Chef Anthony Mangieri says he has made dough every day since he was 15 years old. Using the skills he’s developed since then, he now mans the ovens at Una Pizza Napoletana on New York City’s Lower East Side. “The style of pizza that I make is rooted in Neapolitan, but it definitely has evolved over 27 years,” says Mangieri. “This is a life’s work.”
Mangieri says he spent his youth reading books all about baking, including French and Italian styles of bread baking, implementing what he learned into the techniques that he uses at his restaurant. “I’m constantly changing my techniques — the idea is set on where I am trying to go, but the recipe is changing,” Mangieri says. “The flour percentage mixtures [changes]; I mix a lot of different flours every day.”
One of his dough-making secrets that has stayed consistent is adding more water to the mix toward the end of the process, which keeps the dough hydrated.
“If you add this at the beginning of the dough it doesn’t come out the same way; the secret is to add more water in like the last five minutes of the mix,” says Mangieri. “For many years, no pizza makers were doing this, this is rooted in ancient French bread baking techniques.”
Watch the full video to see how Mangieri makes different styles of pizza.