Neapolitan Pizza Dough Recipe — How Naples Pizzaioli Make It

A proper Neapolitan pizza dough is almost suspiciously simple: flour, water, salt and yeast. No olive oil. No sugar. No milk. No elaborate starter required.

The difference between an ordinary pizza base and the soft, blistered dough you eat in Naples comes mostly from ratios, fermentation, handling and an extremely hot oven.

The official rules of the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN) allow Type 00 or Type 0 flour and specify roughly 1.6–1.8kg of flour for every litre of water, depending on the flour’s absorption. Dough balls weigh 200–280g, total fermentation is typically 8–24 hours, and a true Neapolitan pizza is baked at around 430–480°C for only 60–90 seconds.

For most home cooks, the sweet spot is a dough around 60–63% hydration, fermented slowly and stretched by hand.

If you’d like to feel properly fermented dough under your own hands in Naples, this pizza and tiramisu class with a pizzaiolo shows its open dates below:

The recipe at a glance

Four ingredients. A long fermentation. About 90 seconds in a scorching-hot pizza oven.

That is essentially the formula behind Naples’ famous pizza dough.

The recipe below makes four roughly 250g dough balls, enough for four 28–30cm Neapolitan pizzas. It uses no sugar or oil, stays close to traditional Naples ratios and can be adapted for either a proper pizza oven or the hottest conventional oven you have.

Best for: Margherita, Marinara and other lightly topped Neapolitan pizzas

Hydration: 62.5%

Dough balls: 4 × about 248g

Ideal pizza oven: 430–480°C

Traditional baking time: about 60–90 seconds

Total fermentation: roughly 8–24 hours

The quick answer: what makes Neapolitan pizza dough different?

Traditional Neapolitan pizza dough contains only:

• wheat flour
• water
• salt
• yeast

The dough is relatively soft, fermented slowly, divided into individual balls and stretched by hand rather than rolled.

When baked correctly, the centre remains thin and supple while the rim — the cornicione — expands dramatically and develops scattered dark blisters.

It should not resemble a thick, crunchy American pizza crust. The AVPN describes finished Neapolitan pizza as soft and fragrant, with a raised edge approximately 1–2cm high.

Other experiences you might enjoy in Naples

Between pizzas, try a Naples street-food tour, the Naples underground, or day trips to Pompeii, Mount Vesuvius and Capri.

Authentic-Style Neapolitan Pizza Dough Recipe

Ingredients

For 4 pizzas:

Total dough weight is approximately 991g, giving four dough balls of about 248g each.

Why is there so little yeast?

Because time does most of the work.

The official AVPN specification permits only 0.1–3g fresh yeast per litre of water, with the exact quantity adjusted for temperature, humidity and fermentation time. Dry yeast is used at roughly one-third the quantity of fresh yeast.

A dough fermenting slowly for many hours needs dramatically less yeast than a dough intended to rise in an hour.

Step-by-step method

1. Start with the water

Pour 375g water into a large bowl.

Room-temperature or slightly cool water is normally preferable when making a long-fermented dough. You are not trying to accelerate the yeast.

Dissolve the salt into the water.

The traditional AVPN method begins with water and salt, then adds roughly 10% of the flour before introducing the yeast. The remaining flour is then incorporated gradually.

2. Add some flour, then the yeast

Add roughly 60g of the flour and stir until you have a thin batter.

Add your yeast and mix again.

Then gradually add the remaining flour.

This method helps distribute the ingredients evenly without leaving concentrated salt sitting directly against the yeast.

You will eventually have a shaggy, sticky dough.

That is normal.

3. Knead until the dough becomes smooth

Turn the dough onto a clean surface.

Knead for roughly 10–15 minutes, folding and pushing the dough repeatedly until it becomes:

• smooth
• elastic
• cohesive
• slightly tacky but not wet
• able to stretch without tearing immediately

You can also use a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.

You are developing gluten — the network that lets the dough trap the carbon dioxide produced during fermentation. Flour strength, hydration and kneading all influence that structure.

Don’t keep adding flour

A common beginner mistake is deciding the dough feels sticky and continually dusting it with flour.

Don’t.

At around 62% hydration, the dough may initially feel stickier than expected. As gluten develops, it should become noticeably easier to handle.

Adding large amounts of extra flour changes the recipe and can produce a dense, dry crust.

What does 62.5% hydration mean?

Pizza makers often describe dough using baker’s percentages.

Flour is always treated as 100%.

So:

600g flour

375g water

375 ÷ 600 × 100 = 62.5% hydration

Hydration simply tells you how much water is present relative to the flour.

Roughly speaking:

Traditional Neapolitan formulas generally fall somewhere around the high-50s to low-60s depending on the flour. The AVPN’s permitted flour-to-water range works out at approximately 56–63% hydration.

Higher hydration is not automatically better.

A 70% dough may produce impressive bubbles in experienced hands, but it is considerably harder to stretch, launch and bake.

For someone learning Neapolitan pizza, 60–63% is a much friendlier place to start.

4. Give the dough its first fermentation

Form the dough into one large ball and place it in a covered container.

Leave it at room temperature.

A practical schedule is:

Bulk fermentation: approximately 2 hours

You are not necessarily waiting for the dough to double in size.

You mainly want fermentation to begin and the gluten to relax before dividing the dough.

Temperature matters enormously.

A kitchen at 27°C will ferment dough much faster than one at 18°C.

That means fermentation times are guides, not countdown timers.

5. Divide the dough into balls

Turn the dough onto your worktop and divide it into four pieces of approximately 245–250g each.

Shape each piece into a smooth, tight ball.

In Naples this process is called staglio.

Traditional hand balling uses a motion sometimes compared with the way mozzarella is pinched into individual balls. The AVPN specification allows dough balls between 200g and 280g, producing pizzas approximately 22–35cm in diameter.

Place the balls in individual covered containers or a covered dough box, leaving enough room for them to expand.

6. Ferment the dough balls

Let the balls proof until soft, relaxed and slightly expanded.

For the recipe above, expect roughly:

6–10 more hours at around 20–22°C

giving a total fermentation around 8–12 hours.

Longer fermentation is possible, but reduce the yeast accordingly.

The official AVPN framework allows total fermentation of roughly 8–24 hours, with the final timing dependent on temperature, humidity, flour and yeast quantity.

How do you know the dough is ready?

A ready dough ball should:

• look slightly inflated
• feel soft rather than tight
• spread gently in its container
• show some small bubbles
• stretch without constantly springing back

Press it gently with a finger.

The indentation should recover slowly.

Fermentation matters more than the clock

One of the most useful things you can learn from a good pizzaiolo is to watch the dough instead of blindly following a timer.

Yeast behaves differently depending on:

• room temperature
• water temperature
• flour strength
• yeast quantity
• humidity
• dough temperature after kneading

Even changing seasons can noticeably alter your pizza dough.

A Naples pizzeria making dough every day will adjust the yeast quantity according to the weather.

That is why authentic recipes often appear surprisingly vague about exactly how many grams of yeast to use.

They are not being evasive.

The correct yeast quantity depends on how long and how warm you intend to ferment the dough.

Can you ferment Neapolitan pizza dough in the refrigerator?

Yes.

It isn’t necessary for classic same-day Naples-style dough, but cold fermentation is extremely useful at home.

A simple schedule is:

Day 1

Make the dough.

Allow it to sit at room temperature for approximately 1 hour.

Divide and ball it.

Refrigerate the dough balls in covered containers.

Day 2

Remove them from the refrigerator approximately 2–4 hours before baking, depending on room temperature.

Let them become soft and extensible before stretching.

A 24–48-hour cold fermentation can be convenient and develops plenty of flavour, but it requires less yeast than a short same-day dough.

Don’t automatically assume that three, four or five days will produce better pizza. As fermented pizza dough ages it can eventually become overly acidic and structurally weak.

Which flour should you use?

Type 00 is the classic choice — but the number doesn’t tell the whole story

For traditional Neapolitan pizza, use a good Type 00 pizza flour.

But this is important:

“00” refers primarily to the Italian milling/refinement classification — not directly to protein content or dough strength.

Different Type 00 flours can behave very differently.

Type 00 is very finely milled and contains relatively little bran and germ, but protein levels can vary significantly. Some 00 flours are designed for pasta or cakes; others are specifically formulated for pizza and longer fermentation.

Look for flour specifically labelled for:

• pizza
• Neapolitan pizza
• medium or long fermentation

rather than buying something simply because it says 00.

Can you use bread flour instead?

Yes.

You can make excellent pizza using bread flour.

The texture won’t be identical to a traditional Naples dough, but flour with sufficient gluten-forming protein can produce a strong, extensible dough.

If proper Italian pizza flour isn’t readily available, good bread flour is a better substitute than weak pastry flour.

All-purpose/plain flour can work too, although the exact result depends heavily on its protein level.

Do you need strong flour?

You need enough strength to survive your chosen fermentation.

That doesn’t mean buying the strongest flour you can find.

Very strong flour can actually produce dough that is stubborn and difficult to stretch if the fermentation doesn’t give it enough time to relax.

Think of flour choice and fermentation as a pair:

shorter fermentation → moderate-strength flour can work well

longer fermentation → flour needs enough strength to remain structurally sound

This is one reason professional pizzaioli choose flour to suit their dough schedule instead of going by the word “00” alone.

Should Neapolitan pizza dough contain olive oil?

Traditionally, no.

Olive oil belongs on the pizza, not in the classic dough.

The official AVPN dough formula consists of:

• flour
• water
• salt
• yeast

Oil isn’t part of the standard dough formula.

Oil can make some home-oven pizza doughs softer and encourage browning, so you’ll see it in many recipes.

But if your goal is traditional Naples-style dough, leave it out.

What about sugar?

Also no.

A traditional Neapolitan dough doesn’t need sugar.

In a 450°C pizza oven, additional sugar would actually encourage the crust to brown or burn too quickly.

The high oven temperature creates the characteristic colour and blistering without it.

Sugar becomes more useful in some pizza styles designed for much cooler ovens.

How much salt belongs in Neapolitan pizza dough?

More than many beginners expect.

The official AVPN formulation allows 40–60g salt per litre of water.

In baker’s percentages, many practical recipes land around 2.5–3% salt relative to flour.

Salt isn’t there only for flavour.

It also affects:

• gluten strength
• dough texture
• yeast activity
• fermentation speed

Leaving it out changes the behaviour of the entire dough.

How to stretch Neapolitan pizza dough

This is where all those hours of fermentation pay off.

Dust the worktop lightly with flour.

Place one dough ball onto the flour.

Press gently from the centre outward with your fingertips, pushing trapped gas toward the edge.

Do not flatten the outer 1–2cm.

That untouched rim contains the gas that will expand rapidly in the oven and create your cornicione.

Turn the dough and continue pressing outward.

Then lift it carefully and stretch it over your hands until it reaches roughly 28–30cm.

The AVPN specification requires hand stretching from the centre outward and sets the central thickness at no more than roughly 2.5mm before cooking.

Never use a rolling pin

A rolling pin squeezes gas out of the edge you spent hours creating.

That makes it much harder to achieve the classic swollen Neapolitan cornicione.

Stretching by hand preserves those bubbles.

If the dough continually snaps back into a smaller circle, don’t fight it.

Leave it alone for several minutes.

The gluten will relax and it should become easier to stretch.

Why does the rim puff up?

During baking, several things happen almost simultaneously.

The intense oven heat rapidly expands gases already trapped inside the dough.

Water turns to steam.

The gluten network stretches around those expanding gases.

Because you’ve avoided crushing the outside edge while shaping, the rim still contains many air pockets.

The result is oven spring: the dramatic expansion that transforms a modest-looking dough disc into a ballooned cornicione.

This is why dough handling matters almost as much as the recipe.

The best temperature for Neapolitan pizza

This is the part that is difficult to reproduce in an ordinary kitchen.

Authentic Neapolitan pizza is cooked extraordinarily hot.

The AVPN specifies an oven around 430–480°C, with the pizza baking in approximately 60–90 seconds.

That speed matters.

The exterior chars while the interior remains moist and tender.

A normal domestic oven running at 250°C simply behaves differently.

If you have a pizza oven

Preheat it thoroughly.

For traditional Naples-style pizza, aim for a stone/floor temperature around 400–450°C with strong heat above the pizza.

Launch the pizza and rotate it during baking.

Depending on your oven, expect roughly 60–120 seconds.

Don’t walk away.

At these temperatures, fifteen seconds can make the difference between beautifully blistered and burnt.

If you’re using a conventional home oven

You can still make very good pizza — just don’t expect it to behave exactly like a 450°C Naples oven.

Use:

1. the highest temperature your oven allows
2. a baking steel or pizza stone
3. a long preheat
4. the upper part of the oven
5. the grill/broiler where appropriate

King Arthur, for example, recommends thoroughly preheating a steel or stone at 500–550°F / roughly 260–290°C for its home-oven Neapolitan-style crust.

Your baking time will probably be several minutes, not 60–90 seconds.

Baking steel vs pizza stone

A steel transfers heat particularly quickly and is often an excellent choice in a relatively low-temperature domestic oven.

A stone behaves more like the floor of a pizza oven but normally transfers heat less aggressively.

Either is far better than putting a Neapolitan-style pizza onto a cold baking tray.

Why your pizza dough isn’t puffing up

Several common problems can prevent a good cornicione.

1. The dough is under-fermented

Symptoms:

• dense edge
• dough feels tight
• difficult to stretch
• constantly springs back

Fix: Give it longer.

2. The dough is over-fermented

Symptoms:

• extremely slack
• difficult to lift
• tears easily
• strong alcoholic or sour aroma
• spreads into a puddle

Fix: Shorten fermentation, reduce yeast or ferment at a cooler temperature.

3. You flattened the rim

If you press all the way to the edge while shaping, you squeeze out the gas needed for an airy cornicione.

Fix: Leave the outer centimetre or two alone.

4. Your oven isn’t hot enough

Even beautifully fermented dough won’t behave like Naples pizza if baked slowly at low heat.

Fix: Preheat a stone or steel thoroughly and use the highest temperature available.

5. Too many toppings

A Neapolitan pizza is not designed to carry half the contents of your refrigerator.

Heavy sauce, piles of mozzarella and wet vegetables cool the dough and make the centre harder to cook.

Fix: Top lightly.

Why is my dough tearing when I stretch it?

Possible reasons include:

Insufficient gluten development

The dough may not have been kneaded enough.

Weak flour

Some flours cannot comfortably handle long fermentation or high hydration.

Over-fermentation

Eventually the gluten network weakens.

Dough is too cold

Cold dough can be tight and difficult to stretch.

You’re pulling too aggressively

Properly fermented dough needs surprisingly little force.

Good pizza stretching is closer to coaxing than pulling.

Why is my dough too sticky?

Some stickiness is normal.

But if you cannot handle the dough at all:

• reduce hydration slightly next time
• make sure the flour is suitable for pizza
• develop the gluten properly
• use a small amount of flour for dusting
• avoid over-fermenting

If you’re learning, try 60% hydration before jumping straight into very wet dough.

The difference between 60% and 70% may look small on paper.

On the worktop, it feels enormous.

Semolina or flour for stretching?

A light dusting prevents the dough sticking.

Many pizzaioli use flour, semolina or a mixture.

Semolina is particularly useful on a peel because its larger particles can behave a little like tiny ball bearings.

But don’t bury your pizza in it.

Excess loose flour underneath the pizza can burn in a very hot oven and become bitter.

How to stop pizza sticking to the peel

This is one of the classic disasters of home pizza making.

You build the perfect Margherita.

You try to launch it.

The toppings enter the oven.

The dough stays on the peel.

To prevent that:

• lightly dust the peel
• make sure the dough isn’t wet underneath
• don’t leave a topped pizza sitting on the peel for several minutes
• give the peel a small shake before launching
• if it doesn’t move, free the sticking point before attempting the launch

Top the pizza only when the oven is ready.

How long can Neapolitan pizza dough stay in the fridge?

For a home recipe, 24–48 hours is a very practical target.

Longer isn’t automatically better.

As fermentation continues, dough becomes softer and develops more flavour, but eventually the gluten begins to lose its ability to hold structure.

If you aren’t going to use spare dough soon, freezing it is usually better than pushing fermentation indefinitely. Pizza dough can be frozen, thawed overnight in the refrigerator and then allowed to relax at room temperature before stretching.

Can you freeze Neapolitan pizza dough?

Yes.

Freeze individual dough balls after they have been shaped.

Lightly coat or wrap them to prevent drying and store them in airtight containers or freezer bags.

To use:

1. thaw overnight in the refrigerator
2. remove from the fridge
3. leave at room temperature until relaxed
4. stretch and bake normally

The texture may not be quite as perfect as freshly fermented dough, but it works surprisingly well.

Traditional Neapolitan dough vs typical home pizza dough

Neither style is inherently “better.”

They’re simply designed for different ovens and results.

But if the goal is the kind of pizza served in Naples, the first column is what you’re aiming for.

A simple same-day pizza schedule

Want pizza at 8pm?

A rough moderate-room-temperature schedule could look like this:

9:00am

Mix and knead the dough.

9:15am–11:00am

Bulk fermentation.

11:00am

Divide and shape into four balls.

11:00am–7:00pm

Final fermentation.

6:30pm

Start heating the pizza oven.

7:30pm

Prepare toppings.

8:00pm

Stretch, top and bake.

Remember: the dough is ready when it looks and feels ready, whatever your watch says.

If your kitchen is particularly warm, fermentation may move much faster.

The four numbers worth remembering

If you don’t want to memorise the entire recipe, remember:

600g flour

375g water

15g salt

a tiny amount of yeast

Then give the dough time.

That gets you surprisingly close to the fundamental logic behind Naples pizza dough.

Baker’s percentages: the easiest way to scale the recipe

Once you understand baker’s percentages, you don’t need dozens of recipes.

Use:

• flour: 100%
• water: 60–63%
• salt: 2.5–3%
• yeast: adjusted according to fermentation

Want six pizzas instead of four?

Scale everything proportionally.

Want slightly easier dough?

Drop the hydration to 60%.

Want to experiment with a softer dough?

Try 63–65% once you’re comfortable handling it.

What Naples pizzaioli understand that recipes don’t tell you

The most important lesson is that pizza dough isn’t completely predictable.

The recipe gives you a starting point.

But good pizzaioli constantly assess:

• how warm the room is
• how warm the dough is
• whether fermentation is moving quickly
• how strong the flour feels
• whether the dough is elastic
• whether the dough balls are relaxing
• how much yeast today’s conditions require

That judgement is one reason making pizza alongside a pizzaiolo is so much more useful than merely following a list of ingredients.

You can read that the dough should be “soft and elastic.”

When somebody in Naples puts correctly fermented dough in your hands, you finally understand what that means.

In the Naples pizza and tiramisu class featured on this page, you spend 2–3 hours learning from a pizzaiolo, with drinks included, and finish by eating the pizza and tiramisu you made. Places cost from about $22, depending on the date, and reviewers give it 4.9/5 across more than 1,700 reviews. Still deciding what kind of class suits you? Our guide to choosing between a cooking class and a pizza-making class compares the two, and what to expect at a Naples cooking class covers the practical details.

Is Neapolitan pizza dough difficult to make?

The recipe isn’t difficult.

Reading the dough is the difficult part.

Your first batch may be slightly dense.

Your second may ferment too far.

Your third might stick to the peel.

And then something clicks.

You learn how the dough should feel, how thin you can stretch it, how lightly it needs to be topped and how fast it cooks.

That learning curve is part of the appeal.

Neapolitan pizza is made from extraordinarily simple ingredients, but those ingredients leave nowhere for technique to hide.

Making pizza dough in Naples vs making it at home

You can reproduce the basic dough almost anywhere.

What Naples adds is context.

In a Naples pizza-making class, you’re likely to see how the dough is balled, how little pressure is needed to open it, how the rim is preserved, how sparingly a pizza is topped and just how quickly it changes once it enters a blazing-hot oven.

For travellers interested in Italian cooking, pizza dough is one of those techniques that makes far more sense once you’ve handled it yourself.

So a pizza-making class can be worthwhile even if you already have a favourite pizza recipe at home.

Neapolitan pizza dough FAQ

Does authentic Neapolitan pizza dough contain oil?

No. Traditional dough is made from flour, water, salt and yeast.

Does Neapolitan pizza dough contain sugar?

Traditionally, no.

What flour is best?

A Type 00 or Type 0 flour formulated for pizza and suitable for your intended fermentation time.

Is 00 flour the same as bread flour?

No. “00” is an Italian flour classification associated with refinement and milling; it does not by itself define protein content.

What hydration should I use?

Around 60–63% is an excellent starting range.

How long should Neapolitan pizza dough ferment?

Traditional AVPN guidance allows approximately 8–24 hours, although fermentation depends heavily on temperature, flour and yeast quantity.

How heavy should each dough ball be?

The AVPN permits roughly 200–280g. About 240–250g is very convenient for a 28–30cm pizza.

Should I refrigerate the dough?

You can, especially when making the dough a day or two ahead, although room-temperature fermentation is perfectly valid for traditional same-day Neapolitan dough.

Can I use dry yeast?

Yes. AVPN guidance gives dry yeast at roughly one-third the amount of fresh yeast.

Do I need a pizza oven?

Not to make the dough.

But a pizza oven capable of very high temperatures gets much closer to the characteristic Neapolitan texture than a conventional domestic oven.

Why shouldn’t I use a rolling pin?

Because it crushes the gas bubbles that help create the airy cornicione.

What temperature is authentic Neapolitan pizza baked at?

Approximately 430–480°C, traditionally for around 60–90 seconds.

Our recommendation for beginners

Don’t start by chasing enormous cornicione bubbles or 70% hydration.

Start here:

62% hydration + good pizza flour + slow fermentation + light toppings + the hottest oven available.

Learn to produce a dough that stretches easily and consistently.

Then experiment.

Dropping or adding just 2% water, changing fermentation from eight hours to 24, or switching flour can teach you more than endlessly changing recipes.

If you’re taking a pizza-making class in Naples

A useful class should teach more than how to put tomato and mozzarella on dough.

Look for one where you can actually:

• mix or handle the dough
• learn why the hydration matters
• see how dough balls are shaped
• open the pizza by hand
• learn to preserve the cornicione
• top a classic Margherita or Marinara
• work with a proper high-temperature pizza oven
• understand how fermentation changes with temperature

The dough is where the real lesson is.

Once you understand it, you can take the technique home.

The bottom line

Authentic Neapolitan pizza dough isn’t about adding more ingredients.

It’s about getting more from fewer ingredients.

Flour provides the structure.

Water shapes texture and extensibility.

Salt strengthens and seasons the dough.

Yeast creates the fermentation.

Time develops everything else.

The traditional formula leaves almost nothing to hide behind — which is exactly why a beautifully fermented Neapolitan pizza can be so extraordinary.

Start around 60–63% hydration, use good pizza flour, resist the temptation to add too much yeast, let the dough ferment slowly and handle the rim gently.

Then turn your oven up as high as it will go.

That is much closer to the way Naples thinks about pizza dough than any secret ingredient ever will be.

Related reading

• Authentic Neapolitan Pizza Recipe: Dough, Sauce & Baking Guide
• Neapolitan Pizza Sauce: The Authentic Naples-Style Recipe
• Neapolitan Pizza: What Makes Naples Pizza Different?
• Naples cooking class for beginners

Sources

The technical specifications in this guide were checked primarily against the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana’s current international regulations, particularly its guidance on flour, hydration, yeast, dough-ball weight, fermentation, stretching and oven temperature.

Home-oven guidance was cross-checked against King Arthur Baking’s tested Neapolitan-style method, while flour classification and gluten behaviour were checked against Serious Eats’ technical guides.