Authentic Italian Pizza Dough Recipe

Want to make Italian-style pizza in the comfort of your own home? After 10+ years of trips to the best pizzerias in Italy and experimenting over and over with dough, we’ve got the recipe you need. Try this Italian pizza dough recipe! This is the style of pizza dough you’ll find in Naples: supple, chewy, crispy on the outside and doughy on the inside. Bake it up on a pizza stone to perfection and it will taste almost like you’re noshing on a wood-fired pizza straight from Italy. Here are all our secrets!

What makes the best Italian pizza dough?

Here at A Couple Cooks, Alex and I been to Italy several times to study the pizza there. Then we’ve spent time chatting with some of America’s best Italian-style pizza chefs (like Chris Bianco of Pizzeria Bianco and Caleb Schiff of Pizzicletta). Here’s what we’ve learned in our research about what makes the best Italian pizza dough recipe:

Use Tipo 00 flour. Tipo 00 flour is the type of Italian flour that Neapolitan pizza restaurants use. It makes a beautiful, supple and fluffy dough that’s a notch above regular all purpose flour. You can find it at your local grocery or online. You can use all purpose if that’s all you have, but it’s worth seeking out the good stuff. Refrigerate the dough 2 to 3 days before baking (optional). Both of our pizza dough masters told us the same thing. For next level Italian pizza dough, place the dough in a sealed container and refrigerate it for 2 to 3 days. This naturally ferments the dough and brings a nutty, complex flavor to the dough. This is optional: sometimes it’s not possible to think ahead! But it has incredible results.

How to make Italian pizza dough

This pizza dough recipe is fairly simple to make, but it does take some practice! We’ve got a few videos below to help guide you through the process. Here’s what to expect in the dough making process:

Measure using a food scale. If you can, use a food scale for your measurements: measuring by weight is more accurate and accounts for environmental changes. Knead the dough by hand or using a stand mixer. You can do either! We like using a stand mixer because it’s hands off, but you can get your hands dirty, too. In both cases, it takes just 8 minutes. Rest the dough for 45 minutes. This is also called “proofing:” this lets the dough rise, letting it get to the perfect fluffy texture.

How to stretch the dough: some tips!

Stretching the dough is the hardest part of making Italian pizza dough! You’ll need to stretch it into an 11-inch circle. Here are a few notes on the process:

Invest in a pizza peel, if you can. This is a large wooden paddle you can use to place the dough on the pizza stone. We recommend this Standard pizza peel or this Conveyor pizza peel.Dust the pizza peel with cornmeal or semolina flour. This helps the dough to slide right onto the stone. Follow the detailed stretching instructions in this post: How to Stretch Pizza Dough or watch the video below!

Bake your Italian pizza dough on a pizza stone

The last note about this Italian pizza dough recipe! It’s important to bake it on a pizza stone to get just the right crispy exterior and chewy interior.

A pizza stone is what makes the classic Italian pizza crust texture because it cooks it at an even higher temperature than the oven can achieve. What pizza stone to buy? Here’s the best pizza stone we’ve found. How do you clean a pizza stone? Do you store it in the oven? See these pizza stone care tips we’ve learned after years of using one religiously.

The best toppings for this Italian pizza dough recipe

You probably already have some toppings in mind for your pizza! But here are a few topping ideas that are classic Italian-style:

Try the Perfect Homemade Margherita: our best easy pizza sauce, mozzarella and basilDid you know Pizza Marinara has no cheese? It’s a traditional Neapolitan pizza flavorWe had a version of this Spicy Pizza Diavola in RomeThis Best Anchovy Pizza is very traditional and quite good

Let us know what you put on this pizza dough and if you have any questions in the comments below!