Vanto’s Chef Luigi Peluso has fairly impressive credentials backing his culinary reputation. Beyond the 25 years of professional experience in a kitchen… 15 years of professional experience making wood-fired pizza… the countless accolades and acknowledgements – Chef Luigi studied Chemistry at his hometown of Naples, AKA the birthplace of pizza. Naturally, his pizza dough recipe is not only authentic, but a marriage of both art and science.
The secret behind his signature pizza dough lies within its 60-72 hour maturation process. The result? A base that’s far lighter than what we’ve come to associate with pizza dough, not to mention more fragrant. Meaning there’s less bloat, less of that post-meal sluggishness, and as I’ve previously noted, more room for another slice. A winning combination entering the rig reveal season.
Here’s how you can make restaurant quality pizza dough from the comfort of home, as told by Vanto’s Chef Luigi Peluso. (Note: the pizza dough recipe is an abbreviated version of the fully 60-72 hour process used in the restaurant.)
Vanto Pizza Dough Recipe
Ingredients (serves: 6)
- 1kg flour – Chef Luigi recommends Caputo blue flour but any good quality 00 flour / Italian milled flour works. 00 is ideal for pizza dough for two reasons: 1. it’s finely ground; and 2. it has a lower gluten content than most flours.
- 700ml water – “Try to make sure the water temperature is cool, around 18-20 degrees Celsius works best.”
- 25g salt
- 4g of fresh yeast
Method (start 24-hours before you need it)
Making dough by machine
- Place flour in a mixer and crumble the yeast on top. Mix for 2 minutes on the first speed setting – this allows the flour to oxygenate.
- Slowly add the water to the mix and place on a higher speed setting (third or fourth).
- When the water is fully absorbed, add the salt and continue to mix the dough until smooth – don’t let the dough get hot. This whole process should take roughly 20 mins.
Making dough by hand
- Place water in a mixing bowl and crumble the yeast using your fingertips as you go.
- Add roughly half of the flour into the water and yeast mixture, folding it in with a wooden spoon. Once the dough is solid enough, use your hands to continue mixing.
- Continue to add the remaining flour, mixing it in by picking the dough up from the corners and placing the flour into the middle of the dough, folding it like a napkin until smooth. This process by hand will obviously take longer than with a mixer.
Dough maturing process
- Once the flour has been folded either by hand or machine – and the dough is completely smooth – place what you have in a sealed container for 2 hours.
- Place the container in the fridge for a further maturation period of 14-16 hours (or simply overnight). This is especially important for the digestibility of the pizza. Allowing the dough to mature properly makes the pizza lighter and easier to digest.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and allow it to sit at room temperature for an hour.
- After the dough has settled, with the help of a kitchen scale, split the dough into 260 gram sized balls – fold the dough from the corner to the middle until a ball shape is made; you should be able to get roughly six balls from the mixture.
- Place dough balls onto a tray and keep it covered to let the dough double in size – this should take another 6-7 hours depending on the temperature of the room.
And there you have it – restaurant quality pizza dough. Load it up at your own discretion (depending on dietary needs/desires).
Find out more about Vanto in the link below.
