Baking Neopolitan-Style Pizza at Home in the Ooni Volt
Everything you need to know about coaxing restaurant-worthy Neapolitan pizzas from the electric Ooni Volt - a fast, versatile, compact, high-quality pizza oven. (spoiler: your kitchen's about to become the neighborhood's favorite pizzeria).
Equipment
- Infrared (IR) thermometer to read the stone temperature
- wooden and/or metal pizza peels 12 inches wide or smaller; it must be smaller than the oven cavity, which is a tiny bit over 13 inches wide.
Ingredients
- 250 g Neapolitan pizza dough 60-65% hydration (use our Neapolitan pizza calculator to change the hydration or use our Neapolitan pizza dough recipe) (see Note 1)
- 80 g San Marzano tomatoes crushed
- 80 g fresh mozzarella torn into chunks and patted dry
- Fresh basil leaves
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat to 800°F (allow at least 20 minutes) and wait for the stone to reach at least 750°F (use IR gun and measure stone temperature in three spots)
- Stretch dough to 12 inches or your desired size, on a lightly floured surface
- Before dressing the pizza, brush off as much flour as possible from the dough (top or bottom).
- Transfer the dough to a lightly floured pizza peel (try to minimize this as excess flour will burn the bottom of your pizza), and then top with crushed tomatoes, leaving a 1/2 inch border, and add mozzarella chunks. Give the pizza a few shakes throughout this process to ensure it's not sticking.
- To prevent the pizza from sticking on the peel: (1) Make sure your wood peel is completely dry and rub flour INTO the peel, keeping very minimal flour on top. (2) If you are new to this, please minimize the toppings as they make the pizza more challenging to transfer.
- If the pizza sticks: (1) you can try carefully lifting an edge, throwing a bit of flour under it, and then shaking the pizza on the peel. (2) Ooni also suggests lifting the edge and blowing under the pizza to create air pockets (I haven't tried this yet).
- Increase the oven temperature to 850°F to get the top heating element fired up and wait 30 seconds for the element to glow red hot.
- Launch the pizza using a pizza peel (I like to use a wooden peel to launch and a metal peel to retrieve it) with the door open and leave the door ajar. Cook for 30 to 45 seconds, rotate 180 degrees, and bake for 30 to 45 seconds until charred.
- Remove the pizza, and add basil and olive oil. Rest for 1 to 2 minutes before cutting.
Making More than One Pizza?
- If you are making more than one pizza, keep the door closed between pizzas and use the boost function only if needed to reheat the stone (use an IR thermometer to measure the stone temperature).
- To use the boost function, turn the balance dial entirely to the left (ie, counterclockwise). You will see a flashing icon showing that it has been engaged to boost the temperature for 45 seconds. Note this function will not work if the oven is in the process of coming to temperature. Boost can be stopped by pressing or turning the dial at any time.
Notes
Note 1: If your dough was refrigerated, please leave it at room temperature about 4 hours before using it.
Quick Tips for Better Results:
- Keep the door open during high-temp bakes for better char
- Monitor stone temperature with IR gun - aim for a minimum 750°F before launch
- If getting too much char before the bottom is done, reduce dough hydration by 2-3%
- Between multiple pizzas, use the boost function (lightning bolt) to recharge stone
- Take IR readings in three spots - front, middle, and back of stone
- Pre-stretch next dough while current pizza cooks, but don't top until ready to launch
- For stuck residue, wait for stone to cool completely before scraping at 45-degree angle and flip the stone after each use (after it has completely cooled).
- Keep toppings and cheese to a minimum - these make the pizza soggy and also make it harder to launch the pizza.