Neapolitan Fried Pizza

Pizza in all its facets is the symbol of Naples recognized worldwide.
Today we will focus on the fried version, which is a specialty that brings to mind the difficult post-war years and the creativity of the Neapolitan people, when raw materials were scarce, thus the ingenuity of the Neapolitan people devised a way to “inflate” and thus satiate more with what was at hand.
They thought of frying the dough in boiling oil, which puffed up and gave a greater feeling of satiety.
Neapolitan Fried Pizza became what we now call a fridge-clearer, meaning “put in what you have at hand.”
At the time, everything available was put inside, especially ricotta, which came from the countryside at a good price, and “ciccioli,” pieces of pork fat discarded from prime cuts.
Today fortunately we have even too much at hand so we can put anything inside.

From Naples for you:

Difficulty: Very Easy
Cost: Very Cheap
Rest time: 3 Hours
Preparation time: 15 Minutes
Portions: 4
Cooking methods: Frying
Cuisine: Regional Italian
Region: Campania
Seasonality: All Seasons

431.46 Kcal

calories per serving

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Energy 431.46 (Kcal)
Carbohydrates 85.55 (g) of which sugars 2.40 (g)
Proteins 17.58 (g)
Fat 1.58 (g) of which saturated 0.03 (g)of which unsaturated 0.05 (g)
Fibers 3.10 (g)
Sodium 972.65 (mg)

Indicative values for a portion of 200 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA^* and FoodData Central^** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.

^* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ^** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov

Ingredients

Let’s go shopping

4 cups g Manitoba flour
1 1/3 cups g water
1 1/2 tsp g fresh brewer's yeast (or 1 tsp dry yeast)
2 tsp g salt
1 tsp sugar

Neapolitan Fried Pizza

Tools

Here’s what we need to make

1 Mixer or Bimby
1 Bowl
1 Work Surface
1 Rolling Pin
1 Baking Tray
1 Frying Pan

Steps

Let’s go to the kitchen

we need to proceed to make a dough, easy and simple with very few steps.
The first thing is to dissolve the yeast in a bowl with the water, sugar, and a few teaspoons of flour. Preferably at 98°F.
If you are using the Bimby, you can set 98°F for 3 minutes speed 2 by putting the water in the bowl along with the yeast and sugar.
As soon as the yeast has dissolved, add about half of the flour and continue to mix with a wooden spoon or with your hands.
With the Bimby, knead for 3 min.
Once you have obtained this semi-liquid mixture, you can slowly add the remaining flour previously sifted with the salt and continue kneading.
If using the Bimby, set to knead for four minutes
Here the dough is ready, place it on a floured work surface, and compact it with your hands to form a ball.
Then cover it, and wait about fifteen minutes.
After the time has elapsed, roughly spread the dough with your hands. Form a kind of sausage and press it with your fingers
Spread it slightly with a rolling pin rather than spreading you should press, and form the first folds.
Take the outer edges and fold them onto themselves, from right to left and vice versa.
Let it rest for another fifteen minutes, and repeat the operation three times.
After the folding time, wait another 15 minutes and then divide the dough into four parts
On each part form another series of folds.
Spread it slightly with the rolling pin then take the right edge
Fold it over to the left and vice versa at the end
close the dough with thumb and index finger and this operation is called pirlatura.
Form the ball and place it on a tray next to the others. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in the turned-off oven for about three hours or even more
In the meantime, you can prepare the filling ingredients.
The classic filling provides 2 options
One, like the classic Neapolitan pizza, therefore the concentrated tomato seasoned with salt, pepper, oregano oil, and basil, then fresh ricotta and buffalo mozzarella.
Or, still the most classic and oldest ricotta and buffalo mozzarella with pork lardons
For choice reasons of my nephews, I opted for concentrated tomato provola ricotta and parmesan. Some of them wanted some mushrooms.
After 3 hours or even more you can take the dough balls one by one and spread them over the work surface with the help of your fingers first and then the rolling pin. Form rather thin discs, but not too much
In the case of margherita pizza, I distributed the tomato sauce.
Subsequently, I put the ricotta and the provola.
My nephew wanted the addition of mushrooms.
Take the outer edge fold it over the other part.
Let the air out with your hands and press on the edges.
For people who are not sure about the closure, you can, before closing the pizza, brush off the excess flour with a dry brush and then moisten the brush itself with simple water, brush only half of the pizza, and close it.
Or for the more insecure, you can use the tines of a fork to make a crown all around the half-moon.
Now, you have 2 cooking options: either fry in an immersion fryer at a temperature of about 347°F, one pizza at a time.
Wait for two to three minutes and then flip it and complete the cooking.
Instead, I fried in a frying pan, I put about 34 oz of peanut oil, as my pizzas were only 4.
I waited for it to boil and then I immersed my pizza
I cooked it for about 3 minutes, then very gently, turned it.
After another two or three minutes when I saw it was well golden, I picked it up with a spider and placed it on absorbent paper
Here you go, my Neapolitan pizza.