Salt in Neapolitan Pizza Dough

Why do you need salt in your pizza dough? And why does Neapolitan pizza dough contain so much salt?

This article will answer these questions plus everything else you need to know about salt in Neapolitan pizza dough. But the principles apply to any type of pizza dough, not only Neapolitan-style.

The amount of salt in the dough can completely change the flavor, texture, and rising time. Adjusting the salt content is also a way to account for differences in weather and temperatures to get the perfect pizza dough every time! So if you want amazing pizza, you need to understand salt, how it affects the dough and crust, and how to adjust the salt content to get exactly the dough you’re looking for.

Salt enhances the flavor of the crust, strengthens the gluten, and controls the fermentation. And even though Neapolitan pizza dough contains 2.5-3% salt most of the time, the perfect amount depends on fermentation time and temperature, and, what kind of dough you want to make.

Salt strengthens gluten

One of the most important reasons your pizza dough needs salt is that it helps to strengthen your dough. This makes the dough able to keep its shape during a long leave. A stronger will also make more air bubbles and give you a soft, open crumb. It also makes the dough elastic and less prone to tearing when you stretch the pizza.

What is gluten?

Gluten is a collection of proteins found in wheat flour. These proteins are what hold the pizza dough together and make it elastic and able to keep its shape. When the gluten proteins absorb water they start to form a network, almost like a fishing net, that gives the dough structure. Gluten also plays an important role in trapping gas that the yeast produces during fermentation, which is also why the dough increases in volume.

How salt affects gluten

Salt changes the gluten composition and the structure of the gluten network. So when you add more salt the way the gluten network forms changes, resulting in a stronger network. This gives the dough more structure. And the more salt you add, the stronger the gluten network gets.

A strong network is important for the dough to keep its structure and shape when you leave it to rise for 8-24 hours.

The stronger gluten structures also prevent the dough from tearing when you stretch it out to form your pizza base.

Have you ever seen pizza acrobatics? When they throw pizza dough in the air, they use dough with a lot of salt. So much that the dough is uneatable. But all the extra salt makes the structure of these doughs so strong that it can handle all the throwing.

Since more salt makes the gluten a lot stronger you need to leave the dough longer in balls before stretching the dough to let the gluten relax. Otherwise, you may find the dough too elastic and hard to stretch

The way salt alters the formation of gluten also helps the dough get less sticky and easier to work with. So a dough with more salt will be easier and less sticky than a dough with less salt.

Salt slows down the fermentation

Neapolitan pizza was also made before controlled temperature or refrigeration existed. So they had to find another way to slow down the yeast to prevent over-proofing in the summer heat of Naples. The answer was salt.

Salt makes the yeast less active and slows down the fermentation process. This means it takes longer for the dough to be proofread. And time is the key to a good pizza crust. A long slow rise will give you both better flavor and a more digestible crust.

So by adjusting the salt content, you can control the rate of fermentation. By adding more salt, the fermentation will slow down and be slower, and by adding less salt it will be faster.

Neapolitan pizza dough is typically left to rise at room temperature (around 64-77°F, or 18-25°C) for 8-24 hours. So in addition to small quantities of yeast, salt slows down the yeast and extends the fermentation time.

Salt improves the flavor of the crust

Another important reason to add salt to your pizza dough is that it works as a flavor enhancer, making the crust taste better! If you haven’t tried bread without salt, I can tell you it tastes like cardboard, and that’s not what you want your pizza crust to taste like.

With a salty dough, it is however important to balance the saltiness of the pizza with the toppings. With e.g. 3% salt in the dough, you want to be a little careful with your toppings, and not add too salty sauce or toppings. There has to be a balance between the saltiness of the crust and toppings for the pizza to taste good.

Salt helps brown and crisp the crust

Salt also helps the crisping and browning of the pizza dough during baking.

Salt affects everything

Firstly, adding more or less salt to the dough will affect many things. It will not only change the gluten strength the fermentation time or any of the other things mentioned in this article. All the ingredients play together.

The most important consideration is how it affects the yeast. Because yeast doesn’t like salt that much. So if you don’t want to mess with the fermentation time, you need to add more yeast when you add more salt, and less yeast when you add less salt.

What type of salt is best for Neapolitan pizza dough?

Salt is salt. It doesn’t really matter what kind of salt you use for pizza dough, as long as it’s pure salt (sodium chloride). But traditionally fine sea salt is used for Neapolitan pizza dough.

Finely ground salt is preferable since it will dissolve more easily. So that’s going to make your life easier when you make pizza dough.

How much salt do you need for Neapolitan pizza dough?

Neapolitan pizza dough contains 2.5-3% salt in baker’s percentages.

Like for any other ingredient in the dough, you must measure the salt accurately to get a consistent result. Otherwise, you might end up with a very different dough than you planned. The difference between 2% and 3% salt is huge, both when it comes to flavor, rise, and how elastic the dough is.

Volume measurements, like tablespoons, aren’t accurate. The size of tablespoons also varies a lot from spoon to spoon. I, therefore, strongly recommend using a gram scale to measure your salt.

How to calculate salt using baker percentages

Baker’s percentages are a way of listing ingredients used by bakers to make it easier to scale recipes. All ingredients are measured compared to the amount of flour in the dough and are usually shown in grams.

So if a recipe asks for 3% salt, and you use 1000g of flour, you need 30g (1000g/100*3) of salt.

Other ways of listing salt in recipes (don’t be confused!)

In many Italian recipes, salt is measured compared to the amount of water in the dough, and you typically see 4-5% salt.

You’ll also sometimes see salt measured compared to the total weight of the dough.

Different ways of listing salt in pizza dough can be confusing. And if you make a mistake, you will probably mess up the dough. E.g. 5% salt compared to flour will be very salty! It’s therefore important to know how your recipe lists salt.

Salt for cold fermented Neapolitan pizza

When cold fermenting pizza you need less salt. A good starting point is 1.5-2%.

During cold fermentation, you most commonly store the dough in the fridge, at temperatures around 40° F (4°C). The low temperature will slow down the yeast a lot, so you don’t want to slow it down even more by adding too much salt.

Can you make Neapolitan pizza dough with less salt?

If you’re health-conscious or used to a low-salt diet, you might think Neapolitan pizza dough contains too much salt. But you can make great dough with less salt too, you just have to make a few adjustments.

Reduce the amount of yeast

You can reduce the yeast to slow down the fermentation. So instead of using salt to make the yeast less active and slow down, you use smaller quantities of yeast.

Use cold fermentation

Another option is to use cold fermentation instead of rising the dough at room temperature. The low temperature will slow down the yeast, so you need less salt in the dough to control fermentation.

Here’s a recipe for cold fermented pizza dough

Use a stronger flour

With lower salt doughs, you need stronger flour since the salt will not strengthen the gluten as much. Good strong flours are Caputo Chef’s Flour (affiliate link) or King Arthur Bread Flour (affiliate link).

When to add salt in the dough-making process?

When to add salt is an ongoing discussion. However, according to the AVPN (The True Neapolitan Pizza Association), you should start with water, and then dissolve the salt into the water before adding yeast and flour.

Some people do however worry that adding the yeast directly into the salty water will kill the yeast, and avoid adding the salt later. More on that in the next section.

Does salt kill the yeast?

Yes, salt will kill the yeast. If you put yeast in direct contact with high concentrations of salt, it can kill the yeast, but it does take some time. So even dissolving the yeast in salty water, as mentioned in the section above, isn’t going to affect the yeast unless you leave it there for 10-15 minutes. As long as you mix in the flour within a few minutes, you don’t need to worry!

When to add more salt to the pizza dough

You should increase the amount of salt in the dough:

• For long room-temperature fermentation
• For high fermentation temperatures
• For fermentation in high humidity
• For high hydration doughs
• If the dough is too soft when stretching (not elastic enough)

When to add less salt to the pizza dough

You should add less salt to the dough:

• For lower ferment temperatures and cold fermentation
• For shorter fermentation times
• For fermentation in low humidity
• For lower hydration doughs
• If the dough is too tough (elastic – springs back when stretching)

Conclusion

The main reason salt is so essential in Neapolitan pizza dough is that it facilitates a long, slow fermentation. At around 3% salt, it slows down the yeast and strengthens the gluten, which both help a long ferment. Salt also improves the flavor. And this combination of slow fermentation and flavor enhancement is what makes the crust so good.

Salt can however be hard to master because it affects so many things. So it requires some practice to get down just the right amount and to know when to adjust the salt and how to adjust it. But mastering salt will definitely improve your pizza game, and allow you to make better Neapolitan pizza!