Pizza Napoletana from Bee's Knees Kitchen
This post is a blast from the past and a real treat. In 2012, followed a pizza Napoletana baking course from Bee’s Knees Kitchen in Amsterdam, as a gift from one of my best girlfriends. The lovely ladies who ran it and gave the workshops have since moved out of the country and the cooking school is closed, but the recipes never die.
Over the course of three hours, we were taught the ins and outs of pizza by the lovely Olive Aguas from Portland, Oregon and Joanne Richards from Australia. Olive started the Bee's Knees Kitchen as a raw food blog, which quickly became popular. She expanded to teach workshops and private courses, and a lot of different things inbetween. When she started her workshops in Amsterdam, she met Rebecca (from France) and Joanne, who joined her in her workshop endeavour. And so the Bee's Knees Kitchen ended up with three chefs: American, Australian and French.
Beautiful about this version from Napoli - the reputed birth place of pizza - is its thin (although not as thin as the Roman version, the bottom of which is often almost black besides), crispy and airy base and the simplicity of the tomato sauce. And, as it so often turns out with the things that surprise me, it was much easier (and less work) than I would ever have thought possible. Don’t let the length of the instructions daunt you.
When I made pizza dough in the past, I tended to make the common mistake: I overworked the dough. As a result it lost its stretch and was much harder to roll out.
Ingredients (makes 4 pizzas*):**
* You don't need to make them all the same day - you can keep this dough in the fridge for 2 days, or in the freezer for up to 3 months).
** Recipe courtsey of Olive Aguas
Pizza dough
325 ml warm water (the temperature of blood, or that at which you don't feel it on your hands)
1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp instant yeast (* try to get good quality yeast, it really makes a difference in the amount your dough will rise)
2 tbsp olive oil
500 grams 00-type flour (if you can't find this, you can use any type of flour)
1/2 tbsp salt
Tomato sauce
1 clove garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
400g tomato sauce from a can (preferably Italian - according to our chefs, the quality is much better)
1 handful fresh basel
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Toppings
2-3 large balls mozzarrella (about 1/2 to 2/3 ball per pizza)
Use whatever combination you like, or try one of these:
- ricotta, grape, pine nuts, rosemary (Olive's version - I'd never had (or even seen) it before, but it was amazing)
- sundried tomatoesi, pesto, rocket lettuce/ruccola (don't bake the ruccola but put it on just before serving)
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 250 degrees Celsius, or as hot as it will go. Some Italian pizza ovens go up to 400 degrees. If you have a pizza stone, put it in - it'll hold heat even when you open the door, as a result of which the oven won't cool down as much when you open the oven door.
Start by making the dough:
1. Pour the water in a large bowl and add the sugar, stirring until it dissolves. Sprinkle in the yeast, add the olive oil, and gently stir for about 10 seconds. Now let it stand for 5-10 mnutes to activate the yeast. When it's ready, a foamy layer will have formed over the top - it'll have a cappuccino-type look.
2. Add the flour and salt. Stir it with a spatula or wooden spoon for about 1 minute, drawing more and more flour into the mix until you have a springy dough that starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl and form a ball. If needs be, give it a few turns with your hands, but no more than that. Cover and leave for 10 minutes.
3. Place the dough on a heavily floured surface. With flour-dusted hands, knead the dough by folding it over itself (you do this by picking up one side and folding it over so it touches its opposing edge, then flattening it with the palms of your hands. Do this by folding from the different edges: top, bottom, left, right, for about 5 minutes until you have a smooth, springy dough.
4. Place the ball of dough in a large flour-dusted bowl and sprinkle flour over the top. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and let it sit (preferably in a warm room - your kitchen, if it's warm, will do) for approximately 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in size.
In the meantime, make the tomato sauce:
5. Crush the garlic and suatée it in the olive oil in a sauce pan over medium-high heat for 2 minutes, until glazed. Add the tomato sauce, basel, salt and pepper and heat until it bubbles. Stir for another 5 minutes until the consistency is a little thicker. Voilá, that's all there is to it.
Now, back to the dough:
6. Heavily flour a surface. Carefully roll the dough ball out of the bowl and onto the surface (do this by gently scooping it along the edge stuck to the bowl to to loosen it without losing the dough's volume).
7. Using a knife, cut the dough into four even pieces.
8. On a floured surface, use a rolling pin to roll the pizza dough to a thickness of approximately 1/2 cm.
9. Spread 1 1/2 - 2 tbsp of tomato sauce on each pizza. Spread it relatively thinly - if you put too much, the bottom will get soggy and the pizza won't be crispy.
10. Cover your pizza base with toppings. Start with the mozzarella - just shred it by hand and spread it over the pizza. You're not aiming to cover the whole thing - leave gaps, overloading it will make it soggy.
11. Put on the rest of your toppings and let rise for 15 minutes.
12. Bake the pizza at 250°C for 7-8 minutes until the sides of the crust have browned lightly.(it will take a little longer if your oven, like mine, doesn't heat properly).
Eat hot! Enjoy!
Over the course of three hours, we were taught the ins and outs of pizza by the lovely Olive Aguas from Portland, Oregon and Joanne Richards from Australia. Olive started the Bee's Knees Kitchen as a raw food blog, which quickly became popular. She expanded to teach workshops and private courses, and a lot of different things inbetween. When she started her workshops in Amsterdam, she met Rebecca (from France) and Joanne, who joined her in her workshop endeavour. And so the Bee's Knees Kitchen ended up with three chefs: American, Australian and French.
When I made pizza dough in the past, I tended to make the common mistake: I overworked the dough. As a result it lost its stretch and was much harder to roll out.
Ingredients (makes 4 pizzas*):**
* You don't need to make them all the same day - you can keep this dough in the fridge for 2 days, or in the freezer for up to 3 months).
** Recipe courtsey of Olive Aguas
Pizza dough
325 ml warm water (the temperature of blood, or that at which you don't feel it on your hands)
1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp instant yeast (* try to get good quality yeast, it really makes a difference in the amount your dough will rise)
2 tbsp olive oil
500 grams 00-type flour (if you can't find this, you can use any type of flour)
1/2 tbsp salt
Tomato sauce
1 clove garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
400g tomato sauce from a can (preferably Italian - according to our chefs, the quality is much better)
1 handful fresh basel
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Toppings
2-3 large balls mozzarrella (about 1/2 to 2/3 ball per pizza)
Use whatever combination you like, or try one of these:
- ricotta, grape, pine nuts, rosemary (Olive's version - I'd never had (or even seen) it before, but it was amazing)
- sundried tomatoesi, pesto, rocket lettuce/ruccola (don't bake the ruccola but put it on just before serving)
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 250 degrees Celsius, or as hot as it will go. Some Italian pizza ovens go up to 400 degrees. If you have a pizza stone, put it in - it'll hold heat even when you open the door, as a result of which the oven won't cool down as much when you open the oven door.
Start by making the dough:
1. Pour the water in a large bowl and add the sugar, stirring until it dissolves. Sprinkle in the yeast, add the olive oil, and gently stir for about 10 seconds. Now let it stand for 5-10 mnutes to activate the yeast. When it's ready, a foamy layer will have formed over the top - it'll have a cappuccino-type look.
2. Add the flour and salt. Stir it with a spatula or wooden spoon for about 1 minute, drawing more and more flour into the mix until you have a springy dough that starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl and form a ball. If needs be, give it a few turns with your hands, but no more than that. Cover and leave for 10 minutes.
3. Place the dough on a heavily floured surface. With flour-dusted hands, knead the dough by folding it over itself (you do this by picking up one side and folding it over so it touches its opposing edge, then flattening it with the palms of your hands. Do this by folding from the different edges: top, bottom, left, right, for about 5 minutes until you have a smooth, springy dough.
4. Place the ball of dough in a large flour-dusted bowl and sprinkle flour over the top. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and let it sit (preferably in a warm room - your kitchen, if it's warm, will do) for approximately 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in size.
In the meantime, make the tomato sauce:
5. Crush the garlic and suatée it in the olive oil in a sauce pan over medium-high heat for 2 minutes, until glazed. Add the tomato sauce, basel, salt and pepper and heat until it bubbles. Stir for another 5 minutes until the consistency is a little thicker. Voilá, that's all there is to it.
Now, back to the dough:
6. Heavily flour a surface. Carefully roll the dough ball out of the bowl and onto the surface (do this by gently scooping it along the edge stuck to the bowl to to loosen it without losing the dough's volume).
7. Using a knife, cut the dough into four even pieces.
8. On a floured surface, use a rolling pin to roll the pizza dough to a thickness of approximately 1/2 cm.
9. Spread 1 1/2 - 2 tbsp of tomato sauce on each pizza. Spread it relatively thinly - if you put too much, the bottom will get soggy and the pizza won't be crispy.
10. Cover your pizza base with toppings. Start with the mozzarella - just shred it by hand and spread it over the pizza. You're not aiming to cover the whole thing - leave gaps, overloading it will make it soggy.
11. Put on the rest of your toppings and let rise for 15 minutes.
12. Bake the pizza at 250°C for 7-8 minutes until the sides of the crust have browned lightly.(it will take a little longer if your oven, like mine, doesn't heat properly).
Eat hot! Enjoy!
