I was a bit spoiled in my home country where I was just a few blocks away from a VPN certified (Verace Pizza Napoletana) pizzeria.

Switzerland does pretty well with a thin crust but I'm craving an authentic Napoli style pizza with Bufala mozzarella, fresh basil and even thinner crust.

Anyone able to help out with a recommendation around the Swiss, France, or Germany border? VPN certified is ideal

Anymore Emmentaler on my pizza and I'm going to gag!

I'll be making some at home tonight!

Tom

Make your own? Buy mozzarella cheese, sauce, basil, roll out the pastry and bake it. Cheaper, tastes perfect, and you feel satisfaction.

Yes, but you also need a pizza oven to get the crust right (which I have, though it's gas fired rather than wood).

Tom

There are a few things you really can't make at home and proper Pizza Napolitana is one of them. You need a proper wood fired oven to get the right temperature and wood flavour - proper pizza is only cooked for a couple of minutes and that defines everything else: that you must use dry tomato sauce, pressed, dry mozzarella etc. It's also what gives the dough that crisp, bubbled texture.

Try here http://www.pizzarating.ch for pizza ratings in Switzerland.

Edit: you can try make Roman style pizza at home. It's a different thing though, but really good for the upcoming winter months.

Well, I find preheating my 6cm thick stone in my modified gas-grill for one hour or more gives a perfect crust in only a couple minutes (unless you make the crust too thick, or use ingredients that are too wet or too much).

Makes great tarte flambee, too (also on the menu tonight).

Tom

Nom, nom, nom....

So what time's dinner?

I have a great cold fermentation recipe for the dough if you're interested, though you'll need to travel to get proper pizza flour. You can also get a baking stone for your oven (not looked for them here so I don't know where you might find one, but it should be attainable). There's nothing like fresh home-made pizza (especially since it won't cost 100CHF to feed the family...).

Get a sheet of granite from a tile shop or builders' yard. Don't buy a commercial baking stone and they're rarely thick enough.

Hey mate, I've never been to hardware store here. Can you recommend any where I can get granite for this purpose? Any idea what the costs would be?

Cheers

20:30 or so!

Tom

We use the circular pizza pans with holes in them. Whack 'em in a hot fan oven and you get great thin crispy bases.

Which are all belong to us, naturally.

I bought mine in Alsace (Soufflenheim), at a place that makes them (they're made from baked clay, which absorbs moisture and gives you a crispier crust, and you can get them in any size/thickness you want)

Tom

Exactly, the tin trays are sold at the Coop. Turn the oven up to the highest temperature, put some wooden chips inside the hot oven for added flavour.

If you are desperate for stone, ask at the stone mason, one near every cemetary in town.

You can even get untreated terracotta tiles. That'll should do the trick.

Meanwhile made the dough at lunchtime, as well as the sauce (though I need to cook it down some more), also made a larger pizza peal after work (27x50cm) to use the full size of my stone with one large pizza rather than two small ones at a time. I'll fire up the grill around 19h, and meanwhile prepare the toppings, bacon and onions for the tartes flambees, various stuff for the pizze (yes, I know that the English plural is pizzas, but that is just so WRONG when you live in an Italian speaking place!)

Tom

Maybe, but they might not be heat resistant, and explode!

Tom

I don't know where the OP is located but Golosone in Zurich and Argentino's in Lugano do the best pizzas I've experienced in "Swiss"

No then don't... You may have to change them if they crack over time. They are clay and have been fired in ovens much hotter than your oven. You should get the thick old fashioned unglazed floor tiles. Google search will give you lots of info on how to choose the right one.

One more thing, you should consider throwing the pizza on the BBQ grill! They do that down here & it's yummy! Pizza a la parrilla.

I'm still waiting for someone to schedule the VPN pizza party... *whistling at the stars, drawing angels in the sand with foot*