atlgirl,
There is an old Confucius saying that says:
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. You should start slowly. Otherwise, if you try to read and absorb too much at a time it will be like trying to drink water out of a fire hose. I would heed the advice of some of the other members and start with the Neapolitan style pizzas since you have a wood-fired oven which should serve you well with that style. I wouldn’t worry about baker’s percents or spreadsheets and the like. That will come slowly or, if you wish, not at all. What pace you wish to proceed at will be entirely up to you. We have beginning pizza makers and professionals as members of the forum and just about everyone in between. We are all here to learn.
As far as reading material is concerned, I would do as Lydia has suggested and start by reading the forum’s Pizza Glossary a few times. Not for purposes of comprehension, since a glossary is not intended or organized for that. It is to become familiar with the terms so that you recognize them as you read the various posts. As you learn and start to feel more comfortable with the subject matter, you can then refer back to the Glossary for greater understanding.
I have been recommending the following thread for beginning pizza makers--especially those who are interested in the NY style--although it has general relevance to doughs for other applications:
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,2223.0.html. What I and others have tried to do at that thread is to provide more detail than you will usually get from most recipes on dough and pizza making. We tried to anticipate and provide answers to many of the questions that beginning pizza makers ask and to tell them where a lot of the potholes are so that they can avoid them as much as possible. Unfortunately, there is a limit to what can be done with words and photos. Practice and experience take time.
If you want to buy a book on pizza making, my recommendation would be Peter Reinhart’s
American Pie. A review of
American Pie can be found on the forum, at
http://www.pizzamaking.com/pizza_books.html. Since Peter Reinhart wrote about his trip to Italy, it should fit well with the Neapolitan pizza theme. It will also help in understanding the basics of pizza making and the different types and styles of pizzas that are indigenous to different parts of the country. When you are ready to try recipes, you can try some from the book or you can find them here. I personally think that the forum’s recipes are better than most I have read in any pizza cookbook, and I have quite a few such cookbooks. You will not find many recipes for 00 doughs in cookbooks, so I wouldn’t try finding one. I know of only one 00 dough cookbook recipe, in one book (Morgan-Gemignani). There's well over a dozen or two on the forum.
I have tried the Delverde 00 flour that you asked about. Until the Caputo 00 Pizzeria flour came along, I tried the Delverde 00 flour. Since I did not know what the flour was all about or how best to use it, it took me a lot of experimenting to figure it out. By that time, the Caputo 00 Pizzeria flour came along and I never looked back. I think the Delverde should work reasonably well for recipes calling for the Caputo 00 flour so I wouldn’t dispose of it. When you are done, you can switch to a Caputo flour.
Good luck and happy learning.
Peter
