Neapolitan Pizza Dough Recipe: 4 Ingredients, 24-Hour Rise

Neapolitan Pizza Dough: The 4-Ingredient, 24-Hour Formula

Neapolitan pizza dough is made from exactly four ingredients: 00 flour, water, salt, and a very small amount of yeast. This recipe uses 1,000 g of 00 flour, 620 g of water (62% hydration), 28 g of fine sea salt (2.8%), and 1 g of instant dry yeast (0.1%), fermented at cool room temperature for 24 hours. It makes six 275 g dough balls — enough for six pizzas around 11 to 12 inches across — with a soft, extensible crumb and a crust that puffs and blisters in a blazing-hot oven.

That is the whole recipe in one paragraph. The rest of this article explains why each number is what it is, walks through the schedule hour by hour, and shows you how to adjust when your kitchen is warmer or cooler than the recipe assumes. Nothing here requires a mixer, a starter, or any equipment beyond a digital scale, a bowl, and a lidded container.

Ingredients and Baker's Percentages

Baker's percentages express every ingredient as a percentage of the flour weight. Flour is always 100%, so a 62% hydration dough contains 62 g of water for every 100 g of flour. Written this way, the formula scales to any batch size without guesswork.

Divided into six portions, the full batch gives you 275 g dough balls almost exactly — a comfortable weight for a Neapolitan-size pie.

Why 00 flour

"00" refers to how finely Italian flour is milled — it is the finest grade, with the bran and germ sifted out. For pizza, look for a 00 flour labeled for pizza, typically with protein around 11.5 to 13%. That protein range builds enough gluten to trap gas through a long ferment while staying tender and extensible, so the dough stretches thin without fighting back or tearing.

If you cannot find 00, unbleached bread flour works; expect a slightly chewier crust and a bit more browning, since bread flour is coarser and often carries more protein. All-purpose flour can work in a pinch at the same hydration, but the dough will be softer and less forgiving to handle.

Why 62% hydration

Traditional Neapolitan dough sits in a moderate hydration range — commonly somewhere in the high 50s to low 60s percent. This recipe uses 62% because it is the sweet spot for a home baker working with a very hot oven: wet enough to steam and puff dramatically at the rim, dry enough that shaping and launching stay manageable.

Resist the internet's pull toward ever-higher hydration. In a wood-fired oven running its proper temperature, a 62% dough bakes in around 90 seconds and comes out light and soft. Extra water mostly buys you stickier hands, not better pizza — high hydration earns its keep in home-oven styles with long bake times, not here.

Salt and yeast: small numbers, big jobs

Salt at 2.8% does more than season. It tightens the gluten network and moderates fermentation, which matters when the dough will sit out for a full day. Use fine sea salt and weigh it — volume measures for salt vary wildly by grind.

The yeast quantity is the number that surprises people: 1 g for a full kilo of flour, roughly a scant third of a teaspoon. Over 24 hours at cool room temperature, that tiny amount is plenty. A long, slow ferment with minimal yeast is precisely what builds the flavor and the delicate, open crumb this style is known for. If you want to push flavor development even further, the same logic extends to fermenting the dough cold for two or three days in the refrigerator.

A note on measurement: 1 g and 0.5 g are hard to weigh on a standard kitchen scale. An inexpensive 0.01 g jeweler's scale solves this permanently. Failing that, measure a level 1/4 teaspoon of instant yeast (about 0.8 g) for the full batch and accept a slightly slower rise.

Step-by-Step Method

1. Dissolve and mix (10 minutes)

Pour the water into a large bowl and stir in the salt until dissolved. Add about a third of the flour and whisk to a smooth slurry, then sprinkle the yeast over the top and stir it in. (Keeping the yeast out of direct contact with concentrated salt water is cheap insurance.) Add the remaining flour and mix with your hand or a stiff spatula until no dry flour remains. The dough will look shaggy and rough — that is correct.

2. Rest, then knead (30 minutes)

Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 20 minutes. This pause, called autolyse-style rest, lets the flour fully hydrate and does half your kneading for you. Then turn the dough onto a clean counter and knead for 8 to 10 minutes, until it is smooth, supple, and springs back slowly when poked. At 62% hydration it should barely stick; resist adding flour, and use a light touch of water on your hands instead if needed.

3. Bulk ferment (18 hours)

Place the dough in a lightly oiled, lidded container with room to double, and leave it at cool room temperature — this recipe assumes roughly 65 to 70°F (18 to 21°C). Over 18 hours it will rise slowly, roughly doubling, and the surface will show scattered bubbles. This long bulk stage is where most of the flavor develops.

4. Ball the dough (15 minutes)

Turn the dough out and divide it into six pieces of 275 g each, using your scale — consistent weight is what makes bake times repeatable. To ball each piece, fold the edges into the center, flip it seam-side down, and drag it toward you on the counter with cupped hands to build surface tension. You want a tight, smooth skin with the seam sealed underneath.

5. Final proof (5 to 6 hours)

Set the balls at least 3 inches apart in a covered proofing box or on a lightly floured tray covered with plastic wrap. Proof at room temperature for 5 to 6 hours. They are ready when they have relaxed into soft, slightly domed pillows that feel like a marshmallow when gently pressed — airy but still holding their shape. From here, they stretch open with fingertips; never a rolling pin, which crushes the gas you spent 24 hours building.

The 24-Hour Schedule at a Glance

Shift the whole schedule earlier or later to fit your day — the ratios of bulk-to-proof time are what matter, not the clock.

Dough Ball Weight: What 275 g Gets You

Dough ball weight is the lever that controls pizza size and rim character. For Neapolitan-style pies:

• 230–250 g — a 10-inch pizza; smaller, with a proportionally puffier rim. Good for compact portable ovens.
• 260–280 g — an 11-to-12-inch pizza; the classic personal-pie size this recipe targets at 275 g.
• 290–320 g — a 12-to-13-inch pizza; needs a larger oven floor and a confident launch.

Whatever weight you choose, keep every ball in a batch identical. When the balls match, your stretch, your topping amounts, and your bake time all become repeatable — which is the entire point of weighing in the first place.

Adjusting for Your Kitchen's Temperature

The recipe assumes a cool room around 65 to 70°F (18 to 21°C). Fermentation speed roughly doubles with every 15°F (8°C) increase, so a summer kitchen will blow past the schedule if you change nothing.

• Warm kitchen (72–78°F / 22–26°C): cut the yeast in half (0.5 g for the full batch), or keep the yeast and shorten the bulk ferment to 10–12 hours, watching the dough rather than the clock.
• Hot kitchen (above 78°F / 26°C): move the bulk ferment to the refrigerator after the first 2 hours. Chilled fermentation is slower and far more forgiving — the full technique is covered in our cold-ferment guide.
• Cold kitchen (below 62°F / 17°C): the dough will lag. Double the yeast to 2 g, or find a warmer spot such as an oven with only the light on.

The dough itself is the authority: ball it when the bulk has roughly doubled, and bake when the balls are soft and relaxed. Times are estimates; the dough's state is the fact.

Baking: This Dough Wants Serious Heat

This formula contains no oil and no sugar, which is deliberate — and it means the crust browns only through intense heat. In a wood-fired oven with the floor around 800°F and the dome hotter still, a pizza from this dough bakes in roughly 60 to 90 seconds, puffing at the rim and picking up the charred leopard spots the style is famous for. Getting your oven to that state, and knowing when it is truly ready, is its own skill — our guide to wood-fired oven temperature covers heat-up time, infrared thermometer readings, and floor-versus-dome balance.

For the complete pie — crushed tomatoes, properly drained mozzarella, basil, and the launch itself — follow this dough into our wood-fired Margherita recipe, which assumes exactly these 275 g balls.

No wood-fired oven? Bake on a preheated steel or stone at your home oven's maximum with the broiler, and expect 4 to 6 minutes rather than 90 seconds. The pizza will be excellent; it will simply be a cousin of Neapolitan rather than the thing itself.

Troubleshooting the Common Failures

Dough tears when stretching. Usually underproofed (the gluten is still tight) or overworked during balling. Let torn-prone balls rest another 30 to 60 minutes at room temperature before trying again.

Balls flattened into pancakes. Overproofed — too warm, too long, or too much yeast. They will still bake, but with less oven spring. Next batch, reduce yeast or shorten the proof. Slightly overproofed dough is also a candidate for gentle re-balling followed by a 2-hour rest.

Crust is pale even in a hot oven. The ferment likely ran long and the yeast consumed too much of the flour's sugars. Shorten the total time or drop the temperature of the room where it ferments.

Dough smells sharply boozy or sour. Fermentation went too far. It is safe to bake, but flavor and structure suffer; tighten the schedule next time.

Storage and Food Safety

Unbaked dough balls keep in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 2 days beyond the schedule above — pull them out 1.5 to 2 hours before baking so they warm and relax. For longer storage, freeze balled dough in oiled zip-top bags for up to a month; thaw overnight in the fridge, then proof at room temperature until soft.

Treat dough like the perishable it is: keep it covered so it does not dry out, and once pizzas are topped with cheese and other perishables, bake promptly rather than letting assembled pies sit at room temperature. Cold ingredients belong in the refrigerator at or below 40°F (4°C) until you are ready to build.

Four ingredients, one day, and a scale — that is the entire secret. Weigh everything, respect the temperature of your room, and the dough will meet you more than halfway.