Pizza napoletana dough

Put the water in the bowl first and dissolve the salt into it.

Add about 10% of the flour and mix to the consistency of crepe or pancake mix.

Add the fresh yeast straight into the mix; it dissolves in seconds.

Add the remaining flour a little at a time with one hand, mixing along the sides of the bowl and folding into the dough so the flour absorbs all the water.

Turn out onto the bench and work with two hands, pushing in and turning over to aerate, or pushing down and folding over.

The dough is ready when a pressed ball springs back, or better, when a thermometer in its core reads 23 to 26 degrees.

Cover with a damp cloth and rest on the bench at least two hours.

Divide into dough balls of 220 to 250 g.

Rest the balls in a tightly sealed container overnight at ambient temperature, 16 to 18 degrees, for a 24 hour rise that lets the yeast work and the dough mature at the same time.

Variation: to refrigerate, let the balls rise nearly double first so the dough is developed, then chill; the yeast goes dormant but the dough keeps maturing.

Flour the bench, press an inch in from the bottom and stop, an inch in from the top and stop, and repeat, turning the ball.

Crimp with the fingers of one hand and stretch, carry the disc over the forearm and flip it back over, repeating until the movement is muscle memory.

Load the pizza into the oven from the side; to turn it, draw it out, turn it in front of you and put it back, so it picks up no ash.

Leave the pizza down on the oven floor rather than holding it up at the flame, so the base and top cook naturally.

The cell structure in the cooked rim and the bounce back in the dough show it is cooked correctly.