Canotto Style Neapolitan Dough

Canotto (or ‘dinghy’!) style pizza is characterised by it’s large, almost inflated looking airy crust.

Caputo, the Italian flour masters, have barely changed their blue bag, Neapolitan flour since 1889- until now! Their new ‘Nuvola’ flour is designed to create incredibly canotto pizzas and here is our recipe incorporating a poolish preferment to product an airy, incredibly crumbed crust with the most insane flavour profile!

1 - For the poolish preferment:

– Put the water in a bowl and whisk in the yeast.
– Add the flour and work to form a loose dough that’ll be almost batter like in consistency.

– Cover with cling film and pierce a couple of times with a cocktail stick. Leave to ferment at room temperature for 16 hours.

2 - For the dough:

– Weigh the water into the bowl of a stand mixer and scrape in the poolish- it should float in the water. Attach the bowl to the mixer and add the dough hook attachment and begin mixing on lowest speed.

– Continue to mix whilst gradually adding the flour. Add the salt about half way through this process. Once all the dry ingredients are in the bowl turn the mixer off and scrape down the side of the bowl to ensure the dough isn’t sticking.

– Mix the dough for a final 30 seconds to bring it all together before transferring the mass of dough to a large lidded container. Leave to ferment at room temperature for between 18 and 24 hours.

– When the time is up, pop the dough onto a clean work surface and shape into 8.5oz dough balls. Transfer the balled and covered dough into the fridge for between 2 and 6 hours. You’ll need to get your dough out of the fridge around 3 hours before opening them into pizzas.

3 - Opening and baking;

– The opening technique is key for a canotto style pizza; the dough ball will be full of air and you’re aiming to migrate that air to the crust of the pizzas without knocking it out at all; that’ll give you your classic canotto/ ‘dinghy’ shape!

– To try and achieve this, you want to use your fingers to almost roll the air towards the crust- you should feel the air moving within the dough towards the edges.

– Once you’re happy the air has all been moved and trapped in the crust, you can start stretching the pizza to the desired size. Carefully pull the pizza dough over your knuckles and gently stretch until you reach the size you want- always taking care not to disturb that airy crust!

– Top with your favourite Neapolitan toppings before getting the pizza into the 840°F degree Gozney Pizza Oven and baking for 60-90 seconds.