He’s been making pizzas since he was 12 years old and puts the number he’s seen come out of ovens “in the millions!” Johnny di Francesco certainly knows what makes a good pizza. So much so he was named the world’s best pizza maker in the 2014 World Pizza Championships in Italy for the authentic Napoletana-style pizza he serves up in his popular 400 Gradi pizzerias.
“It’s the best product in the world. Very few people don’t like pizza,” Johnny says. And it’s hard to disagree.
As president of the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana in Australia and New Zealand, an association dedicated to promoting and protecting the true Neapolitan pizza around the world, Johnny judges and accredits pizzerias that meet the strict criteria for authenticity.
But while a wood-fired stone oven burning at 400 degrees is the only true way to cook a Neapolitan style pizza, with a little know-how – and a good deal of patience – cooking great pizza can be done at home, too.
“I tell people when making pizza at home, it’s really simple,” Johnny says. “Make your dough one day, for pizza the next day. Then you’re not stressing out. You have the dough and all the mess out of the way. When your guests arrive for dinner, you just need to top the pizza, and cook.”
Sounds easy in theory, but how do you make good pizza at home that would impress even this master pizzaiolo?
“You just have to understand how to break up the work,” he insists.
Pizza dough recipe
Makes 12
1.7kg flour (00 5 Stagioni Pizza Napoletana flour with a W280–330)
1 litre water
50 g fine sea salt
1–3 g fresh yeast
1. Weigh out all the ingredients.
2. Mix together the water and the salt in the dough mixer.
3. Start the dough mixer and then add 20 per cent of the flour and mix.
4. Mix for 5 minutes, then add the yeast. Gradually add the remaining flour and allow to combine.
5. Once the dough has combined and seems smooth, stop the mixer, remove the dough and put aside to rest, cover with a cloth.
6. Allow the dough to rest for about 2 hours, covered well at a temperature of 20C.
7. Portion into desired dough size.
8. Round each dough piece into dough balls.
9. Place the dough balls into a sealed container, allow them to rest and rise naturally in a room no warmer than 16–18C. Allow the dough to rest between 8-12 hours.
Flour power
Johnny says the most important aspect of pizza is the dough. “The dough is only made from natural products; we don’t add any milk or sugar. Only salt, flour, water, yeast.”
Of these, the type of flour you use is very important. “I use 00 Italian flour; it’s a finer milled flour. But you also need to know the strength of the flour. You can go to the supermarket and see four, five different types of 00 flour. You’ve got to choose the right one.”
That is a little trickier than it first appears. All Italian flour has a W rating, which is the strength of the flour, and this needs to correspond to how long you want your dough to rest for. A “W rating” of 280-330 is perfect for a resting time of 12-24 hours. Unfortunately, however, you won’t find this W rating on most flour packs. Johnny suggests Googling the brand and looking for the technical specifications online.
All too hard? Look for the 5 Stagioni 00 brand, which has pizza flour verified by the AVPN. Or you can even use baker’s flour, if you can’t find 00 flour, though most supermarkets now stock something suitable for pizza making.
Do your dough
It’s vital to keep the salt and yeast separate otherwise the salt will kill the yeast. If this happens, your dough will still rise, but the pizza won’t colour nicely when cooked.
First add the water – tap water is fine, but you can use bottled water if you want to be a purist – into your mixing bowl and dissolve the salt into this. “Taste the water, it needs to be salty,” Johnny says.
Now add about 20 per cent of the flour and make a paste. It’s into the paste you want to add your yeast, which will dissolve quickly. Now start to gradually add the flour so all the flour is absorbed by the water. “Use a sieve, or allow it to fall into the bowl like raindrops, so you’re oxygenating the flour. This is very important. And don’t forget to mix the sides and bottom, as flour will get stuck there which you want to avoid.”
Be very kneady
Now you have your dough ball you need to activate the gluten in the dough, which, if you’re kneading by hand, will take up to 15 minutes – quite a workout. If using a mixer with dough hook, you don’t want to mix for longer than 13 minutes, otherwise the dough will be too hot.
“Patience is the key to the perfect dough,” Johnny says.
Your dough will be ready to rest if you press down on it and it springs back up. Now, cover it with a damp cloth and leave it for two hours to rest. After this time, it’s ready to be cut into dough balls – 1 kg flour will make around eight balls – or you can push it through your hand like a water balloon and twist to create dough balls.
Leave the dough, covered, in a cool, dry environment of 12-14 degrees (the laundry or garage is usually perfect) for 12 hours, or overnight.
If it’s hotter than this, place the tray, after a couple of hours, into the fridge to rest overnight. Remember to take this dough out of the fridge a good couple of hours before cooking to bring it back to room temperature.
At a stretch
“A lot of people use rolling pins to roll out their dough. I suggest not to because it gets rid of all the air in the pizza,” Johnny says. “You want to trap all those gasses into the cornicione, or crust, of the pizza. This makes it really light, and easier to digest.”
To do this, on a clean surface start an inch from the bottom of the dough ball, pushing it with flat fingers and stopping an inch from the top. Turn the dough over, and repeat, stopping an inch from the top. Turn it over, and repeat this action a few more times.
Now take the dough, putting one palm in the middle, stretching it with your other hand up to the forearm. Turn the pizza over in one movement turning it 90 degrees. Stretch it over the forearm, turn, and repeat. Do this until the pizza is the desired size.
Top that
With good pizza, less is more when it comes to toppings, and Johnny suggests using no more than four ingredients, including extra virgin olive oil. For true Neapolitan pizza, use San Marzano tomatoes, mozzarella di buffalo (made from buffalo milk), but you can use fior di latte (which is made from cow’s milk). Then top with whatever you like. “I say there are no rules, but keep it within the Italian kitchen,” Johnny says. So think of such classic combinations as tomato, fior di latte, fresh basil and extra virgin olive oil, or salami and mushroom, or zucchini and eggplant.
Pizza Margherita recipe
220g pizza dough (see recipe above)
60g San Marzano tomatoes, peeled and crushed
50g buffalo mozzarella, sliced
4 fresh basil leaves
Drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
1. Roll out the pizza dough on to a baking tray or bench for cooking on a pizza stone.
2. Spread the San Marzano tomato over the dough.
3. Top with the buffalo mozzarella, place four basil leaves on top and drizzle with some extra virgin olive oil.
4. Bake in a preheated oven at 250-280C for 10 minutes.
Hot stuff
To cook in a domestic oven, turn to its highest setting, and preheat a pizza stone for at least an hour. Place your pizza with a large spatula straight onto the stone in the oven. This will cook the crust nicely along with the toppings. Cook for about 5 minutes – you don’t want to overcook it.
Table top pizza cookers are another option, or you can cook on a pizza stone heated in a BBQ. A covered barbecue can reach higher temperatures than a domestic oven, so can better provide the blistering heat needed to give colour to the base.
Eat your crust
You can tell a Neapolitan style pizza by its crust. “It should be full of air and fluffy. The dough is not crisp. It should be foldable, pliable and have a bit of chewiness to it, and just a little bit crisp.”
Serve with a simple rocket and parmesan salad to the side, or, when fresh tomatoes are at their best, with an insalate caprese – buffalo mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, basil.
And to drink with? “A lot of people like beer, but for me, a good glass of wine,” Johnny says.
Calzone alla Nutella
220g pizza dough
Nutella
Sprinkle of icing sugar
1. Preheat the oven to 220C.
2. Roll out a piece of dough into a 3mm thick disc, ensuring the bottom of the dough is floured enough to prevent it from sticking to the surface. On half of the dough piece spread the Nutella (as much as you desire).
3. To make the calzone, carefully lift the far edge of the pizza dough and pull it over the top of the ingredients towards you, folding it in half. Crimp the edges so none of the filling can spill out.
4. Place the calzone onto a baking tray, pizza stone or granite slab.
5. Cook for 10-15 minutes on the bottom of the preheated oven until the dough becomes puffed up, golden on top and the filling is hot.
6. Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve hot.
