Craving pizza? Today we’re talking about naturally leavened Neapolitan friarielli pizza, in its vegetarian version. It’s a soft leavened dough, very easy, with a light and digestible crumb, perfect for both lunch and dinner. Neapolitan friarielli are generally paired with sausages, even on pizza; however, since I had neither sausages nor provola, I made an equally tasty but vegetarian one. The process is very easy; it’s important not to rush, especially when dealing with sourdough. Enjoy your friarielli pizza. If you like Neapolitan friarielli, you can try the tempting puff pastry croissants filled with friarielli, the fritters, or the pizza rolls with friarielli and sausages or puff pastry rolls with robiola and Neapolitan friarielli.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 14 Hours
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Cooking time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 6
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups type 1 flour
- 2/3 cup water
- 1 tsp fine salt
- 5.3 oz sourdough starter
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- to taste semolina flour (for dusting on the work table)
- 1.3 lbs cleaned Neapolitan friarielli
- 1 clove garlic
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
- to taste coarse salt
- 1 chili pepper (optional)
Preparation
Refresh the sourdough starter according to our habits, take 150 grams and let it rise until it doubles in size.
Once it has doubled, we’ll prepare the flour and water for autolysis. In a large bowl of a stand mixer, pour all the flour and 55% of the water, which in this case is 80 ml, and mix them gently but roughly (we don’t need to knead). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let it rest for 20 minutes. This step helps to improve our doughs, in yield and flavor. I’m not going into technical explanations, as there are many articles online where this technique is explained in detail.
After 20 minutes, add the rest of the water, the natural yeast, attach the dough hook and mix until the dough sticks to the hook (about 5-7 minutes). Now we can add the fine salt and continue kneading until the dough ball is smooth but very soft and sticky (about 10 minutes).
Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for an hour.
After an hour, dust the work table with a little semolina flour. Gently turn the dough onto it and give it a series of folds as in the photos (they are from another preparation but the procedure is the same).
Leave the dough on the floured table, cover it like a dome with the bowl, and let it rest for another hour. After an hour, give the dough folds again as above, and finally form a ball.
Pour a little extra virgin olive oil into a large bowl, place the dough in it, cover, and let it rise at room temperature until it doubles in volume (in my case, overnight).
Prepare the Neapolitan friarielli. Wash them and let them drain.
In a pan, sauté a garlic clove and a chili pepper with some extra virgin olive oil. As soon as the garlic starts sizzling in the oil, add the friarielli, a handful of coarse salt, cover with a lid, lower the heat, and let them cook until tender.
Once cooked, drain them from any cooking liquid and let them cool slightly.
Once the pizza dough is well risen, oil a non-stick baking tray and gently spread the dough on it, without pressing, until it covers the entire surface of the tray.
Let it rest for half an hour. Then, we can preheat the oven to the maximum temperature. When the oven is hot, bake the white pizza halfway up for 7/10 minutes at most (the pizza cooking times refer to my gas oven, with heat only from the bottom). When the pizza is cooked, turn off the oven, remove it, top it with the Neapolitan friarielli, and put it back in the turned-off oven for 5 minutes, just enough time to allow the flavors to blend.
The naturally leavened Neapolitan friarielli pizza is ready to be enjoyed.
Bon appetit
