Dough is just dough, right? It’s just a gooey, sticky mixture of flour and water, and then maybe yeast, salt, oil or egg is added to it. It’s not that interesting, bland in flavour, and yet a lot of people use it – but why? What’s the go with dough?
Firstly, dough is incredibly versatile – probably the most versatile food type we know. From making even tiny changes, it can branch out to form the large range of recipes we know; from breads, pastas, pastry, wontons, samosa, biscuits, bukari, and of course our favourite, pizza!
Different pizza makers make their pizzas on a thick, pan base, while others have a very thin, flat bread style. Our pizza is on a semi-thin, flexible base to compliment the toppings. All these styles use a slight variation in the dough and how it’s prepared.
Carlo uses the Napolitana method of stretching the dough. It involves an overhand pulling and stretching motion which simultaneously kneads the product and removes air bubbles. This manipulates the dough ball into an even, flat base which doesn’t toughen the dough like rollers do. The Napolitana style means that when the dough is exposed to the extreme heat of our oven, it reacts by becoming both crusty and tender.
Provinces across Italy all have a slightly different dough stretching preference and a friendly rivalry exists on which method is the best. It’s the Naples way, of course!
We stretch the dough into a base approximately 10mm thick; the thinner base helps the flavour of the ingredients ‘pop’. If the base is thick, it’s almost like a bread, and the ingredients’ flavour can be overwhelmed or reduced.
So if you’re wondering why Pizza Alfresco’s pizza tastes so good, it’s because we have the tastiest ingredients, on the best base, cooked at the prefect temperature.
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