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HOW TO MAKE AN ITALIAN PIZZA: THE SIMPLE, STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
Want to know how to make a real Italian pizza? The very best way is to get an after-hours tutorial from the chefs at one of Rome’s finest pizzerias. But if you aren’t going to be in Rome any time soon, your next best option is to check out this recipe from the Walks of Italy crew.
The most important part is getting the Italian pizza dough right! More than just the base of the pizza, the dough is what gives the pizza its texture, holds together the flavors, and—if done right—can make you feel like you’ve been transported right back to Italy.
But first:
Just a bit about pizza in Italy…
A traditional pizza margherita of Naples, complete with the thick crust
Even though it’s become the most popular Italian food abroad, pizza and Italy didn’t weren’t always synonymous. In fact, pizza wasn’t even invented until the 19th century, when it started out as a fast food on the streets of Naples. In the beginning (and, we’d argue, even today), the simpler the pizza, the better: The classic pizza napoletana was just dough with a tomato sauce of Marzano tomatoes, oregano or basil, a little garlic, salt, and olive oil. (for all you need to know about choosing the best olive oil, check out our post.)
It’s another pizza from Naples, though, that has the neatest pedigree. When Queen Margherita came to visit Naples in 1889, she was charmed by a local pizza baker who had made, in her honor, a pizza with the colors of the new flag of the just-unified Italy—red tomatoes, white mozzarella, and green basil. Yep, you guessed it. It’s now called the pizza margherita (or margarita, on some menus).
Traditional Roman pizza (check out that thin crust!)
Of course, Italian food is very regional, and so are Italian pizzas. (Although any real Italian pizza should always be cooked in a wood-fired oven; in fact, a pizzeria without one can’t even, legally, call itself a pizzeria!). That world-famous pizza in Naples is known as “pizza alta” (thick crust), while pizza in Rome is traditionally thin-crust and crisp.
Like the rest of Italian food, Italian pizza is best—and most authentic—when it’s made with fresh, local ingredients, especially any that are DOP (You can read a full explanation of this wonderful little term in our blog about DOP foods). We’re not talking the microwaved dough and synthetic cheese that you see now both in Italy and abroad, but something completely different.
The best way to try it, short of going to an authentic pizzeria with great ingredients and a wood-fired oven? Make it at home!
What you need to make an Italian pizza
(makes dough for 4 pizzas, each one about 12 inches in diameter):
- 600 mL of warm water
- 7 cups (1kg) flour, type “00”*
- 2.5 – 3 tablespoons (25 grams) of fresh yeast or 2 teaspoons (7-8 grams) of dried yeast.
- 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- 1.5 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons sugar
*A note on the flour: In Italy, “00”, or “doppio zero,” flour is the most highly-refined and finest-ground flour available. Not available where you are (or too expensive?). An all-purpose flour should work just as well!
How to make your pizza:
Kids love making pizza, too!
1. Sprinkle the yeast into a medium bowl with the warm water. We don’t mean hot, and we don’t mean cold… we mean warm! That’s the kind the yeast likes best. Stir until the yeast dissolves.
2. Place almost all of the flour on the table in the shape of a volcano. (Think Mt. Vesuvius… appropriate since Naples is the king of all pizza cities!).
3. Pour the yeast-and-warm-water mix, along with the other ingredients, into the “crater” of the volcano.
4. Knead everything together for 10 to 15 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic, keeping your surface floured.
5. Grease up a bowl with some olive oil and put the dough inside. Turn the dough around so the top is slightly oiled.
6. Cover the bowl and put the dough aside to let it rest for at least four or five hours.
7 (optional for those who want their pizza really authentic). Make a cross on top of the dough with a knife. An old Italian tradition, this is seen as a way of “blessing the bread.”
8. Preheat the oven to about 400°F, or about 200°C.
9. Dump the dough out of the bowl and back onto the floured surface. Punch it down, getting rid of any bubbles. (Note: Now’s the time to enlist a kid with more energy than they know what to do with!).
10. Divide the dough in half and let it rest for a few minutes.
11. Roll each section into a 12-inch disc. Now’s your chance to decide how thick you want your pizza to be! Do you want it pizza alta (Neapolitan-style) or pizza bassa (Roman-style)? Just remember, your crust will puff up a little bit as it’s baked!
12. Transfer the dough onto an oiled pizza pan or baking sheet.
13. Add tomato sauce, if you want a pizza rossa (red pizza). Lots of pizzas in Italy are actually pizza bianca, without tomato sauce, so don’t feel like you have to! Brush the edges of the crust with a little bit of olive oil.
14. Bake each pizza for about 10 minutes, then add mozzarella cheese (sliced or grated) on top, as well as any other ingredients.
15. Let the pizzas bake until the crust is browned and the cheese is melted. By lifting up the pizza to peek underneath, you can make sure the bottom has browned, too.
16. Remove your pizzas from the oven and, for a real Italian touch, garnish with a few basil leaves. And enjoy!
Learning about food is one of the greatest joys of traveling in Italy. If you’d like to learn about pizza-making in the most authentic way possible, check out our Rome Food Tour with Pizza-Making Class. As you can see in the video below, we’ll take you inside a real Roman pizzeria for an after-hours class in all the little secrets that expert pizzaiolos have developed over generations.
And thanks to Walks of Italy’s Loredana of Le Marche, Italy for providing her tried-and-true, authentic Italian pizza recipe!
Walks of Italy
We offer small-group and private walking tours in Rome & Italy's greatest destinations. We've received glowing recommendations on Rick Steves and the New York Times because of our: -Group size: 12 or fewer; -“Add-ons” that personalize private tours; -Fluent English-speaking, expert guides; - Tour operator accreditation in Italy and the Vatican, meaning privileges like special Sistine Chapel entrances; -“Off-the-beaten-path" itineraries, like our Tales from the Crypts underground Rome tour, visiting the most intriguing catacombs and crypts in the city.
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We use fresh yeast! Let us know how it goes
I use pizza stones, but have discovered that they tend to crack easily, so I have found pizza stones that are thinker. You can also use granite or marble remnants that fit into your BBQ grill.
We find that fresh yeast tastes a little better, but instant yeast will work fine, if that’s all you have. Let us know how it goes!
Thanks again for posting this, I will be using the religiously.
On a side note, the story about Queen Margherita and the namesake pizza has recently been debunked (http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/0/20515123). It shows that the marketing gene was quite alive in Signore Esposito as he went to quite some length to perpetuate this myth.
Thanks for stopping by! And thanks for sharing re: the myth—we thought it sounded too cute to be true, but it’s shown up in so many reputable food history books, well, we just had to include it. Interesting to see it was just a sly marketing trick! Thanks again!
Thanks
Great point! Our resident “pizzaiolo” says the best tomato sauce is done by taking fresh, ripened tomatoes that are “slightly” squashed and cooking them for 8-10 minutes with extra virgin olive oil, onion OR garlic, and salt, in a pan. They don’t have to cook too much, since they wind up in the oven in the end. If you can’t get fresh tomatoes, peeled, canned tomatoes will do; in that case, 5 minutes on the stove is more than enough time.
Please let us know if we can help with anything else!
As we write in the recipe, you heat the oven to about 400°F, or about 200°C. The proportions of all of the ingredients are listed at the top of the recipe
You’re very welcome! You can use the same amount of yeast if it’s dry (instant).
Let us know if we can help with anything else!
Yes, it most certainly can! Enjoy!
Note that this document actually has the recipe as well.
It’s a little confusing! We’ve found that 25 grams yeast is about 2.5 teaspoons of active dry yeast, *or* a little more than 1 packed tablespoon of fresh yeast. What measurements have you been using? Let us know if we can help with anything else!
If at all possible, we recommend leaving the dough to rise for the full amount of time. But tell us how it goes!
It keeps the dough more moist and delicious
And I don’t know if my yeast measurement is correct. I used 2.25 tsp of dry yeast, is that correct?
Anyway, I tried to salvage what I could and it’s sitting now, hope it turns out ok. Please give me mixing advice so I can try again!!!
Anyways, can I make pizza dough without yeast? And will that turn out to be a perfect crust??
Do you have a sauce recipe
and at this point all I have is IDY instant dry yeast and the 2.25 teaspoons are weighing in at 9 gm., hope that is ok.
2 tbsp. sugar is 8 gm.
1.5 tbsp. salt is 26 gm.
600 ml water is 575 gm.
EVO 6 tbsp is 84 gm.
let me know what to do and if i’m off any where…Thanks
How to avoid killing the yeast?
Also, if we’re supposed to add fresh yeast, how do we add it to the warm water? As far as I know, fresh yeast has a cheese like consistency and therefore we cannot sprinkle it into the warm water.
sorry for the basic questions, but I am a terrible cook and have to follow recipes step by step and with full instructions
Thanks in advance for any comment
No, the salt and sugar shouldn’t kill the yeast. The yeast is a bit like cheese, but by letting it soak a bit in the warm water, you can easily mix it with your fingers! Good luck with your pizza, we’re sure it will be great!
Also, since I want to prepare the dough ahead of time, is it ok to leave the dough out overnight in room temperature?
I’m a HUGE fan of Via Napoli’s pizza in EPCOT in Disney and this seems pretty darn close to it.
Excited!
Just making it sauce and cheese (Margherita) first go around /w basil
We shall see!
The sugar and salt can simply be mixed in with the flour!
You don’t need the sugar to feed the yeast, it digests the sugars and other carbohydrates in the flour.
The oil can inhibit this process.
The Association Verace Pizza Napoletana calls for only water, flour, salt and yeast.
Perfect in my wood oven, but I’ve also had very good results on a stone.
http://www.pizzanapoletana.org/public/pdf/VPN%20disciplinare%20english.pdf
It might sound as a silly question, but I would like some advice please. I want to make 1/4 of this dough. We like really thin pizzas and I find that 250gr of flour makes 2 perfect size thin pizzas for my husband and me. The question is – should I divide everything by 4? Even the yeast?
Many thanks for your help!
I was not sure this was going to work, but I worked the dough in my Kitchen aid mixer until I had to knead it myself. Seems I had to add a lot more flour when kneading, than I thought I would need to, but it worked out great! Definitely a keeper and may try to halve the recipe for our small family because we only ate 1 1/2 of the pizza’s. The house smelled so good and we were very pleased with our meal
Thanks!!
Thank you
Jm
We allow the yeast to dissolve in the water completely before putting it in the flour. Buon Appetito!
Thank You
The dough won’t likely fold like a cracker,but it depends how long you keep it in, of course. We suggest to stick to 350 degrees, at least, and test the crust until it’s cooked as you prefer it! Enjoy!
Quick question there: Is the real authentic Italian pizza’s dough not only made from flour, salt, yeast and water? Thanks
Yes that is perhaps the most common way to make it, but there are many ways to cook everything including real authentic dishes, and many Italian cooks add a spoon or two of sugar as well. Try both out for yourself and see which you prefer!
1. Step 10 – Did you mean divide the dough into 4 equal portions instead of half because you mentioned that this recipe makes 4 12″ pizzas
2. Step 14 – Do we have to bake it for 10 mins with just the dough and the tomato topping (if required) before even we spread the cheese? Because, I am new to making Pizzas and I never came across such a thing. So, really curious to try this. What is the difference between Loading everything on the pizza dough (sauce, cheese, vegetables, spices) and baking vs. spreading the cheese after 10 mins of baking the dough?
Put simply, yes and yes. It’s best to bake the crust first without the toppings to ensure that the water of the cheese and toppings doesn’t make the crust soggy. Try it, we’re sure you’ll like it!
Yes it should be fine to prepare the night before. Cover with plastic wrap and keep in the refrigerator. Take it out fridge and bring to room temperature before stretching it out. Buon appetito!
Thank you! Allow the dough to rise for five hours, then take it out and knead it some more to get out any air bubbles. After, divide the dough in half and let it rest for a few minutes before rolling each section into a 12-inch disc. Buon appetito!
I halved this recipe because I live alone. Halved again to freeze half for later. What a lovely dough to work with! Delicious too, perfect texture and I thought the sugar and salt balanced very well in the final yummy pizza. I will always use this recipe in the future, Thank you for sharing! Shelly
and it doesn’t say to mix the dry ingredients together, I just have to assume it.
I made it without letting it sit first and it is not as elastic as I thought and was pretty tough to mix all together. It is rising now, these are just my concerns since this was my first time ever making pizza dough.
Yes, it’s best to let the yeast rest in the water for a bit before making. Luckily, trying again means another pizza night!
In Italy, each person gets their own personal (large) pizza and even finishes it all! That’s because it is much lighter and easier to digest than an American-style pizza, with fresher ingredients. This recipe is for four pizzas, so follow it to serve four people. Otherwise, you can try to halve the recipe – anything else might change the outcome too much. Buon appetito!
Follow the instructions on the packet of yeast. Buon appetito!
Yes, we always mix a bit of olive oil into the tomato sauce. Buon appetito!
If you want all of the dough to be crispy the same amount try cooking it with just some sauce for a bit, then add on the toppings!
I’ve been using a shop bought pizza sauce but would love to make my own.
Love this so good, our family really enjoyed it… saved it to one of my pins for pizza night! thanks!
White bread flour should be fine!