I’m here to (once again) share the progress of my pizza journey. Back in 2020 I shared the dough recipe I had been using for at least 10 years, and it’s okay but not amazing. There’s probably a number of things wrong with the recipe but it was still always better than frozen pizza.
Back in December of 2023 I got a book recommended by a friend, The Elements of Pizza: Unlocking the Secrets to World-Class Pies at Home and I then got a pizza steel, and you can read about that in this pizza steel post.
For my birthday this year Dana asked me where I wanted to go so I did some searching and discovered we have a Pizzeria Napoletana certified restaurant right here in Milwaukee… San Giorgio. So we went there! (All the photos in this post are from San Giorgio… these were not made by me!)
Was it good? Yes, it was damn good. There are only five certified Pizzeria Napoletana places in Wisconsin as of this writing. Two in Madison and two in Sheboygan(?). Oddly enough, I think I’ve been to one of the Sheboygan ones years ago. Anyway, San Giorgio in Milwaukee is not to be missed if you’re a fan of Napoletana style pies.
And hey, there are many different styles and it may not be what you like, but that soft pillowy crust is what I find really amazing, and it’s what I chase after in my pizza making. I am not at all interested in going the Ooni route with an outdoor woodburning oven, but between the book mentioned above and a pizza steel I think I can make some pretty decent pies. So far, so good!
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4 replies on “Pizza Napoletana”
The pizza steel is a great tool for making decent pizzas. We swear by it for practically everything baked. In fact, if you leave it in your oven, it’ll stabilize the temperatures really well.
We also like to use the Ooni, but it’s a lot of prep work for a one minute cook time. They come out fantastic, but it’s a huge challenge with so many variables to get right.
I may have missed, but are you preheating the oven for an hour at the highest possible temps? Also, you can cook on the parchment the whole time. Doesn’t make a difference afaik. That’s how I always do it.
Chris, I’m heating my oven to 550? F, which is as high as it will go, and do at least 45 minutes but usually a bit more.
I had this idea that pulling out the parchment paper and getting the pizza directly on the steel might yield (slightly) better results, but maybe it doesn’t matter?
Saw that you were uninterested in back yard pizza oven, wondering if you would consider a mixed use ceramic charcoal smoker grill? Mine can get over 750 degrees. At least with a grill like that you can do southern bbq or brats etc, but heap on charcoal and some wood chunks and you’d be much hotter when you feel like it.
Epu, the issue with an outdoor grill is that it’s a pain to use, which means I won’t want to use it as much. I have a standard propane grill and we really only use it a few times a year… In the summer it’s often just too hot for me and I don’t want to be outside, and in the winter I don’t want to deal with outdoor cooking.
So I freely admit to being a picky little complainer (!?) but I’m all for doing the best I can with my standard indoor kitchen oven. I know that creates some limitations but I’ll work within the as best I can. (And I’m okay with that!)