How Long a Neapolitan Pizza Really Takes
You can eat quickly here. The waiting was done two days ago, without you.
You do not need to know any of this
You can order a pizza without knowing what a biga is, how long dough ferments, or why anyone bothers. Plenty of people eat here and never ask. Nothing on this page is a test.
You are probably here because you typed quick pizza into a search box and want to know what you are in for. That is a practical question, so here is a practical answer: what is fast, what is slow, and which of the two is your problem.
The oven takes almost no time
A Neapolitan pizza bakes fast. The EU regulation that registers Pizza Napoletana as a traditional speciality guaranteed, Commission Regulation (EU) No 97/2010, describes a bake of 60 to 90 seconds in a very hot wood oven.
Our oven is copper and gas-fired, and it runs at 400 degrees. We do not stand next to it with a stopwatch, so we will not print a number for our own oven that we have not measured. What is true either way: the bake is the shortest step in the whole thing.
Two days of dough you never see
The dough is a biga: a stiff pre-ferment mixed long before it becomes pizza, the kind of thing described in standard baking books such as Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice. Ours ferments for 48 hours at 77 % hydration, which means 77 grams of water for every 100 grams of flour.
By the time you walk in, that work is finished. Daniele, born in Naples in 1989, starts the dough days ahead instead of pushing it along with more yeast on the day. The slow part of a fast dinner happens before anyone orders anything.
What you can actually plan around
Two things are fixed and worth writing down. We are open Tuesday to Sunday, 18:00 to 22:00, and closed on Monday. We are at 1 Aristotelous in Larnaca.
What we will not do is promise you a waiting time. Evenings fill up, and a number printed on a web page is a promise with an expiry date. If you are in a hurry, come early in the evening rather than late.
Come and find out how long it takes
We are at 1 Aristotelous in Larnaca, Tuesday to Sunday from 18:00 to 22:00. The natural wine list changes, and every bottle and grape variety on it has its own page on this site, so you can read first or ask nothing at all. There is also Instagram, @filomena.pizzeria.napoletana.
Questions about time
Q.Is there such a thing as a quick Neapolitan pizza?
The oven part is short. The EU specification for Pizza Napoletana puts the bake at 60 to 90 seconds. The dough behind it was started two days earlier.
Q.How long does your dough take?
48 hours. It is a biga at 77 % hydration, made well before service rather than on the day you eat it.
Q.Can I come at lunchtime?
No. We serve Tuesday to Sunday, 18:00 to 22:00, and we are closed on Monday.
Q.How hot is the oven?
400 degrees. It is a copper oven, fired by gas, and it is the fastest step of the evening.