ALFI Pizza Making Class. Discover Delicious Pizza Making The Napoli Way.

Andy Mossack joins an ALFI pizza making class in Spitalfields to learn how to create the perfect Napoli pizza.

Tucked away deep inside the bowels of Spitalfields market you’ll find ALFI, a pizza restaurant that takes pizza making very seriously. In here people talk about their 36-hour cold fermented and 80% hydrated dough in hushed tones of pure reverence. After all, this is no ordinary run of the mill pizza dough. No sir. It is 100% Neapolitan dough, a recipe taken straight from Naples, the home of Neapolitan pizza.

Co-founders Ben Hodges and Alex Lewis two hospitality veterans who certainly know a thing or two about the art of making people happy. I mean, who doesn’t like pizza? That said, they have taken the humble pizza and turned it into a hero food.

As they remarked “Every pizza is handmade with patience because we believe that’s what creates something worth coming back for. For us, it’s about balance, flavour and quality. By giving our dough the time it needs to naturally ferment, we create a pizza that’s full of flavour, beautifully light and easy to digest, leaving guests feeling satisfied rather than weighed down.”

So I was intrigued. I wanted to find out if their obsession for pizza perfection was really worth all the fuss, and so an invitation to attend one of their pizza-making workshops was gleefully accepted.

I have to admit the mound of white flour in front of me seemed rather ordinary, just a white mound really, hardly in keeping with its royal status. Yet, once I made a dent into its middle, it yielded so perfectly, it had to be something special. This was the beginning then. A small volcano vent into which we pour water and gently mix in the flour from the sides. “Gently does it” said our mentor, “we don’t want any globs, just a lovely smooth paste.”

This was all going pretty smoothly. My dough was beginning to take shape. Same again with more water but this time adding a little yeast and salt.

Mentor again: “Now we knead”

I wouldn’t say I was a teacher’s pet, but I sat there a little smugly with my lovely rounded smooth mound of precious dough in front of me having let the poor dear rest for 5 minutes.

Now the magic happened as I needed to cover it and leave for three hours until it doubled in size. Fortunately for us, ALFI had “some we made earlier” and these babies had the full 36 hour 80% dehydrated treatment. A swap I gladly approved of.

But there was still plenty of work to be done here. We had to dust our dough and work boards with semolina flour (helps to make the crust crunchier) and then begin shaping our pizza, which is where things began to go horribly wrong for me.

“Place one hand over the other, interlace your fingers and press with your fingertips into the dough three times” intoned our teacher who had previously demonstrated a flawless technique. “Now flip the dough over, turn and repeat.”

Okay, seemed easy enough. But it all began to unravel when I started spreading it out. “Stretch it out whilst rotating in a circular motion.” Was the order, which is easier said than done.

It got worse.

We were approaching the the final straight now, lifting the whole thing, resting it over our knuckles, and rotating to let gravity take over.

I’m not ashamed to say what was meant to be a perfect circle base ended up up an oblong slab. Oh, the shame.

With my dignity in shreds, I accepted another base perfectly made by our mentor.

But now at least the fun started, loading our pizza with all kinds of goodies. I mean, why just have a Neapolitan when you can throw in the kitchen sink.

With perhaps a quick look of utter astonishment, the team took my pizza away to the kitchen to cook and emerged a few minutes later with a beautifully bubbly steaming pizza fit for a Roman emperor.

It was worth all the effort and humiliation to finally sit down and devour the result of my hard work. It was simply art on a plate.

ALFI’s workshops don’t stop at pizza making, they also run classes on pasta making, scented candles, cocktails and paint and sip.

ALFI is at heart a neighbourhood Italian which happens to be in London’s Spitalfields. With a full menu of Italian staples as well as the aforementioned hand made pizzas, it offers plenty of la dolce vita. I’m sure Naples would heartily approve.