Artisan Bread - Neapolitan Pizza Dough

The secrets to this pizza are to keep the crust thin, don’t overload it, and to bake it quickly at a high temperature so it ­doesn’t cook down to a soup. It’s unlike anything most of us are used to eating — especially if you use fresh mozzarella!

1 pound ­pre-­mixed boule doughCornmeal for covering the pizza peel

Topping: your favorite seasonal ingredients

1. 20 minutes before baking, preheat the oven with a baking stone (scraped clean) at your oven’s maximum temperature — the hotter, the better. (Another option is to use the baking stone over a grill, which takes about two-thirds of the time.)

2. Prepare the toppings in advance. The key to a pizza that slides right off the peel is to work ­quickly.

3. Follow Step 5 of The Master Recipe (above).

4. Flatten the dough into a 1/8-inch-thick round with your hands and a rolling pin on a wooden board. Dust with flour to keep the dough from sticking. (A little sticking can help overcome the dough’s re­sis­tance to stretching, though, so don’t overuse flour.) You also can let the partially rolled dough relax for a few minutes to allow further rolling. Stretching by hand may help, followed by additional rolling. Place the rolled-­out dough onto a liberally ­cornmeal-­covered pizza peel.

5. Distribute your toppings over the surface, leaving some of its surface exposed so you can appreciate the individual ingredients—and the magnificent crust! — of the final product. No further resting is needed.

6. Turn on the exhaust fan (or use lower heat and bake a few minutes longer), because some of the cornmeal will smoke. Slide the pizza onto the stone (­back-­and-­forth shakes can help dislodge it). Check for doneness in 8 to 10 minutes. Turn the pizza around if one side is browning too fast. It may need up to 5 more minutes.

7. Allow to cool slightly on a rack before serving.