Most pizza dough is made in the morning and baked by lunch. Ours is three days old before it meets the oven, and that is the whole point.
It is a Neapolitan-style dough, and it proofs for seventy-two hours. There is no instant yeast in it: the rise comes from the dough itself, slowly. A slow rise does two things. It builds flavour that a two-hour dough never gets to, and it makes the bread easier on the body — people tell us it sits lighter, and it does not leave them bloated.
It is also a wet dough — close to fifty per cent hydration. That is where the bubbles in the crust come from, and why the middle stays light and fluffy rather than dense.
And every batch begins with the last one. The mother dough has been carried forward, batch to batch, for thirteen years. That continuity is the flavour; it is also why the dough behaves the way it does.
On Thursdays the gluten-free and vegan pizzas are discounted. Ask at the counter for the week’s price — and if you want to know what three days does to a crust, that is the day to find out.
