making pizza in naples, italy

My wife and I just got back from a 2-week vacation in Europe. We went to Messina, Venice, Dubrovnik, Florence, Pisa, Rome, Cannes, Nice, Barcelona, and Naples -- it was a whirlwind! Perhaps my favorite memory from the whole trip, though, is getting a pizza-making lesson in Naples. Here are some pics:

The Pizzaiolo at Les GaGá, GiGi.

He didn't speak a ton of English. Mostly GiGi's instruction was, "not-ta too much-a." He uses only San Marzano tomatoes in his sauce, plus buffalo mozzarella, extra virgin olive oil, and basil to top his pizza Margherita. This is good, since it is actually against the law to do otherwise.

He was very precise about the dough, too. "1 liter of water makes 15 pizza, each one weighing 250 grams. Only other ingredients are yeast, salt, and time, about 8 hours."

GiGi and I wave for the camera while the pizza cooks in the background. Seriously, this takes only about a minute. That oven is really, really hot!

The masterpiece! It tasted great. I should have taken pictures of the next three that GiGi made himself, but we were too invested in eating at that point. They were a little bigger (he was better at stretching the dough than I was) and soooo good. I know there is really no chance of reproducing this type of pizza at home without a wood-burning oven, but it was fun to get tips from a master!