If you’re looking for a healthy option for dinner, pizza probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Modern pizza has been designed as fast food, and the ingredients are chosen to be cheap and long-lasting. Unfortunately, the ingredients and cooking process used to make most fast-food pizzas also tend to be very fatty and empty of nutrients. So, is authentic Italian pizza a healthy pizza? The answer is yes. Before pizza was modernized into the fast-food dish we know and love today, it was a traditional dish with roots dating back centuries. Authentic Neapolitan pizza, or pizza Napoletana, was first invented in the 1800s.

Unlike contemporary pizzas, traditional, natural, and carefully picked ingredients are used to make true Neapolitan pizza. In order for a pizza to be deemed authentic, the mozzarella, tomato sauce, and dough all need to be cooked with fresh, high-quality ingredients. These variations produce an entirely distinct flavor in addition to a far healthier dining experience than you might anticipate. Here is the nutritional information for each component of real Neapolitan pizza that you should be aware of.

1. Cheese

The mozzarella cheese used in real Neapolitan pizza is of a very particular variety. The traditional Neapolitan method employs mozzarella cheese manufactured from Italian water buffalo milk, unlike fast food pizzas that use synthetic cheese. The lack of processing completely alters the texture, flavor, and nutritional value of this cheese. Water buffalo cheese has a high calcium content and none of the undesirable qualities of processed cheese. The water buffalo cheese used in traditional Italian cooking carries a significantly reduced risk of cancer and other health issues than the cheese used on modern pizzas. Real Italian pizza near me search could provide you with amazing healthy variants. 

2. Tomato Sauce

Most pizzas made today use canned or pre-made pizza sauce. The current sauce lacks flavor and nutrition when compared to real Neapolitan pizza sauce. However, authentic Neapolitan pizza does not utilize any old tomato sauce. Only San Marzano or Roma tomatoes may be used to make the sauce on a Neapolitan pizza in order for it to be called authentic. Both of these tomatoes are cultivated close to Mount Vesuvius on volcanic plains. The volcanic ash in the soil there has made it incredibly rich in nutrients, and these nutrients find their way into the tomatoes. Neapolitan tomato sauce is very rich in a number of nutrients that most people aren’t eating enough of. These include Vitamin A, Vitamin B6, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, dietary fiber, and iron.

3. Dough

Do the many dough varieties actually differ from one another? Yes, it is the answer. Pizza joints that serve fast food employ the cheapest, most convenient dough on hand. Due to this, the pizza can be purchased for a pittance, but the quality suffers. The finest ground flour must be used to make dough for authentic Neapolitan pizza. Only the basic ingredients of salt, flour, and water are used to make dough for authentic Neapolitan pizzas. The lack of additional preservatives in this approach results in a dough that is both incredibly nutritious and delicious.

Authentic Italian Pizza recipe

Ingredients for the dough

- With these doses, you will get 850 g / 30 oz of dough (about 3 pizzas of 28-30 cm in diameter)

-  Flour: 500 g / 18 oz of flour 00

 - Water: 350 ml / 12 fl oz of bottled natural mineral water at room temperature

-  Yeast: brewer’s yeast: 7 g / 0.25 oz of fresh yeast (or 3 g / 0.11 oz of dehydrated yeast) – If you prefer not to use yeast, you can alternatively use a teaspoon of baking soda and one of vinegar, preferably apple cider vinegar.

- Oil: 10 g / 0.35 oz of extra virgin olive oil

- Salt: 8 g / 0.3 oz of salt

- Mozzarella cheese: 350 g or 12/13 oz

-  Tomato sauce: 450 g or 16 oz

 - Oil: Extra virgin olive oil as needed

Recipe

The dough needs to be prepared first, of course.

1. Place the dish of sifted flour.
2. Add the finely crumbled brewer's yeast.
3. Use a wooden spoon to combine.
4. Continue stirring while adding the water gradually until the flour has absorbed all of it.

Extra virgin olive oil and salt are added.

5. Continue stirring.
6. At this point, we can also knead the dough by hand for a few minutes to achieve a smooth and uniform consistency.
7. Next, we replace the dough in the bowl and cover it with a layer of clear plastic.
8. In a place protected from currents, the dough must rise for at least 30 minutes at room temperature.
9. A specific temperature must be used for the leavening.

Conclusion