- Country
- Poland
- Involvements
- Apprentice
- Themes
- Apprenticeship
We gained professional experience as part of internships in Italy through Erasmus+. Our restaurant mainly prepared seafood dishes but also specialised in pizza making. Making pizza in Italy was one of our travel dreams and we managed to make it come true.
Pizza dough takes a long time to rise, but it’s relatively easy to prepare. A small amount of yeast, water, salt, oil and flour allows you to create something amazing. We learned that, to prepare a Neapolitan-style pizza, you need an oven that reaches 450 degrees and is fired with wood.
We had the opportunity to watch pizza baking in a special oven in the restaurant. The type of flour also matters. It turns out that Italian flours have a certain strength, W, which is a measure of water absorption. Cold water is added, which affects how fast the dough can be kneaded.
The next ingredient is fresh yeast. Very little is added to the pizza dough – one gram. It affects how long it takes the dough to rise. The third ingredient is olive oil or another vegetable oil, which is added to the pizza if the oven temperature cannot reach at least 350 degrees. The Italian food culture is fascinating.