4 pizzas
Mastunicola
- 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
- Lard (strutto) can be swapped for olive oil
- 12 g
- Pecorino romano, grated
- 25 g
- Black pepper, freshly ground
- 0.5 g
- Fresh basil
- 3.0 g
Total dough291 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.
- Dot the lard in small dabs over the dough; it melts into a layer of fat under the cheese.
- Sprinkle over the pecorino and add pepper. The basil only goes on once the pizza is out of the oven.
- 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.
Before the tomato reached Naples there was Mastunicola: lard, pecorino, pepper and basil. It tastes older than anything else on this site, and it is surprisingly good.
Neapolitan tradition – a documented historical Neapolitan pizza, but not part of the AVPN disciplinare.
Topping order
- Lard in small dabs
- Pecorino
- Black pepper
- Basil after baking
Common mistakes
- Too much lard makes the base heavy and soggy.
- Baking the basil – it turns black and bitter on this dry surface.
Tips
- Lard is sold at butchers, well-stocked supermarkets and Asian grocers.
- Switch to 10 g olive oil if you want a vegetarian version.
Variations
- With olive oil instead of lard.
- With a little grated provolone to soften the saltiness.
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 Mastunicola settings
Read more
- Neapolitan pizza dough – the full recipe and the why behind it
- Olive oil for pizza – in the dough, on the pizza or afterwards
- Bianca
- Cosacca
- Stretching – push the gas towards the rim, never out of it
