4 pizzas
Bufalina
- 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
- 60 g
- Mozzarella di bufala campana DOP drained for at least an hour
- 95 g
- Fresh basil
- 3.0 g
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 7.0 g
Total dough415 g
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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.
- Spread the sauce thinner than usual; it should only colour the base.
- Place five or six large pieces of buffalo mozzarella and drizzle the oil between 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.
Bufalina differs from Margherita Extra by giving the cheese even more room: less sauce, no hard cheese, fewer but larger pieces. It is a pizza for anyone who wants to taste the buffalo milk.
Neapolitan tradition – close to the AVPN margherita, but with a different amount of sauce and no hard cheese.
Topping order
- Thin tomato sauce
- Buffalo mozzarella in large pieces
- Basil
- Olive oil
Common mistakes
- Treating it like a margherita with more cheese – that drowns the pizza.
- Bufala that hasn't been drained, the most common cause of a soggy centre.
Tips
- Tear the cheese by hand instead of cutting it; the whey drains out more easily.
- Serve straight away. Bufala turns rubbery as the pizza cools.
Variations
- With fresh pomodorini instead of sauce.
- Bianca bufalina, with no tomato at all.
Recalculate the recipe
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Read more
- Neapolitan pizza dough – the full recipe and the why behind it
- Mozzarella di bufala – when it's worth it
- Mozzarella for pizza – choosing, drying and portioning
- Mozzarella water content – a test plan for five cheeses
- Margherita Extra
- Stretching – push the gas towards the rim, never out of it
