Pizza marinara

01Dissolve the salt.

Put the 366 g water in the mixing bowl and dissolve the 15 g sea salt completely. The water should be cool enough that the finished dough does not become warm during kneading.

02Start with a little flour, then add the yeast.

Mix in about 60 g of the flour to make a loose batter. Add the instant dry yeast and disperse it thoroughly before the rest of the flour goes in. This limits prolonged direct contact between concentrated salt and yeast.

03Add the remaining flour and knead.

Add the rest of the 610 g flour gradually. Knead at low speed, or by hand, until the dough becomes one smooth, cohesive mass with good elasticity, about 15–20 minutes depending on the mixer and flour. The surface should feel soft and slightly tacky rather than wet or floury.

✓ The finished dough should stretch without immediately tearing and should release from the bowl as one coherent mass.

04Rest the dough in bulk.

Cover the bowl and leave the dough for 2 hours at about 20–22 °C. The aim is relaxation and the start of fermentation, not a dramatic doubling in volume.

05Divide into four dough balls.

Turn the dough onto a clean surface and divide it into four pieces of about 248 g each. Shape each piece into a tight, smooth ball without tearing the outer surface.

06Complete the second fermentation.

Place the balls in a covered dough box or individual containers with enough room to expand. Leave for about 8 hours at 20–22 °C. At the end, the dough should be visibly aerated, soft and relaxed.

✓ A ready dough ball spreads slightly under its own weight and opens easily without snapping back hard.

07Crush the tomatoes and slice the garlic.

Crush the peeled tomatoes by hand until saucy but still textured. Stir in the 2 g salt. Slice each garlic clove into very thin pieces and keep the oregano and olive oil ready.

✓ The tomato should be spoonable without a pool of watery juice.

08Heat the pizza oven fully.

Bring the oven to full Neapolitan baking heat. The traditional TSG bake uses a floor around 485 °C with very strong dome heat.

✓ The baking surface should be stable before the first pizza is launched.

09Open one dough ball by hand.

Dust the bench lightly. Press from the centre outward with fingertips, turning the dough while leaving a 1–2 cm rim untouched. Stretch to roughly 28–30 cm without a rolling pin.

✓ The rim should remain visibly fuller and aerated while the centre is thin but intact.

10Top as a marinara.

Spread about 80 g tomato over the centre. Add thin garlic slices, a pinch of oregano and about 5 g extra-virgin olive oil. Leave the rim clean.

✓ The surface should look lightly dressed, with tomato still visible between garlic and oregano.

11Bake fast.

Launch onto the hot floor and bake for 60–90 seconds, turning as needed so the rim blisters and colours evenly.

✓ The underside should be set but flexible, the tomato hot and reduced, and the cornicione puffed with scattered dark spots.

12Serve immediately.

Move to a plate, settle for about 30 seconds and serve. Repeat with the remaining dough balls one at a time.

✓ The centre should remain soft enough to fold without being wet or raw.