Pizza Cooking Class

I love Neapolitan style pizza. It is probably my favorite kind of pizza, not only because the crust is extra fluffy but also because Neapolitan pizza puts the focus on high quality toppings, such as fresh buffala mozzarella cheese or Italian charcuterie.

Unfortunately, it is not easy to find a good Neapolitan pizza in Luxembourg, except maybe for Oggi e Domani. You will also have better luck in Brussels (I can recommend Basil's or Nona).

I found @franzpizzalux on Instagram and Facebook, where he posts pictures of amazing looking pizzas. Apart from that, he actually offers Neapolitan, Roman, gluten-free pizza as well as bread cooking classes in Differdange, in the south of Luxembourg, where he teaches you how to make these delicious pizzas yourself. I contacted him on Instagram, and he was so kind to send me all the details for the cooking class via e-mail.

Just to break it down, a cooking class is 45 Euros per Person and includes drinks (a beer, glass of wine or soft drink as well as water), snacks, and the pizza tasting (my favorite part of course). The whole class took about 3 hours and can either be given in English, French and of course Italian.

So, we were 4 people in total and Francesco welcomed us to his impeccably clean apartment. He has a large, open kitchen with an island, which allows participants to take a seat and watch him prepare the pizza and demonstrate his techniques.

Francesco started of by introducing himself and telling us a bit about his experience as a pizzaiolo before explaining his recipe and the importance of respecting the exact amounts of ingredients as well as the percentage of hydration of the dough. Francesco also showed us different kinds of flour that you should or should not use.

He has actually developed a Neapolitan pizza recipe which you can do at home in your domestic oven, however in the class, you are able to use his professional, high-temperature oven, to get the ultimate Neapolitan pizza experience. He will also give you tips on where to buy quality ingredients here in Luxembourg.

There are a lot of little details which are really important and that can make a big difference, so he took the time to demonstrate each step in the dough-making process. This part of the class was actually highly educational. As there is some fermentation involved in the process, he had already prepared another dough ahead of time which we were then using to actually make our pizzas.

After showing us the technique how to make a perfect dough ball, Francesco showed off his skills and made us a traditional Margarita pizza with a tomato base, pecorino, fresh buffala mozzarella and fresh basil, which we immediately devoured.

Afterwards, each of us got to make their own pizza, with different toppings and I think that my pizza came out amazing (which I credit to my experience working in an Italian restaurant during college).

It is important to get a feeling for the dough and how to handle it. Francesco showed us how to shape the dough, while preserving all those nice air bubbles created during the fermentation process and which make the dough so light and fluffy.

Stretching the dough is probably one of the harder steps in the recipe as you should, in fact, not stretch the dough at all but rather let gravity work its magic. However, if you follow all the steps in the recipe and make a good quality dough, this step is not that hard and Francesco patiently showed each of us how to do it and offered constructive feedback.

My pizza was a white base pizza, with buffala mozzarella, freshly grated pecorino (which I prefer over Parmesan), olive oil and topped with thinly-sliced mortadella, pistachio creme and crushed pistachios after it came out hot of the oven. It was amazing and I really enjoyed the sweet note of the pistachio cream.

Besides the mortadella pizza as well as the traditional margarita pizza we also enjoyed a marinara with tomato sauce, pecorino, fresh garlic and fresh oregano (added after cooking) as well as a prosciutto pizza. I was surprised by the amazing flavor of the marinara pizza, the fresh garlic not only smelled amazing but also gave a nice kick to the pizza. I am already thinking about making a garlic-jalapeno pizza.

So in total, we made 5 pizzas, and each one of us had had 5 quarter slices of pizza and believe me, we did not leave Francesco's house hungry.

He was a great host and after the baking-session patiently answered all of our questions and gave tips on how to best achieve the experience at home. A couple of things to consider, you will need a pizza stone (which you can find on Amazon for about 20 Euros) and a bench scraper will also tremendously help you with the process. But other than this, you should have all the instruments at home.

Francesco is an extremely knowledgeable guy and if you want to step up your pizza game, this will be the class for you. Considering the price, which includes an alcoholic beverage, water, and for us, more than a whole pizza per person with great quality ingredients, it is a steal. Also, you can actually get your hands dirty and Francesco will help you adjust your technique, if necessary.

Furthermore, Francesco will also help you out with any future problems or questions you might have when trying the recipe at home. Do you need some inspiration for pizza toppings? Just let him know, and he will send you some suggestions!

As a family activity, a nice evening with friends or just as an educational experience, Francesco's pizza class is great and highly informative and I can only recommend it. The only hard decision you have to make is which class to take first. I for my part would like to see how to make a Roman style pizza next.