4 pizzas
Diavola
- Hydration
- 65%
- Dough ball
- 250g
- Fermentation
- 49h
- Salt
- 2.8%
- Bake
- 60–90 sec
- Oven
- Wood-fired oven
- Makes
- 4pizzas
- Active time
- 30min
Ingredients
- Dough ball PizzaLovers house dough 65%, cold-fermented 48 h
- 250 g
- Peeled San Marzano tomatoes, crushed by hand
- 70 g
- Fior di latte, diced and drained
- 80 g
- Salame piccante, thinly sliced 8–10 slices
- 35 g
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 6.0 g
- Fresh chilli, thinly sliced optional
- 2.0 g
Total dough443 g
Open this recipe in the calculator
Scale up or down — the yeast is recalculated automatically.
Method
- Take the dough balls out of the fridge 2–3 hours before baking and let them sit covered at room temperature.
- Preheat the oven well in advance: 45–60 minutes for a steel in a home oven, 20–30 minutes for a gas oven, longer for a wood oven. Measure the floor with an IR thermometer — you want around 450 °C (840 °F).
- Stretch the ball by hand from the centre outward on a semola-floured surface. Never touch the outer two centimetres.
- Lay the salami slices on top of the cheese, spaced out so they have room to curl.
- Drizzle the oil between the slices, not over them.
- Slide the pizza in and bake for 60–90 seconds. Turn it two or three times so the crust colours evenly.
- Let the pizza rest for a few seconds, add anything meant to go on after the oven, and serve straight away.
A Diavola is decided by the salami. Put it under the cheese and it steams; put it on top and it curls up and releases its fat into the cheese. We put it on top, always.
Neapolitan tradition – a modern classic on every Neapolitan menu, but not part of the AVPN disciplinare.
Topping order
- Tomato sauce
- Fior di latte
- Salami on top
- Olive oil
Common mistakes
- Salami under the cheese – it ends up pale and chewy instead of crisp.
- Slices too thick to render in ninety seconds.
- Too many slices, leaving a pool of fat in the middle of the pizza.
Tips
- Ask the deli counter to slice the salami at 1 mm. That is the difference between crisp and chewy.
- In a home oven, add the salami halfway through, or it will burn.
Variations
- Salame piccante – with a coarser, spicier sausage and no chilli.
- With a drizzle of honey after baking, sweet against the heat.
- With friarielli for a fully Neapolitan version.
Recalculate the recipe
Want a different number of pizzas, a different ball weight or a different time in the fridge? The calculator is prefilled with this recipe’s values.
Open the calculator with the Diavola settings
Read more
- Neapolitan pizza dough – the full recipe and the why behind it
- Salumi on pizza – salsiccia, prosciutto, mortadella
- Salame Piccante
- Topping order – what goes on when
- Baking steel – thickness, placement and care
