dishtowel. Let rest for about 1 hour at room temperature, until double in size.
• Pass tomatoes through food mill using smallest holes into small bowl. Set aside.
• When dough is ready, place heavy aluminum foil on a pizza board. Oil it with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Spread dough on foil, using fingertips to about 16 inches by 14 inches. Spread on pureed tomatoes. Sprinkle on mozzarella. Distribute anchovies and capers. Add salt, pepper, and oregano. Drizzle on remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil.
• Bake on middle shelf for 35 minutes or until crisp. Remove. Slice and serve.

Steps:

• Soak 100 g (3½ oz) farro or wheat grains (berries) in plenty of cold water, changing the water daily, for three days.
• For the pastry, put the flour, icing sugar, salt, orange zest and butter in a food processor and blitz to a fine breadcrumb consistency. Add the egg yolks to the mixer and blend again briefly, until the mixture comes together as a dough (add a tablespoon or two of iced water if the dough is still dry and does not come together). Form the dough into two equal rounds with your hands. Wrap in clingfilm (plastic wrap) and chill in the fridge or freezer, depending on when you want to use it. It needs to rest for at least 30 minutes in the fridge before you roll it.
• Grease a deep 23 cm (9 in) cake tin/crostata tin with butter, then dust it lightly with flour. After the dough has rested, roll it out to a rough 2 mm (1/16 in) thickness and line the cake tin, pushing the dough up the sides of the tin to create a 5-7.5 cm (2-3 in) depth and trimming any overhang. Don't worry too much about perfectly thin, even pastry. Reserve the pastry trimmings for the lattice top. Chill the pastry case in the fridge for 30 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
• Remove the pastry case from the fridge and blind-bake until just golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Allow to cool while you prepare the filling.
• For the farro or wheat berries, on the third day of soaking, drain the soaked grain. Cook in a saucepan with the milk, cinnamon, lemon zest and salt over a very low heat, covered with a lid. Cook, stirring occasionally for 30-40 minutes until the grain is plump and tender and all the milk had been absorbed. Spread the grain out on a plate to cool completely.
• Preheat the oven to 170°C (340°F).
• For the rest of the filling, whisk or beat the ricotta in a bowl until smooth, then whisk in the egg yolks. Stir in the orange zest, candied fruit, sugar, orange blossom water, vanilla and salt. Into this mixture, stir the cooled cooked wheat. In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites to soft peaks, then fold them gently into the ricotta mixture.
• Pour the whole lot into the prepared pastry case. Cut the leftover pastry dough into strips about 2 cm (¾ in) wide, and arrange them over the top in a diagonal lattice. Use your fingers to press the edges of each strip into the pastry case walls to seal them.
• Brush the top of the tart with the beaten egg and bake for 90 minutes, or until biscuit brown all over.
• Let the tart cool and the filling settle, for at least 12 hours in a cool place before slicing into it. Serve, finally, with coffee and congratulations.