Traditionally, pizza is handmade to order without artificial ingredients or preservatives. In fact, pizza dough has only four ingredients: flour, water, salt, and yeast. Artisanal pizza takes more time and effort than their commercial cousins, but the final product is healthier, tastier, and won't leave you feeling heavy.

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Ever wondered why you pay more for artisanal pizza? In addition to the physical labour required to make the dough from scratch and the cost of powering a special pizza oven, the price difference is caused by the cost of quality ingredients, especially the cheese. High quality cheese and tomato sauce do not require additives or flavour enhancers to taste luscious. 

In fact, tomato sauce made using the most sought-after tomatoes in the pizza world, DOP San Marzano tomatoes, typically have nothing else, except a bit of salt, added to the sauce to avoid masking the balanced, natural flavours of this special tomato.

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Next time you have pizza, take a peek underneath! A pale and doughy underside indicates that the pizza could have been cooked longer or at a higher temperature on the base. A perfectly baked pizza should be caramelised beneath. The flavour payoff is akin to the difference between untoasted and toasted bread. 

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Authentic Neapolitan pizza bakes in just 60 to 90 seconds at oven temperatures of up to 480°C. With unwavering concentration, pizza chefs watch each pizza in the oven like a hawk as every second matters at the end of the bake. 

Despite the higher risk of failure, baking pizza at such a high heat creates a soft, fluffy crust with a golden-brown outer layer. These fine details define Neapolitan pizza-making as an art form which is gaining recognition across the world. As a matter of fact, the art of Neapolitan pizza makers is listed as a Unesco Intangible Cultural Heritage!

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