Perfect Neapolitan Pizza Recipe

What is Neapolitan pizza?

Neapolitan pizza is pizza made in the style that originated in Naples, Italy. Like any famous dish, there many opinions on what it means to be “authentic.” After eating some of what is considered the best pizza in the world on the ground in Naples, here’s what we found are characteristics of Neapolitan pizza: Once you’ve tasted Neapolitan pizza, you’ll never go back. Then you’ll spend the rest of your life trying to recreate it at home! Luckily, we did that for you. Here are all our tips and tricks for the best homemade Neapolitan pizza!

Simple flavors: The best Neapolitan pizza restaurant we’ve been to, Da Michele, served only two flavors: Margherita and Marinara. Pizza margherita is tomatoes, mozzarella and basil, and pizza marinara is simply tomatoes and garlic. Soft, thin crust, cooked in a very hot oven: Most Neapolitan pizzas are baked in a wood fired pizza oven that’s around 800 to 1000 degrees Fahrenheit. The crust is typically blackened by the fire, with puffed edges and very thin towards the middle. Simple tomatoes: The crust on Neapolitan pizzas is typically spread simply with tomatoes, usually San Marzano variety. The recipe below uses a simple pizza sauce that mimics the flavors we had in Naples. Mozzarella: The cheese in Italy is top notch. Neapolitan pizza often uses fresh mozzarella or buffalo mozzarella cheese.

Should Neapolitan pizza have basil?

🌱 Like any famous recipe, there are lots of opinions on what makes an authentic Neapolitan pizza recipe. If you’re making a Margherita pizza, we’d say basil is a must. When we had Naples pizza a few years ago, the pizza had one leaf of fresh basil on it. One leaf! Somehow, it brought in just the right basil flavor.

Use Tipo 00 flour. Tipo 00 flour is the type of Italian flour that Neapolitan pizza restaurants use. It makes for a supple and fluffy dough. You can find it at your local grocery or online. If you can’t find it, you can use all-purpose flour: it will still make great pizza! Rest the dough for 45 minutes. This is key to the best fluffy pizza dough. Or, refrigerate the dough 2 to 3 days before baking (optional). If you can, we recommend placing your pizza dough in a sealed container and refrigerating it for 2 to 3 days. This naturally ferments the dough and brings a nutty, complex flavor to the dough. Review our dough stretching tips. When ready to make the pizza, go to How to Stretch Pizza Dough for our comprehensive guide.

A pizza oven can get much hotter than a regular oven. Your standard oven can get only to 550°F, but a pizza oven reaches temperatures of up to almost 1000°F! What pizza oven to buy? Alex and I use this portable pizza oven. It’s small, transportable, and heats up to 1000°F in just 10 minutes! It’s powered by wood pellets. Using it takes a bit of practice, but it’s revolutionized our homemade pizza.

We discovered a trick for making a sauce for Neapolitan pizza: this pizza sauce recipe uses just 5 ingredients to make a flavor-popping sauce that reminds us of the best pizza in Naples, Italy. It uses fire-roasted tomatoes, which taste sweet and smoky right out of the can.

Slice the mozzarella into ¼ inch thick pieces for topping your pizza. Using huge chunks causes a water build up after baking. If the brand seems extra watery, let it sit on a towel for about 15 minutes, then blot away the extra moisture. We like to top the mozzarella with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese to tie it all together before baking.

Should you put the basil on a pizza before or after baking? If you’re using a Neapolitan pizza oven, the bake time is only 1 minute. You can place the basil on before baking since it’s such a short cook time. But if you’re baking pizza in a standard oven, fresh basil turns black in the 6 to 7 minute cook time. If you’re using a standard oven, add the basil after baking.

More artisan pizza recipes

This Neapolitan pizza is one of our favorite artisan pizzas we’ve ever made at home! Here are a few of our other favorite homemade pizza recipes:

Pizza like classic Margherita pizza, homemade cheese pizza, or any of these popular pizza toppings. Also try our thin crust pizza dough. Sheet-style pizza like sheet pan pizza that makes two pizzas at once, or fluffy focaccia pizza. Deep dish pizza like cast iron pizza or pan pizza.