No-stick Neapolitan pizza — 75% hydration

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**RECIPE, MAKES FOUR 10 IN (25 CM) PIZZAS**

700g bread flour
9g active dry yeast
15g salt
525g water

1 14 oz (400g) can San Marzano tomatoes (or similar product)
olive oil
salt

.5-1 lb (225-450g) fresh mozzarella
fresh basil leaves

Combine the flour, yeast, salt and water in a bowl, and mix with a big wooden spoon until it gets too dry to stir. Kneed with your hands until it gets too wet to work. Go back to the wooden spoon and use it to kneed the dough as best you can until you see it starting to go smooth and stretchy. Cover the bowl with a wet towel and let it rise for an hour or two on the counter.

Take the spoon and use it to punch down the dough, then kneed it a few more minutes to get it as smooth and stretchy as you can. Lay out a couple big sheets of parchment paper on your counter. Divide the dough into four balls and place them on the parchment, spaced far enough apart that they could double in size and not touch. I like to use scissors to portion it out, and if it's too sticky to handle, try wetting your hands, rather than flouring them.

Get each dough ball in a roughly round shape on the parchment, but don't stress too much about shape. Cover each dough ball in a big bowl or anything else that can serve as a dome, and let rise for at least a couple more hours, and as many as five.

Make your sauce by removing the tomatoes from the canning liquid (I discard the liquid) and either crushing them with your hands or pureeing them smooth. Stir in olive oil and salt to taste.

Prep your oven. In this video I used a pizza stone in a wood-fired pizza oven at about 650 F (340 C) though some people prefer more char on Neapolitan-style pizza and bake at upwards of 1,000 F. If you're using a normal domestic oven inside, I would simply crank it as high as it goes and preheat a pizza stone or steel in there for a full hour.

When you're ready to bake, flour your hands and the tops of the dough balls. Press the center of the ball flat, and then slowly widen it outward without deflating the outer ring of dough. Since it's stuck to the parchment, this might take a minute, but keep nudging it and it will gradually spread.

Top with a spare amount of sauce and a few chunks of fresh mozzarella. Optionally, you can brush the outer ring of dough with a little olive oil. Take your scissors and cut off the excess parchment around the pizza, so that it's sitting on a circle of parchment not much water than the pizza.

Transfer it to your cooking surface and cook right on the parchment. When the pizza is done, top it with fresh basil leaves, and peel off the parchment paper.