Preparation for Traditional Neapolitan Pizza Chiena

• Take the bowl of a stand mixer (you can also work everything by hand, extending the processing times) with the flat beater, dry-crumble the flour with the yeast, lard (or butter), and salt, and work the mixture until the flour has absorbed both the yeast and the lard, becoming light and lump-free.

  

• This initial trick will facilitate the dough’s processing, then add the warm milk, but not boiling; you will see that the dough will be soft and velvety, work with energy (or with the K beater of the stand mixer) for about 10 min.

  Then switch to the hook and work for another 5 minutes. Let the dough rise for about 1 hour and 30 in a covered place.

  

• Meanwhile, take a bowl and beat well with the electric whisks, the eggs with pepper, salt, Parmesan, parsley, and finally the ricotta, mix it well and let it rest 10 minutes.

• Take a 20 cm diameter pan, 6-7 cm high, and after greasing it well with lard (no flour), line it with a disk obtained from just over half of the dough, about 1 cm thick, and prick the bottom with a fork.

   

  

• Line the dough disk with a layer of mortadella slices, then place the scamorza slices, and then pour a part of the egg mixture, start again with another layer of mortadella slices and repeat the sequence mortadella/scamorza/eggs until exhaustion, finish with the egg mixture.

  

• Cover the pizza with another smaller dough disk, which completely covers the stuffing, and with your hands grease it with lard, then with a fork, seal the edges well (this step is important!) pricking the surface with the tines of a fork.

  

• Let it rise in a sheltered place for about 3 hours, then bake the pizza in an already hot oven at 320°F for about 60 min (it should cook slowly).

  You will see that the pizza will swell even more in the oven, and once cooked, let it cool well before cutting it (important!)

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• If you don’t eat it right away, once well cooled, cover it immediately with plastic wrap: this way, it stays soft for at least 3 days!

• If you’re in a hurry, instead of assembling the various layers, you can add the diced (or sliced) cheeses and cured meats to the egg mixture and pour all the filling into the pan on the dough disk and then cover it with the smaller disk; the flavor remains unique, rich, and tasty.

  
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• Double dough dose: 600 g Flour; 120 g lard; 25 g fresh yeast; 260 ml whole milk; 14 g fine salt; 40 g lard to grease pans. Same procedure as above, dough left to rise 3 hours and then in the pans for another 3 hours.

  

• For the egg mixture, I made a double dose: 240 g Roman ricotta; 6 eggs; 3 g salt; 180 g grated Grana; abundant black pepper (almost 1 g); chopped parsley (about 6 g, to remove the egg flavor).

  Blend eggs, pepper, and salt with electric whisks, add the ricotta and parsley and blend for 1 minute. Let the mixture rest for 15 minutes.

  

• For the Salami Filling: 200 g Milano salami slices; 300 g primo sale; 100 g capocollo; 250 g salted ricotta; 100 g smoked Sorrento scamorza slices (optional).

  

• Cover the base with slices of Milano salami, then slices of primo sale, egg mixture, capocollo, salted ricotta, scamorza (optional), repeat the layer sequence until exhausted, and finish with the egg mixture. Cover everything with a dough disk pricked with the tines of a fork.

  

• For the rest, follow the same procedure explained above for the version with mortadella and scamorza. I calculated that for each 20 cm diameter mold, about 500 g of dough is needed (300 g to cover the base of the mold and about 200 g for the pizza’s covering disk).

  

• Serve the pizzas chiene cold, better if prepared the day before.