Neapolitan vs New York pizza — the difference
Both are round and hand-stretched, but they part ways at the oven: Neapolitan is a lean, blistered 90-second pie from a roaring oven, while New York is an oil-and-sugar dough built to bake slower into big, foldable slices.
Side by side
Every number below is the calculator’s, at each style’s default size:
| Neapolitan | New York | |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Hand-stretched round | Hand-stretched round |
| Typical size | 260 g ball ≈ 29 cm | 320 g ball ≈ 35 cm |
| Dough per pizza | 260 g | 320 g |
| Hydration | 62% | 63% |
| Salt | 2.8% | 2.5% |
| Oil | — | 2.5% |
| Sugar | — | 1.5% |
| Oven | 450 °C / 842 °F | 290 °C / 554 °F |
| Flour | Pizzeria 00 | Bread flour |
| Protein | 12–13.5% | 12.5–14% |
What sets them apart
Neapolitan. Neapolitan keeps it pure — flour, water, salt, yeast and nothing else — so a fierce oven can puff the rim into a charred, airy cornicione before the base dries out.
New York. New York adds a little oil and sugar for tenderness, chew and color, because a home-oven bake is longer and cooler and the dough needs help browning and staying foldable.
Which one to make
Go Neapolitan. Reach for Neapolitan if you have real top heat — a pizza oven or a screaming steel under the broiler — and you want the soft, leopard-spotted classic.
Go New York. Reach for New York if you're working with a normal oven, want bigger pies you can fold, and like a day or two of cold ferment doing the flavor work.
They share the same family of strong flour, so one good bag covers both; the calculator swaps the oil, sugar, hydration and oven for you when you change the preset. The real fork is your oven's ceiling.
For the numbers behind the table, see the hydration and flour guides.
Questions from the counter
Is New York just a bigger Neapolitan?
No — beyond size, the New York dough has oil and sugar that a true Neapolitan never does, and it's built for a longer, cooler bake. They behave differently in the oven even at the same weight.
Can I bake a Neapolitan in a home oven?
You can, but without serious top heat the rim won't blister the same way — which is exactly why the New York style exists. Crank the oven to full on a preheated steel and you'll get close; for a true 90-second pie you need a pizza oven.
Make either one
The calculator weighs and schedules both — pick a preset and it does the rest.
The clock is a suggestion. The dough is the boss. In bocca al lupo!
Impasto is a free pizza dough calculator for Neapolitan, New York, Roman, Sicilian, Detroit, thin crust and focaccia doughs — flour, water, salt and yeast weighed in baker's percentages, with the fermentation schedule written for you.