Pizza di famiglia

(The big pizza) from Buon Ricordo: How to Make Your Home a Great Restaurant (page 42) by Armando Percuoco and David Dale

This was a failure. Again it is all about the base. The base was the same mixture as the Calzone (also a failure) which was 500g flour to 1/2 cup water. (1/2 cup in Australian measure is 125ml/g). That gives a hydration level of 25% which is way too low for any form of pizza.

Using hydration levels this low gives you a damper style bread. The hydration ratio I normally use for a Neapolitan style pizza is around 65% when using domestic ovens at 275C. If your had a pizza oven at 500C then the hydration level should be around 60% as the pizza cooks quicker and not a lot of moisture is lost.

See this blog for a more detailed explanation. https://au.gozney.com/blogs/news/pizza-dough-hydration-explained

The topping was canned whole italian tomatoes crushed (as fresh tomatoes in winter are flavourless), fior di latte (cow’s mozzarella), basil leaves, and pork sausage from Field to Fork, Paddington.