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Experience An Authentic Italian Pizza Recipe And Guide

Jean-Baptiste

An Authentic Italian Pizza Recipe and Guide

Authentic Italian Pizza Recipe And Guide

Many of us know the piz­za to be an Ital­ian dish, but mis­tak­en­ly con­sid­er America’s favorite order-in food the real deal. It’s actu­al­ly dras­ti­cal­ly dif­fer­ent with sim­ply no com­par­i­son between the two.

Dif­fer­ences aside, it also has the rep­u­ta­tion of being an unhealthy meal choice. Main­ly because a lot of the chain restau­rants use chem­i­cals in their dough, as well as fillers in the cheese to pro­long shelf life.

Frozen pre-pack­aged dough is also main­ly used, but to a true Ital­ian this kind of piz­za recipe is sac­ri­lege. Not to men­tion, the night and day dif­fer­ence in taste and tex­ture.

Authentic Italian Pizza Recipe And Guide: north american pizza

North America’s order-in ver­sion of Piz­za

The Italian (real) version of a pizza.

To a true Ital­ian, piz­za is con­sid­ered a com­plete meal and the ingre­di­ents make for a healthy choice. An authen­tic recipe sources the fresh­est ingre­di­ents pos­si­ble, usu­al­ly with local pro­duce and real farmer’s cheese. The unhealthy rep­u­ta­tion is sim­ply false, espe­cial­ly when the piz­za is lay­ered with sea­son­al veg­eta­bles and healthy meats.

True Ital­ian dough is home­made every morn­ing or the night before, and is preser­v­a­tive free. Hand-stretched by an arti­san whose piz­za mak­ing lin­eage goes back gen­er­a­tions, pro­vid­ing a tra­di­tion­al and supe­ri­or taste.

A true expe­ri­ence is one that makes use of either a coal or wood fired oven. This ensures a crisp and smoky crust, one that is springy right from your first deli­cious bite. When using an elec­tric oven, such as those used in restau­rants and homes, the expe­ri­ence just doesn’t com­pare. The fla­vors impart­ed from a tra­di­tion­al wood fired oven are intense, espe­cial­ly one that has seen decades of use.

Watch­ing the dough being pressed and tossed is mes­mer­iz­ing. When the bak­er fin­ish­es, the final touch is a healthy swirl of olive oil gar­nished on top — prob­a­bly pressed in a near­by vil­lage.

Before bak­ing, the dough is allowed time to rise, which gives authen­tic Ital­ian piz­za that springy qual­i­ty that is so cov­et­ed among food­ies.

Authentic Italian Pizza Recipe And Guide: fresh ingredients

Fresh­ly baked piz­za straight out of the oven

Where to experience authentic pizza in Rome.

Greasy Amer­i­can fare can­not be fur­ther from the per­fec­tion of a true Ital­ian piz­za expe­ri­ence. The atmos­phere in an Ital­ian fam­i­ly restau­rant is so invit­ing, and a feast for the sens­es. Gen­er­a­tions of piz­za-mak­ing per­fec­tion have tak­en place here, eas­i­ly deter­mined by the taste.

Next time you are wind­ing through a sun­ny Via in Rome, hun­gry from shop­ping and sight­see­ing, stop in one of the grot­to-like fam­i­ly estab­lish­ments for a refresh­ing drink and a slice.

Take a seat at the long mar­ble bar to watch your cre­ation being hand-stretched and spun by experts while the brick oven cheer­i­ly burns in the back­ground. Choose from a vari­ety of fresh veg­etable top­pings laid out in front like art­work and deli­cious meats expert­ly cured — Ital­ian style.

The dough is left to rise either overnight or for a few hours before being hand-stretched. Top it with what­ev­er your heart desires, and watch it slide into the brick oven for 10 min­utes. With the watch­ful eye of the bak­er care­ful­ly rotat­ing it for even cook­ing, you’ll wish it came out soon­er.

Try this authentic Italian pizza recipe at home.

The tra­di­tion­al Ital­ian dough recipe is as fol­lows:

8 cups white flour (Tipo “00”).
1 table­spoon salt (sea or table salt).
1/2 oz of active yeast dried (let bloom for 5 min­utes in luke­warm water).
1/2 table­spoon turbina­do sug­ar for the yeast.
6 table­spoons extra vir­gin olive oil.
2 1/2 cups luke­warm water.

Authentic Italian Pizza Recipe And Guide: kitchen

A view of the chef’s kitchen

How to make a great pizza dough.

Make a large well with the sift­ed flour (either in a bowl or floured work-space), salt, and mix the yeast with sug­ar in luke­warm water to bloom.

Pour the yeast mix­ture into the well along with the olive oil and stir until it just begins to come togeth­er.

Then knead well on a floured sur­face. Leave to rise in a warm area for a few hours or let sit overnight in win­ter. A dou­ble rise is usu­al­ly called for with authen­tic recipes, how­ev­er great results can hap­pen with just a sin­gle rise.

Pre­heat the oven to 450 degrees, and care­ful­ly stretch your dough onto a sheet pan (no toss­ing required) and top to your heart’s con­tent.

Piz­za Mar­gari­ta is a sim­ple deli­cious recipe that uses fresh toma­toes, fresh balls of moz­zarel­la, and bright basil leaves for supe­ri­or fla­vor. Add round slices of sausage, bits of fresh sage and fresh cheese for addi­tion­al inspi­ra­tion.

Authentic Italian Pizza Recipe And Guide: dough

Fresh­ly pre­pared piz­za dough ready to be hand-rolled

The verdict — American Pizzas versus Italian Pizzerias . 

The mile long list of dough ingre­di­ents in the infe­ri­or Amer­i­can coun­ter­part affects fla­vor adverse­ly and makes for a vast­ly dif­fer­ent expe­ri­ence. That com­bined with the “take-out” atmos­phere of an Amer­i­can chain restau­rant is a com­plete turn­around from the true Ital­ian expe­ri­ence.

In the Ital­ian way, food must be savored and enjoyed in a pleas­ant and friend­ly atmos­phere.

Authentic Italian Pizza Recipe And Guide: outdoor patio

Enjoy­ing the out­doors at an Ital­ian Pizze­ria

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