Ciao Friends! Welcome to the first blog post about Italy!
This past Tuesday, we took a field trip to a local Pizzeria in Ascoli Piceno called La Nicchia, here we learned how they make their dough, along with making our own pizzas from scratch! When we got to the restaurant we were told all of the specific measurements of the ingredients they use and why they use them, including the specific order that they are added in.
The Dough Ingredients:
- 500 g Type 00 Soft Flour
- 1 g Dry Bakers Yeast (or 3 g Fresh Yeast Block)
- 300 g Water
- 10 g Salt
- 10 g Extra Virgin Olive Oil
The type of flour they used at the restaurant is a very soft flour that has been processed in a very specific way. The flour itself is Type 00 flour, it has been 50% sifted and it is the most refined as it comes from the inner most part of the grain. In Italy the flours are categorized based on how finely the flour has been ground, compared to the US where flours are categorized based on how much protein they contain. Italian flours have quite a few differences compared to the US as the US often will use highly processed parts during production. Due to this, the flour in the US may have a coarser feel to it and the gluten content may be higher. Here is a link explaining the differences better if you are interested in reading more! And this link goes more into detail about specifically type 00 flour.
Making the dough was a really easy process. We started by weighing out 500 grams of flour. Weighing out ingredients is the best way to achieve accurate measurements. After the flour was weighed we added in 1 gram of yeast. We used dry bakers yeast, but you can use fresh yeast you just have to use a bit more. We stirred the yeast and flour together before adding in 300 grams of water. After mixing this together we added in the 10 grams of salt, before starting to use our hands to knead the dough. The 10 grams of extra virgin olive oil was added last and this was a crucial part of making the dough according to the chef. He also said that if you aren’t using extra virgin olive oil to just throw out the dough as it is no good! Take from that what you will!
Next we kneaded the dough. The process of kneading the dough relied on using the base of you hand and stretching the dough from the center out. The process requires a lot less force than what you would expect. Here you were looking for the dough to get combined and to get the proper consistency that was determined by the chef.
When we finished forming our dough we let it sit before placing it in a bag and putting it in the fridge where it chilled for the rest of the time we were at the restaurant. To use the dough you let it sit for 3 hours and then it is good to go. We ended up using some dough that they had already made to shape and form our own pizzas. To shape the dough we pressed the dough down in a flat circle, before we moved it onto a mound of flour and slowly moved it out by pressing it out with the edge of our hands. We did this until we got the shape that was desired. The next step was moving over to the sauce and the toppings before the chef put the pizza in the oven to cook. The pizza took about 3-4 minutes as it was in an oven that was close to 900 degrees Fahrenheit!
Something interesting that we learned is that a typical appetizer for pizza that Italian’s eat is french fries. We all thought that it was a little different but were quite happy to have them. Another thing they do is use both mayo and ketchup when eating the french fries. We also thought it was a little unusual compared to the US typically only giving ketchup.
Overall, I thought the experience at the pizzeria was amazing. Not only did we get the recipe and knowledge from a local Italian cook, but we were also able to eat some incredible food!
Thanks for reading! Ciao!
Cooking Court 