There's nothing like a classic Italian pizza that's all about simple, quality ingredients. Mike Tomkins' Neapolitan pizza recipe features some temperature guidance for your dough, to help you create a consistently perfect crust every time you recreate this pizza. You can use your Thermapen to check your water and dough temperatures, but you'll also need an infrared thermometer, like the Pizza IR, to make sure your pizza oven is nice and hot, ready for your pizza.

Ingredients

For the dough

• 360ml of water, 32 °C
• 2 tsp sugar
• 7g dry active yeast
• 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 545g 00 flour
• 20g fine sea salt

For the sauce

• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 400g can of whole San Marzano tomatoes
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp red chilli flakes

For the toppings

• Fresh basil
• Mozzarella cucina
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Parmesan

Directions

• Combine 60ml of the water with the sugar and dry active yeast. Whisk and leave to stand until the yeast reacts with the water and begins to froth.
• Add the olive oil to your remaining water. Place your flour into a stand mixer and, on a low speed, slowly combine your water-oil mix. Once fully combined, slowly add your remaining water-yeast mix. Once roughly combined, cover with a damp tea towel and allow to stand for 30 minutes. This allows the yeast to react with the flour before introducing your salt.

• Add your salt and continue to mix at a slow speed for a further 30 minutes until your dough becomes smooth and supple. You'll know the dough is ready when it reaches 23 °C and you can successfully pass the window pane test. The window pane test is where you can stretch the dough to the point you can see through it without it breaking.
• Roll the dough into a ball and pop it in the fridge overnight to allow the flavour to develop.
• Remove from the fridge and shape into two tight dough balls. Allow it to prove until your dough reaches 23 °C again and has doubled in size.
• To shape the dough into a pizza base, stretch it out from the middle on a floured surface before resting it over your knuckles and allowing gravity to stretch it into the right shape.

• Make your sauce by combining all of your ingredients in a blender. Pulse 2 or 3 times for a chunkier sauce.
• Top the pizza dough with the sauce. Add torn fresh basil, followed by cubed mozzarella.
• Check your pizza oven temperature with an infrared thermometer like the Pizza IR. You're aiming for 450 °C. Once ready, place the pizza in the oven and allow it to cook for roughly 60 seconds, rotating it 90° every 15 seconds.
• Finish with grated parmesan, a drizzle of olive oil and fresh basil. Allow to cool for 90 seconds before slicing.

Mike Tomkins

Masterchef 2021 Runner Up

@thenotecook

"Thermapen is one of those kitchen tools I can't live without - it's something I use every single day from making sauces, to bbq cooking, to private dining and events, it comes with me everywhere! A Thermapen will improve you as a chef and a cook by taking the guess work out of complex cooking."