TOSSING PIZZA NAPOLETANA…DARING BAKERS TO DO IT !!
“What kind of man would live where there is no daring? I don’t believe in taking foolish chances but nothing can be accomplished without taking any chance at all.”
Charles A. Lindbergh
Yes, it’s the Daring Bakers date with the net again. Another month, another challenge. The host for this month is the owner of a delicious blog…Rosa of Rosa’s Yummy Yums! Her choice had most DBs & their families singing songs like YUM YUM; the call was to make PIZZA!
In Rosa’s words…”As strange as it might appear, until now, there has been no DB challenge focused on learning how to make real “Pizza Dough”. So, this month we are all going to play pizzaiolos and I can assure you that it’s going to be fun! For this challenge I chose an easy to follow recipe for “Pizza Napoletana” from Peter Reinhart’s “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” which yields a beautifully tasty, thin, crispy, yet chewy pizza crust.”
THE CHALLENGE: You have to use the tossing method for at least 2 Pizza Crusts. If you are not comfortable with it, then you can switch to the rolling method, but you HAVE to try the traditional method and exercise it, using at least two dough pieces. You should also capture the moment by either filming or photographing yourself while tossing the dough. Do check out the recipe at Rosa’s yummy blog HERE. Great choice Rosa, & a great pizza indeed. Thanks for a super challenge!!
The dough is made in advance & rests in the fridge overnight, which potentially cuts down most of the work for the next day! Even better if you make the sauce in advance; you’ll just be tossing Napoletana’s the next day, or at least trying to!!.With some practice, I think we’ll become tossing pizzaiolos, though I think I need loads of practice & confidence. It’s worse if you want to be clicked because you just have 6 attempts…LOL!! Lose one tossed to the floor or ceiling, & it’s a pretty tense lunch that follows. My dough was a bit runny, or the temperatures were high, the dough & tosser (moi) didn’t have much success. I tossed a small toss, & the anxiety of the daughter trying to click quite did me in, but I tossed each one of them. Will try this again since the resultant pizzas were delicious, though I would very much have liked a partial whole-wheat option. That much refined flour doesn’t leave me with a healthy feeling, especially if it’s in a main meal! I kinda made up a bit on the sauce front. The sauce was a home-made tomato-mushroom sauce inspired by a jar of Catherine Cushings’s sauce that I recently won at a blog event, “Tried,Tested & True“.
With some practice, I think we’ll become tossing pizzaiolos, though I think I need loads of practice & confidence. It’s worse if you want to be clicked because you just have 6 attempts…LOL!! Lose one tossed to the floor or ceiling, & it’s a pretty tense lunch that follows. My dough was a bit runny, or the temperatures were high, the dough & tosser (moi) didn’t have much success. I tossed a small toss, & the anxiety of the daughter trying to click quite did me in, but I tossed each one of them. Will try this again since the resultant pizzas were delicious, though I would very much have liked a partial whole-wheat option. That much refined flour doesn’t leave me with a healthy feeling, especially if it’s in a main meal! I kinda made up a bit on the sauce front. The sauce was a home-made tomato-mushroom sauce inspired by a jar of Catherine Cushings’s sauce that I recently won at a blog event, “Tried,Tested & True“. 
What did I do?
For the Pizza Sauce…
I sauteed some roasted garlic paste (of about 1 head of garlic) in olive oil, bunged in some red chili flakes & oregano, gave it a quick stir. Added 2 finely chopped spring onions…stir. Added finely slice mushrooms (about 100gms) & sweated them till they released their liquid. 2 grated carrots followed by about 1/2 a kilo of peeled & chopped tomatoes & 200ml of tomato puree. Add sea salt & a dash of pepper, some white wine/vinegar, a pinch of sugar & simmer for about 30 minutes, covered. Once cool, run the immersion blender through the whole thing to give a chunky pizza sauce. Adjust seasoning & store in jars in the fridge. I think this will keep well for a week. Mine lasted 6 pizzas, with a 1/4 jar to spare!!
Toppings included chicken salami, spring onions & sweetcorn…& a blend of 3 cheeses – low fat cottage, cheddar & finally mozzarella. Fabulous crust & all! Rosa…it was truly YUMMY YUM!! A wonderful challenge that was enjoyed as lunch.The result was supremely delicious, though I did have some rather holey struggle on the toss up!! Do stop by HERE & see what other Daring Bakers have been tossing up with supremely delicious toppings.
The result was supremely delicious, though I did have some rather holey struggle on the toss up!! Do stop by HERE & see what other Daring Bakers have been tossing up with supremely delicious toppings. This post featured on
Deeba @ PAB
About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.
48 Comments
Helene
I love making pizza. You did a fantastic job. Well done!
Divya Vikram
Just yummy!
Pearlsofeast
Lovely Deeba, the sauce is tempting.I love the combination of cheese.
Manggy
Ah, then you are much braver than I! I could sense the holes coming the last time I attempted to toss pizza dough and didn’t even dare, or risk dough wastage. Well, the pizzas look perfect even if they only floated a few inches off your hand 😛 Just teasing! Of course they look beautiful!
Ning
Making your own pizza dough is quite impressive!!! And your sauce and toppings look delicious! 🙂
Heather
yum! that looks great! i looove pizza 🙂
familiabencomo
Gorgeous! How the heck do you get your pizza to look so darn pretty!?!?! I’m up late finishing this DB challenge…. Great job.
Tanti baci,
Amy
Snooky doodle
wow i m craving pizza now. and its still 8 in the morning here. Pizza for breakfast. Great idea 🙂 the only problem now is that I don t have any 🙁 your pizza look so delicious an yummy
Arundathi
looks like you did a great job! the sauce looks super too!
Rosa's Yummy Yums
What gorgeous pizzas! You did a great job here! Wow!
Cheers,
Rosa
Aparna
All the tossing doesn’t seem to have hurt the pizza. Looks lovely.
It wasn’t easy me tossing, desperate to ensure it didn’t land elsewhere and my daughter trying to take a picture!
But I had some very impressive tears to show for all the tossing/ throwing!! 😀
Y
Your pizzas look great. I like the idea of making the dough half wholewheat as well. I might try that next time!
awoz
Hello,
You seem really at ease tossing your pizza and the final results looks very tasting:)
You even made your own sauce wich looks so good all by it self…
Great challenge!
Dharm
Well done my dear friend!! I only wish I could have joined in too this month…
Marija
Great job on the challenge! The sauce is amazing!
Proud Italian Cook
Hi Deeba, Beautiful pictures and beautiful job on your pizza’s!
xoxo
Angela
Wonderful looking pizza, Deeba! I love the photo collages that you put together. I felt almost like I was there with you.
Bellini Valli
Excellent job Deeba with this challenge. Holes are easily patched and it looks and sounds delicious!!!!
Susan/Wild Yeast
Nicely done! The tossing (and photographing) was challenging for me too. Good on you for sticking with it — fabulous results!
Ivy
Excellent job. I feel like making a pizza now after seeing so many different ones.
Rosie
A fantastic job Deeba – I found the tossing of the dough a challenge too!
Rosie x
Elra
Deeba, I agree!
With practice it is possible that we all can be “tossing pizzaiolos” I mean lots lots of practices that can take years to master! I did this tossing action with lots of fun. I was more of entertaining myself….
Your pizza look really delicious Deeba!
Cheers,
Elra
Ben
Great job my friend. I love your choice of toppings! 😀
MyKitchenInHalfCups
All my dough is gone. . . You got such beautiful looking pizzas!
Like the corn!
Ruth
Your pizza looks amazing and the sauce sounds absolutely delicious!
Maria
Yum oh yum your pizza looks awesome! Great job!! I love all of your toppings too!
noble pig
Oh all that cheese just makes me want some, it looks amazing Deeba. Seeing all these pizza’s over the net is killing me!
Zita
Woow! looks superb, Deeba!!
Lorraine E
You did a fantastic job! And I love the home made sauce too 🙂 I also had really “holey” pizza for a while hehe
Purnima
Deeba, wow..tossed pizza..captured well..the pizza surely looks ummmm so delicious!
Hey as u celebrate halloween, wd like u to go thru this event-
Participate only if time permits …completely on your wish. Also the winners are limited to US only…hence..but surely hv a look at the lady’s past posts..too good!
Shillu
WOW! I love all the pics…specially the second one (pizza slice)..I can almost smell the yummy cheese!
Big Boys Oven
your pizza looks so awesomely delicious . . . this time I did not do any pizzas as I was too hold up with the wedding cake that i created for bride, come have a look at my blog!
Darius T. Williams
Yup! Definitely a great job here…definitely!
-DTW
http://www.everydaycookin.blogspot.com
giz
Well, just look at you!!!! What a great job of that pizza. Wasn’t this a fun challenge. 6 meals for one effort sounds like good planning to me.
Love the toppings you used and very cool about the sauce. See – it was so worth sending it to India.
Alexa
I knew I would be in for a visual treat when seeing your Db challenge. Your pizza looks so amazing!
Cakelaw
Wonderful looking pizzas Deeba. Sweetcorn and onion catches my fancy – yum!
Jeanine
Your pizzas look fantastic! Beautiful pictures. And way to go on the tossing thing, I am kind of glad that the GF pizzas could not be tossed. 🙂
CECIL
I always loved looking at your photos. So detailed, so rich! This is my first daring bakers and I had so much fun.
Julie
Great job on the challenge! Your sauce looks fantastic–nice and chunky. I love that you used sweet corn as a topping. Nice photos too!
ovenhaven
Wow the pizza looks very cheesy! And I love how chunky your pizza sauce is. Yummy yum indeed! 😛
Bharti
Excellent looking pizza…that’s whjat I’m craving today after eating all those mithais! Happy Diwali Deeba.
Nachiketa
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!! is all I can say………
Maggie
Great looking sauce and pizza! I had holes in my dough but it was still fun to try the tossing.
Venus ~ Vi
I love this deep dish style pizza!!! It looks fantastic!
Clumbsy Cookie
Lovely photos and lovely pizza! What a nice sauce! And really cool Halloween things you’ve been doing as well!
Jeanne
Your pizza looks outstanding! And it seems you had a lot of fun tossing the dough around 🙂
panchpakwan
Hi,
Your Pizza is nice! and the method, tips shared by you is just gr8. Im just a budding blogger, when i saw your blog…oh my god you inspired me to bake. Thank you so much for sharing your valuble tips and recipes. We loved the pizza when it was baked on 3 day..I have also parepared your style pizza but not so looking good as Ur’s.
Is it ok if a mention ur blog name that i have adapted from you..?
Unbelieveable Stuff
I always loved looking at your photos….