Good pizza starts with the crust.

Good pizza starts with a plan.

At Sapidus, pizza starts with homemade dough and time to develop flavour. We mix the dough directly, without a preferment, use a little yeast and let it rise in the fridge. Get to know one dough, one shaping method and your oven before changing everything at once.

Here, we let the dough rise and mature over about two days, mostly in the fridge. Yeast produces gas and aroma compounds, while enzymes and time affect dough behaviour. Longer is not always better: excessive time or warmth can leave dough weak and difficult to shape.

The guide’s simpler basic dough is ready to try and has not yet been recorded as home-tested. The three-flour Master Dough is published separately as home-tested. These are different recipes. Neither is meant to reproduce every regional tradition.

Calculate your next pizza night.

Open Sapidus Pizza to calculate dough quantities, blend up to five flours and plan backwards from baking time. Choose dough-ball weights of 200, 250, 300 or 350 g, or enter your own weight. Master Dough with Nuvola, Cuoco and Manitoba Oro is included as a preset.

Choose 4, 8, 24, 48 or 72 hours of total proving time and see suggested Caputo flours. The app explains when very strong flour may be less suitable for a short rise, and when weaker flour may be less suitable for a long schedule.

Where can you buy the flour? Caputo Doppio Zero, Pizzeria, Nuvola, Cuoco and Manitoba Oro are listed in MENY’s range. This includes all three flours in our Master Dough. Selection and stock may vary by store; check your local MENY before shopping. Nuvola Super, also available as an option in the app, has not been confirmed as available at MENY.

Save doughs and notes on your device, and copy ingredients with a step-by-step method. Available in Norwegian and English.

Beta: fridge fixed at 4°C, selectable room temperature. Original recipe presets keep their fixed yeast ratios. A new time or room temperature creates a clearly labelled automatic estimate; you can also choose manual yeast. The model has not been kitchen-validated for every schedule, so follow the dough’s development.

Open Sapidus Pizza ↗

Simple basic dough – 65% water, fixed recipe ratio.

Master Dough with three flours has its own home-tested recipe. The simpler 65% dough below is a separate original recipe for trying at home. Its fixed ratio is 3 g fresh or 1 g instant dry yeast per 600 g flour. The app’s Simple dough preset uses this same ratio and original schedule; automatic yeast is a separate, preliminary estimate.

The default makes about 1,007 g of dough: four balls of around 252 g for round pizzas about 28–30 cm wide. Choose pizza flour intended for a long rise, or strong wheat flour. Around 12–13% protein is a useful starting point; actual flour strength matters more than the “00” label alone.

65% hydration means 65 g water per 100 g flour. It is a manageable starting point, not a contest to add the most water. Use cool water and avoid overheating dough in a mixer. The basic dough contains no sugar or oil; home-oven adaptations follow below.

The yeast quantity is for the roughly 48-hour schedule with a fridge around 4°C and a room around 20–22°C. It is not a universal dose for both a day on the counter and three days in the fridge. Use instant yeast according to its manufacturer’s directions; other dry yeasts may need different handling.

Allergens: wheat/gluten in the dough. Cheese adds milk; other toppings may add further allergens. Long fermentation does not make ordinary wheat dough gluten-free.

Home-tested: Master Dough with three flours →

Original schedule – proving time and total time.

Example: the first pizza goes into the oven on Saturday at 19:00. Total proving time is 50 hours 50 minutes: 2 hours first rise + 46 hours in the fridge + 2 hours 50 minutes warming. Mixing, autolyse and kneading add 40 minutes, making 51 hours 30 minutes from starting to the first bake. Allow additional time for baking each pizza.

The Master Dough name “48H” refers to the first rise plus cold proof; warming and preparation are additional. The calculator’s 4/8/24/48/72-hour buttons always mean total proving time including warming. For example, 48 hours there means 2 hours first rise + 43 hours cold proof + 3 hours warming, plus preparation. This is a separate calculated schedule, not the unchanged original recipe.

At around 20–22°C, look for soft, airy dough that opens easily. The times guide you; the dough’s actual development determines when it is ready.

1. Autolyse: flour and water only

   Mix the flour with most of the water until all flour is moistened. Reserve a little of the measured water for the yeast. Cover and rest for 20 minutes without yeast or salt.

2. Knead and let rise

   Add the yeast with the reserved water, add the salt and knead until smooth. Follow the yeast manufacturer’s directions. Cover and let rise for about two hours.

3. Shape balls before cold fermentation

   Divide into four equal pieces and shape smooth balls, seam-side down. Place in covered food containers with room to rise and refrigerate straight away.

4. Bring to room temperature, shape and bake

   Take the containers out on Saturday at 16:10 and keep the dough covered. Preheat the oven and pizza steel for 45–60 minutes. Shape gently, top lightly and bake one pizza at a time.

Flour, yeast and temperature: control the dough.

Keep the air where you want the rim.

Lightly dust the worktop with flour or fine semolina. Press from the centre outward, leaving the outer centimetre untouched for an airy rim. Lift over your knuckles and let gravity help stretch. Stop before the centre becomes transparent and tears.

If the dough springs back, cover it and rest for 15–20 minutes. More force or lots of extra flour rarely helps. For Roman thin-crust or tavern-inspired pizza, a rolling pin can help you get an even, flat, crisp base. It is less suitable for a tall, airy Neapolitan-style rim.

Use little dusting flour on the peel and check that the base slides before finishing the toppings. Work quickly: sauce and warm hands can make a thin base wet. Brush away excess flour between bakes so it does not burn.

Match the pizza to your oven.

A domestic oven at 250–300°C bakes differently from a pizza oven above 400°C. Even with the same dough and toppings, the results will differ. Home ovens are especially useful for crisp round pizzas and pan pizzas.

Start with conventional top-and-bottom heat. Preheat a stone or steel for about 45–60 minutes, or as its maker directs. Position depends on your oven: start around the middle and adjust according to whether the base or top needs more heat. Use equipment rated for the temperature.

Domestic oven – 250–300°C: Preheat the pizza steel for 45–60 minutes. Bake for about 5–8 minutes, depending on the oven. If needed, finish briefly under the grill and watch closely.

Pizza toppings – less is more

For four round pizzas, start with one 400 g tin of good tomatoes. Crush or briefly blend and season with roughly 3–4 g fine salt, depending on the tomatoes. Use only what you need: around 60–80 g sauce per pizza is a practical starting point; save the rest for another dish. Sugar is not automatically necessary.

Drain fresh mozzarella and pat lightly dry. Around 70–100 g per pizza is a starting point. Lower-moisture pizza mozzarella suits longer home-oven bakes; fresh mozzarella gives a different, juicier result. A little Parmesan can add flavour without a heavy cheese layer.

Pre-cook raw mince, raw chicken and other toppings needing thorough cooking. Brown mushrooms to release water. Slice onions thinly. Cured ham, rocket and delicate herbs can go on after baking. Let a few good ingredients stand out rather than piling on a wet mountain.

Choose toppings in Sapidus Pizza ↗

Less is more – give the pizza a clear identity

Decide what you want the pizza to taste of most. Choose something that goes with that main flavour, and add something fresh at the end if you like. Mushrooms can have mozzarella and a little Parmesan. Prosciutto can have rocket. Pear can have blue cheese. They do not all need chilli, honey, pesto and balsamic glaze at once.

The Sapidus working rule is 2–4 toppings beyond sauce and a simple base cheese. This is a starting point, not an Italian law. With fewer ingredients, you can taste each one more clearly, adjust the salt and work out what went wrong. A deliberate cheese combination is different from emptying the fridge.

Look at the pizza before baking: can you still see sauce between the pieces? Is the centre lightly covered? Spread toppings across the surface rather than piling them in the middle. A thin round pizza supports less weight than a thick pan pizza. What works on a Detroit-style pizza need not suit a base that bakes quickly.

Quantities: start lightly and adjust after the first pizza

The quantities below are practical Sapidus starting suggestions for a thin round pizza roughly 28–32 cm across. Diameter, dough-ball weight, thickness, ingredients and oven all affect the amount needed. Do not combine every upper limit. If you add a strong cheese or salty topping, reduce other salty ingredients.

The app scales topping quantities by dough-ball weight. This is a practical simplification: doubling the weight does not necessarily double the topping surface. Treat the numbers as starting points and judge coverage. Dough-ball weight means dough alone, excluding toppings.

Moisture: juicy toppings can make a soggy base

Think about how much liquid the toppings will release together. A little tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella and sliced tomato can each work individually; large amounts of all three can leave a wet centre. Baking longer does not always fix it before the rim becomes too dark.

Drain mozzarella. Tear it into smaller pieces and gently pat the surface dry. Drain tinned ingredients well. Sauté mushrooms in an uncrowded pan until their liquid evaporates; cool before topping. Consider pre-cooking courgette, aubergine and chunky onion. Thin onion or pepper strips can be used raw when quantities and baking time suit them.

Avoid large wet vegetable pieces on a pizza that will bake briefly. Cool hot pre-cooked toppings before placing them on the dough. Prepare everything, top the pizza when the oven is ready and bake immediately. Do not leave a topped raw pizza soaking on the peel.

Before or after baking? Let the ingredient decide

Some ingredients need oven heat to melt or brown. Others lose freshness or dry out. Finishing toppings are part of the recipe, not merely decoration. Add them to the baked pizza while it is still warm.

Make the sauce, cheese and toppings work together

Choose the sauce for the flavour you want to emphasise. Red sauce gives a tomato-led, acidic base. A white crème fraîche base is creamy and also acidic; white does not mean flavourless. Pizza bianca does not always need cream or crème fraîche either.

Think about how much salt all the toppings add up to. Prosciutto, Parmesan, olives, anchovies and blue cheese can each contribute plenty. Let one provide most of the flavour, and taste before adding another. Chilli should provide warmth without drowning the ingredients. Honey can contrast with salty cheese, but should not form a blanket that conceals everything else.

Try these combinations: tomato, mozzarella and basil; white base, sautéed mushrooms and Parmesan; tomato, mozzarella and prosciutto with rocket after baking; white base, a little gorgonzola and pear with walnuts after baking. Fig, ricotta and prosciutto is another familiar sweet-and-salty combination. These suggestions are not automatically recorded as home-tested at Sapidus.

Which flavours go together?

We would not start with peppermint and peanut butter on a savoury pizza. The cooling herb flavour and heavy nuttiness can clash. This is a taste judgement, not a dangerous chemical reaction. Peanuts and mint working in other dishes does not make every pizza containing them balanced.

Anchovies and gorgonzola together can become too salty and dominant. Two generous sweet components, such as lots of honey and sweet chutney, can move the pizza towards dessert. Strong chilli, smoked meat and plenty of blue cheese can make individual ingredients hard to distinguish. Smaller amounts or fewer ingredients are often the answer.

Pineapple, fruit and unconventional sauces are not automatically wrong. Ask instead: do the flavours and textures work together? Is there a balance of sweetness, salt, acidity and fat? Test a small pizza first. Change one thing at a time and note what you actually used.

When toppings do not work – find the cause

Before changing the dough recipe, look at what you put on top. A pizza with a good rim and wet centre may have a topping problem. Compare it with a simpler pizza baked using the same dough and oven.

Try it: the same dough with half the topping

Make two matching pizzas with the same sauce, cheese and main topping. On the second, use roughly half as much of the main topping; keep everything else the same. Compare crispness, heaviness, salt and how clearly each ingredient stands out. This is a suggested home experiment, not a documented Sapidus test result.

Finish with three questions: can I taste the base? Can I name the leading flavour? Would removing one thing improve it? Less is more means every ingredient has a job.

Three red sauces: fresh, rich or spicy.

Choose the sauce to suit the toppings and oven. Each batch is intended for several round pizzas of about 28–30 cm; the amount you use matters more than using up the whole batch. Start with a thin layer and leave the rim bare. These are Sapidus recipes for trying at home, not yet recorded as home-tested.

Three white sauces: tangy, fresh or creamy.

White pizza has no tomato sauce; it does not necessarily need a creamy sauce. These three bases are alternatives to tomato, and all contain milk. Use less sauce and cheese than you might expect: white bases are rich. Cool cooked sauces before putting them on the dough.

One foundation, several directions.

Let the dough rise slowly if you like, but adapt the recipe to the pizza style. Neapolitan pizza, cracker-crisp tavern crust and Chicago stuffed have different requirements. The table below suggests things to try next. It does not give authentic recipes for every style.

Pizza styles – and the places they belong to.

Here you will find familiar pizza styles, local versions and regional traditions. The list cannot cover every bakery and local name. Country and region tell you where a style has ties, though of course it can be made elsewhere too. Search by name, city, region or characteristic.

Neapolitan and Detroit describe structure and baking method, among other things. “Sourdough”, “gluten-free” and “wholegrain” describe dough or ingredients and can cut across styles. Nordic and Brazilian entries below are broad regional traditions, not single technical standards. The home-baking tips are our suggestions for adapting the styles.

Close relatives with traditions of their own.

Tarte flambée / Flammkuchen from Alsace in France and neighbouring German areas has a very thin base, often with crème fraîche, onion and bacon. Pissaladière from Nice in Provence, France, is an onion-rich tart with anchovy and olives. Both have traditions of their own.

Lahmacun is a thin flatbread with spiced minced meat, known in Türkiye and the eastern Mediterranean region, among other places. Turkish pide is often boat-shaped and filled. Georgian khachapuri is cheese bread with several regional forms. They can inspire pizza night without everything needing to be called pizza.

Focaccia from Liguria and other Italian regions also overlaps with some pizza breads. Compare the dough, shaping and baking. Use the names correctly and respect the food traditions behind them.

Read the dough and adjust your next bake.