A lifetime of cooking later and making good pizza dough remains a mystery for many. Sure, there are numerous videos and recipes claiming a good recipe. The good news is that this is not the end of the story. It took a real Italian chef master who was willing to let everyone in on the secret, and that master chef is Vito Iacopelli!
Vito Iacopelli
Vito is an award-winning international “Maestro Pizzaiolo” and a very successful YouTuber. He has several channels, while his main one has several million views per video. He specializes in the art of pizza making and teaches his dough-making methods in videos, but also makes entire pizzas, including the topping. Click on the photo below if you want to go to his YouTube channel.
Vito Iacopelli / Instagram | Vito is an award-winning international “Maestro Pizzaiolo”
Vito’s videos have revealed a treasury of secret Italian methods and recipes, only known by top chefs until he decided to reveal them. You can find ways to make all kinds of pizzas, like Neapolitan, New York-Style, calzone, and many more, all at home.
Neapolitan Pizza Dough, According to Vito Iacopelli
Neapolitan pizza dough, and every other pizza dough for that matter, need to obey two rules:
Crunchy on the Outside + Soft on the Inside
And herein lies the mastery, for no recipe on the web reveals how to achieve this. But, it is not the chefs that are to blame; no offense, but it is the audience! Because people want something fast like instant pizza dough. You can’t have that! You have to leave time for fermentation, which is usually over 16 hours.
The Poolish
The best and the crunchiest method Vito presented starts with making the poolish. Now, in the American kitchen, polish is known as the “bread starter” or the “mother dough”. It is made with a pre-fermentation process of just yeast, honey, water, and some flour.
3 grams of Dry yeast
3 grams of Flower Honey
300 ml of Water
300 grams of White Flour
The polish is prepared the night before you want to make the pizza. Mix the yeast, honey, and flour in the water until it is smooth. Leave it uncovered for 15 minutes, then seal the container and leave it for 1 hour at room temperature. Then, put it in the fridge and leave it for 16 to 24 hours.
Making the Dough from the Poolish
After 16 hours, take the polish out of the fridge. This amount of polish we made is good for up to 2L of water and flour, not more. If you want more, you have to increase the poolish amount.
Put 3g of salt in 500 ml of water and mix until it dissolves. Mix 500 g of all-purpose white flour with the poolish, and then slowly start adding the salted water to it. Mix it all, but do not mix too much, don’t get it smooth.
Tap some olive oil on it and leave it covered for about 15 minutes at room temp. Then, start working the dough again, this time until it is smooth. Then, tap some olive oil on it again and leave it for 1 hour. Cover it well this time. And, after 1 hour, it is ready.
