I'm A Pizza Chef, This Is The 1 Very Easy Secret To Restaurant-Style Pizza At Home

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Ah, pizza.

The joy, the wonder, the perfect solution to hunger...

I’ll stop with the attempts at poetry now, sorry. It just really is the best. The toppings can be so versatile, the crust is up to you and even if you don’t finish your pizza for dinner, it’ll be delicious the next day.

The best part, though, is that unlike most of our restaurant faves, it’s extremely simple to make at home, especially if you’re the kind of person who likes to stick to the basics when it comes to toppings.

However, according to one chef, there’s a simple step to making your at-home pizza taste just like it does in a pizza restaurant, and the only thing you’ll need is just a little patience...

How to perfect a pizza crust at home

So, I don’t know if you know this, but the industry-standard for proving pizza dough is 72 hours before baking. I know, it is a bit of a long time but as we know, the pay-off is worth the wait.

That being said, an expert from the cult pizza brand Civerinos, says waiting 96 hours – four days – is key to developing a ‘one-of-a-kind’ flavour.

This extended fermentation process is fundamental to crafting the New Haven pizza – a recently popularised style of Neapolitan pizza known for its thin crust and oval shape.

New Haven pizza, or “apizza” as locals call it, originated in the early 20th century in New Haven, Connecticut.

This distinct style, brought to life by Italian immigrants, is renowned for its thin, charred crust achieved by baking in coal-fired ovens.

Michele Civiera, founder, Civerinos said: “The New Haven slice isn’t like anything we’ve had before, and having recently brought it to Scotland for the first time – and our customers are loving it.

“For making a New Haven slice, we always use an extended cold fermentation process for pizza dough. 24 hours is good, 72 hours is better, but 96 hours? That’s perfect.”

The ingredients you need for pizza dough

Never made pizza before and feeling a little intimidated? Rest assured, you likely already have the ingredients in your cupboard.

According to BBC Good Food, you only need:

500g ’00′ flour or plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tsp salt
½ tsp dried yeast (not fast-action)
300-350ml warm water
oil, for greasing

Think of it this way... you can start the prove at the beginning of the week and tuck into the pizza as your weekend treat.

Happy baking!