Ooni 12" · 430°C · 250g balls

Ninety
Seconds.

Ten Neapolitan combinations built from prosciutto, salmon, shrimp, mushrooms, bell peppers and mozzarella — designed around the one constraint that governs everything in a wood-fired 12-incher: the bake is over before most toppings have noticed it started.

The constraint

The oven is not the variable. Water is.

A 60-to-90-second bake at 430°C solves the crust and creates every other problem. Nothing on top has time to dry out, so any moisture you add stays — pooling under the cheese, steaming the centre flat. And nothing has time to cook, so anything that needs actual heat work has to arrive already cooked. Your six ingredients split cleanly along those two lines, which is why the combinations below all read the same way: a short list that goes IN and a shorter list that goes ON AFTER.

Dough ball: 250 gPer 12" pie. Stretch to 28–30 cm, leave a 1.5 cm rim untouched.
Hydration: 60 %Not 65–70. That's the home-oven number — this bake is too fast to drive off the extra water.
Flour: Tipo 00Caputo Pizzeria (red). Bread flour at 12.7% protein is the honest substitute.
Salt / yeast: 2.5 / 0.15 %Baker's percentage. 0.15% yeast for a 24–48 h cold ferment; 0.3% if same-day.
Stone temp: ~430 °CMeasured dead centre with an IR gun, not guessed from the flame.
Total topping: ≤ 180 gEverything that goes in the oven, cheese and sauce included. Overloading is the single most common failure.

−20 minFire to full. Stone reads 430 °C centre. Flame rolling across the crown.

−2 minDress the pie on a floured bench, not on the peel. Semolina on the peel only — cornmeal scorches.

0:00Launch. Back of the stone, then pull forward slightly.

0:20 → 0:80Quarter turn every 20–30 s with a turning peel. Four turns, roughly.

0:90Out. Cornicione puffed and leopard-spotted, base dry and flexible.

+0:15Cold and cured toppings land now, on a pie that has stopped steaming. Cut and eat.

Your six

What each ingredient wants

Get this table right and the combinations almost design themselves. Get it wrong and it doesn't matter which combination you picked.

Ingredient	Timing	Prep before it goes anywhere near the pie	Per 12"
Prosciutto crudo	ON AFTER	Nothing. Raw cured ham in a 430°C oven turns to salted leather and its fat renders away — the whole point is the silk. Drape it on the hot pie so it slackens and gleams. Parma is the default; San Daniele (sweeter, longer-aged) and speck (lightly smoked) substitute directly. Take it out of the fridge 20 minutes ahead — cold crudo is waxy.	3 slices · ~25 g
Prosciutto cotto	IN	The opposite ingredient, and the exception to the ham rule: cooked ham wants the oven. Torn into rough pieces rather than laid in flat discs, so the edges lift and catch colour. Mild and faintly sweet, so it needs salt from elsewhere — pecorino, capers, or an olive. Cotto plus mushroom plus tomato is the Neapolitan capricciosa family, and it is the one build here where ham and heat belong together.	50 g
Smoked salmon	ON AFTER	Nothing, and don't let it touch heat. Cold-smoked salmon cooked is just sad hot fish. Tear rather than lay flat, so it catches light.	40–50 g
Fresh salmon	IN late	Skinless, 1.5 cm dice, patted dry, salted 10 min ahead and blotted again. Add at the 30-second mark through the oven mouth — a full 90 s overcooks it.	70 g
Shrimp	IN	Peeled, deveined, butterflied down the back so they lie flat and thin — that's what lets them cook in 90 s. Salt 10 min, then pat bone dry. Anything bigger than a large prawn: sear it in a cast-iron pan in the oven first and add it in the last 20 s instead.	5–6 · ~70 g
Mushrooms	IN	Always pre-cooked, no exceptions. Dry-sauté hard in a wide pan until they squeak, release their water, and that water fully evaporates — then oil, garlic, thyme, salt. Raw mushrooms on a 90-second pie flood it.	60 g raw → 35 g cooked
Bell peppers	IN	Two valid routes. Roasted and peeled, torn into strips — sweet, jammy, low-water. Or sliced raw at 2 mm on a mandoline — sharp, grassy, keeps a bite. Never thick raw chunks: they stay squeaky and weep.	40 g
Fior di latte	IN	Torn by hand into 2 cm pieces, drained in a colander 30 min (or overnight in the fridge), then blotted. Tearing beats slicing — irregular edges melt at different rates and give you pools instead of a lid.	70–80 g
San Marzano	IN	Crushed by hand, salted, raw. No cooking, no herbs, no sugar, no simmering it down — it cooks on the pie. If it's watery, drain the tin through a sieve first and keep the pulp.	70 g

Raw cured meat and cold-smoked fish are not toppings. They are garnishes that happen to be the reason you made the pizza.

Two foundations

Rossa or bianca

The choice isn't aesthetic. Tomato brings acid and water; a white base brings fat and salt. Match it to what you're putting on top — acid fights delicate seafood and buries cured ham, fat carries both.

Rossa

70 g hand-crushed San Marzano, salt, a thread of olive oil. Spread in a spiral with the back of a ladle, stopping 1.5 cm from the edge.

Goes with: shrimp, mushrooms, roasted peppers, chilli, garlic, oregano.
Fights: smoked salmon (acid + smoke is a losing pair), and it flattens prosciutto crudo unless the ham lands after the bake — though it suits prosciutto cotto, which goes in before it.
Watch: tomato is the biggest single water load on the pie. Under-sauce rather than over-sauce.

Bianca

Three versions, in ascending richness: olio e mozzarella (garlic oil brushed on the dough, torn fior di latte, black pepper) · ricotta base (80 g ricotta loosened with olive oil and lemon zest, dotted not spread) · crème fraîche (added after the bake, never before — it splits).

Goes with: prosciutto crudo, salmon in both forms, mushrooms, thyme, lemon, rocket, parmesan.
Fights: nothing much — which is the trap. A bianca with five things on it is just a rich mess.
Watch: without tomato's acid you must add brightness yourself — lemon zest, black pepper, or a peppery leaf.

Four with tomato

Rossa

Rossa

Gamberi e Peperoni

Shrimp, roasted red pepper, garlic-chilli oil

70 gSan Marzano, hand-crushed, salted
50 gFior di latte — deliberately light, it's competing with the shrimp
6Butterflied shrimp, laid flat, cut side down
40 gRoasted red pepper, torn into strips
1 tspGarlic-chilli oil, drizzled

On afterFlat-leaf parsley, torn. A squeeze of lemon. Nothing else.

The one combination where the shrimp genuinely cooks in the bake — butterflied, they're 5 mm thick. Roasted pepper does the work of a sauce reduction without the water. Keep the cheese down: this is a seafood pie, not a cheese pie wearing shrimp.

Rossa

Boscaiola

Mushrooms, oregano, pecorino

70 gSan Marzano
70 gFior di latte, torn and drained
35 gMushrooms, dry-sautéed dry with garlic and thyme
pinchDried oregano — rubbed between the palms first

On afterGrated pecorino romano and a hard grind of black pepper, so the cheese stays sharp instead of melting into the background.

The plainest pie here and the best diagnostic: if this one comes out soggy, your mushrooms weren't dry enough. Mixed mushrooms beat button — chestnut for body, a few oyster or shiitake for the edges that crisp and go almost meaty.

Pizza finished with prosciutto and rocket

Rossa

Peperoni Gialli e Prosciutto

Yellow pepper, fior di latte, prosciutto crudo after

60 gSan Marzano — under-sauced on purpose
80 gFior di latte
40 gRoasted yellow pepper, torn (sweeter and less acidic than red)
—Basil leaves, tucked under the cheese so they steam rather than burn

On after3 slices of prosciutto crudo, draped in loose folds while the pie is still radiating. A thread of good olive oil.

Yellow pepper's sweetness is the bridge between tomato acid and cured salt — red pepper is good here, yellow is better. Draping matters: folds catch heat and release the fat's aroma; flat slices just sit there. Cotto variant: swap in 50 g of torn prosciutto cotto and it goes on before the bake instead, under the cheese — a rounder, more domestic pizza, and a much better one for anyone who finds crudo too salty.

Rossa

Marinara di Mare

No cheese. Shrimp, garlic, oregano, lemon

80 gSan Marzano — more, since it's carrying the pie alone
2Garlic cloves, sliced paper-thin
6Butterflied shrimp
goodDried oregano, olive oil, sea salt

On afterLemon zest, a little juice, parsley.

The Neapolitan-orthodox seafood answer — in Naples, cheese and fish don't share a pie, and once you've tasted this you'll see the argument. Without mozzarella the crust and the tomato both get louder, and the shrimp taste like shrimp rather than like cheese. Make this one first, before the pizza gets complicated.

Six without

Bianca

This is where your ingredient list actually lives. Prosciutto, both salmons, mushrooms and shrimp are all happier without tomato underneath them.

Smoked salmon pizza with crème fraîche and dill

Bianca

Salmone e Limone

Smoked salmon, lemon crème fraîche, dill

1 tspOlive oil brushed over the dough
70 gFior di latte, torn and well drained
grindBlack pepper. That's the entire oven build.

On after50 g cold-smoked salmon, torn into ribbons · dots of crème fraîche whipped with lemon zest and juice · dill fronds · capers if you like them · more pepper.

The best pie on this page, and barely a recipe — a plain cheese pizza used as a hot plate for cold fish. Everything cold goes on after the pie stops steaming, or the crème fraîche breaks and the salmon goes opaque and greasy. Wait fifteen seconds. It matters.

Bianca

Prosciutto, Rucola, Parmigiano

The canonical bianca. Three things, no tomato

1 tspGarlic-infused olive oil, brushed
90 gFior di latte — generous here, it's the base and the sauce
grindBlack pepper

On after3–4 slices prosciutto crudo · a handful of rocket dressed in lemon and oil in a separate bowl · shaved parmigiano · olive oil.

Dress the rocket before it touches the pizza, never on top — oil and lemon poured over a hot pie run straight into the crust and make it soggy in about four seconds. The lemon in the dressing is doing the job tomato acid would otherwise do.

Mushroom pizza bianco with truffle oil and fresh herbs

Bianca

Funghi al Timo

Mushrooms, thyme, garlic, a whisper of truffle

1 tspGarlic oil
75 gFior di latte
45 gMixed mushrooms, dry-sautéed with thyme until browned and completely dry
15 gGrated parmigiano, under the mushrooms

On afterFresh thyme leaves. Two or three drops of truffle oil — drops, not a drizzle. Flaky salt.

Without tomato you can taste the mushrooms properly, which is the point. The parmigiano underneath melts into a savoury floor that stops the mushrooms sitting on the pie like a garnish. Truffle oil is easy to overdo and unforgivable when you do.

Bianca

Gamberi al Bianco

Shrimp, lemon, chilli, basil

1 tspChilli-garlic oil
60 gFior di latte, scattered not blanketed
6Butterflied shrimp, bone dry
—Thin slivers of fresh red chilli

On afterLemon zest, a hard squeeze of juice, basil torn at the last second, olive oil.

Fat instead of acid under the shrimp, so the sweetness comes through — this is the same ingredient as the Gamberi e Peperoni and it tastes like a different animal. The lemon after the bake is doing the tomato's job from above, where you can control it.

Bianca

Tre Peperoni e Ricotta

Ricotta base, three roasted peppers, prosciutto after

80 gRicotta loosened with olive oil, lemon zest and salt — dotted, not spread
50 gFior di latte, in the gaps between the ricotta
50 gRoasted red, yellow and green pepper, peeled and torn

On after3 slices prosciutto crudo · basil · black pepper · olive oil.

Dotting rather than spreading the ricotta is the whole technique: you get pockets of cool, milky cheese against blistered pepper instead of a uniform pale layer. Green pepper is the bitter note that stops three peppers tasting like jam.

Bianca

Mare e Monti

Mushrooms and shrimp — the greedy one

1 tspGarlic oil
60 gFior di latte
30 gMushrooms, dry-sautéed, scattered on one half-ish
5Butterflied shrimp on the rest

On afterParsley, lemon zest, olive oil.

Sea and mountain, the Italian pairing that shouldn't work and does. Keep the two ingredients in loose zones rather than mixed — you want bites of each, not a stew. This is also the pie where the topping ceiling bites hardest: 90 g of solids plus 60 g of cheese is already at the limit.

Failure modes

Five ways this goes wrong

The soggy centre

Too much sauce, undrained cheese, or raw mushrooms. Almost never the oven. Weigh your toppings once — 180 g total is less than it looks — and you'll stop guessing.

Leathery ham

Prosciutto crudo went in the oven. Crudo cannot go in the oven. If you want cured pork baked onto a pie, that is what prosciutto cotto is for — or speck, or pancetta.

Rubbery shrimp

Whole prawns left in for the full 90 s, or pre-cooked shrimp cooked twice. Butterfly small ones and add raw; sear big ones in a pan and add them in the last 20 seconds.

Split crème fraîche

It went on before the bake, or onto a pie that was still steaming. Dairy that isn't mozzarella belongs on the finished pizza after a fifteen-second pause.

Burnt basil, burnt garlic

At 430 °C both go black in seconds. Tuck basil under the cheese or add it after; use garlic as an infused oil, or slice it paper-thin and bury it in the sauce.

Pale, floppy base

Stone not actually at temperature, or the pie sat on it after the flame died back. Check the centre of the stone with an IR gun and let the flame keep rolling across the crown between pies.

One evening

A running order that works

Six balls of dough, four people, roughly forty minutes of baking. Order matters — you're managing both palates and prep.

Prep the day before. Dough mixed and balled, in the fridge 24–48 h. Mushrooms sautéed and cooled. Peppers roasted, peeled, torn. All of it keeps.
Two hours out. Dough balls to room temperature. Tear and drain the fior di latte. Butterfly and salt the shrimp, then blot them and keep them cold.
Fire up 20 minutes before the first pie. Bake one plain margherita as a calibration pie. It tells you the stone temperature and the turn rhythm before it matters.
Marinara di Mare first, while palates are clean and nobody's had cheese yet. The cheeseless one always disappears fastest, which surprises people every time.
Gamberi e Peperoni, then Boscaiola — the two tomato pies, back to back while the stone is at its hottest.
Funghi al Timo and Prosciutto, Rucola, Parmigiano as the middle of the evening. Switch to the bianca builds and the whole meal changes register.
Salmone e Limone last, on purpose. It's cold, sharp and clean, it needs no oven work beyond a plain cheese pie, and it functions as dessert's opposite — the thing that resets your mouth after an hour of fire.