Caio tutti! This afternoon my classmates and I were given the chance to go to a pizzeria, La Nicchia, located in Ascoli Piceno. We were taught how to prepare the perfect pizza dough and the importance of each ingredient and techniques.
The recipe:
- 500g flour
- 300g water
- 1g yeast
- 10g extra virgin olive oil
- 10g salt
The recipe we used is enough to make 3 personal pizza pies!
Plus, a little tip from the chef was to avoid kneading pizza dough with warm hands to prevent the dough from becoming too sticky.
The cooking time for the pizza is 2-3 minuets in the 400-420 degree Celsius brick oven.
In Italy, there are different types of flours used, compared to the U.S. The flour is refined and classified by either type 2, 1, 0, 00. We used type 00 flour for our dough, which is the most refined. La Nicchia has unique flour options too! Flours such as blue corn, buckwheat, and rice flour. To learn more about the different classifications of flours, click here.
While waiting for your pizza to be made, why not munch on some French fries!? Here in Italy this is a common appetizer to order when going out to eat pizza.
There was a lot of anticipation building up while waiting for my pizza to cook in that 2-3 minuet window — it looked amazing! I decided to top my pizza with veggies and mozzarella cheese, which was a great choice (called Vegetariana on the menu). Knowing the process and care that goes into crafting a pizza from scratch makes it taste one hundred times better.
Megan's Italian Table 