The Gravesend Upside-Down
Chapter 1 — The Doughs
In the deep southern reaches of Brooklyn, Italian immigrants took the spongy, onion-heavy street food of Palermo and engineered it into a mid-century masterpiece. The upside-down square is an act of thermodynamic genius: shingling the raw dough with deli-sliced mozzarella creates an impenetrable lipid barrier, protecting the pillowy, highly-hydrated crumb while a heavy, reduced tomato sauce concentrates under the brutal ambient heat. This is a pie built for the limits of a slice-shop deck oven, now optimized for the domestic baking steel. It demands high-protein flour, a cold twenty-four-hour ferment, and the patience to let the dough tell you when it’s ready.
Before you start
Preheat the baking steel.
Place a 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch baking steel on the lower-third rack of your oven. Set the oven to its absolute maximum temperature (ideally 550°F) and let it preheat for a minimum of one full hour before baking.
Ingredients
- bread flour522 g
- durum semolina58 g
- water377 g
- fine sea salt11.5 g
- instant dry yeast3/4 tsp
- diastatic malt powder9 g
- extra virgin olive oil20 g
- extra virgin olive oil40 g
- low-moisture whole-milk mozzarella16 oz
- crushed tomatoes400 g
- double-concentrated tomato paste150 g
- extra virgin olive oil2 tbsp
- garlic2 med cloves
- dried Sicilian oregano1 1/2 tsp
- red pepper flakes1 pinch
- fine sea salt1 tsp
- Pecorino Romano1/2 cup
- extra virgin olive oil1 tbsp
Method
- 01
Mix the dry dough ingredients and hydrate with cool water.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk the bread flour, semolina, yeast, and diastatic malt powder together. Add the 377g of cool water and mix on low speed for exactly 2 minutes until a rough, shaggy mass forms.
- 02
Rest the dough for a twenty-minute autolyse.
Cover the bowl with a damp towel. This crucial resting period allows the flour to fully hydrate and enzymes to begin breaking down starches, minimizing the mechanical kneading time required.
- 03
Incorporate the salt and oil, knead to a smooth windowpane, and refrigerate.
Add the 11.5g of salt and 20g of olive oil. Mix on medium-low speed for 6 to 8 minutes until the dough transforms into a smooth, satiny ball that clears the sides of the bowl. Transfer to a lightly oiled, airtight container and immediately refrigerate for exactly 24 hours.
- 04
Oil a heavy half-sheet pan and begin the first ambient proof.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator 4 to 5 hours before baking. Pour 40g of olive oil into a 13x18-inch blue steel or heavy aluminum half-sheet pan. Coat the dough in the oil, gently dimple and press it outward without tearing, then cover and rest for 45 minutes.
- 05
Stretch the relaxed dough into the corners and execute the final room-temperature proof.
Gently stretch the now-relaxed dough into the absolute corners of the pan. Cover again and allow it to proof at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours until highly aerated, jiggly, and nearly an inch thick.
- 06
Reduce the tomato paste and aromatics to build the sauce base.
In a medium saucepan, gently heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium-low. Sauté the minced garlic and red pepper flakes for 60 seconds. Add the tomato paste and dried oregano, cooking for 3 minutes to bloom the herbs and toast the paste.
- 07
Simmer the crushed tomatoes into a highly viscous, spreadable sauce.
Stir in the crushed tomatoes and 1 teaspoon of salt. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes to evaporate excess water, creating a thick consistency that won't bleed into the pizza. Allow the sauce to cool completely to room temperature.
- 08
Shingle the proofed dough with an impenetrable barrier of sliced mozzarella.
Lay the 1/8-inch deli slices evenly over the raw, fully proofed dough. You must cover the dough entirely, leaving only a microscopic 1/4-inch border at the edges to protect the delicate crumb from the wet sauce.
- 09
Spread the cooled sauce over the cheese and dust with Pecorino Romano.
Spoon the room-temperature tomato sauce over the cheese and gently spread it outward using the back of a ladle. Do not press down forcefully, or you will degas the dough. Sprinkle half of the grated Pecorino Romano evenly over the wet sauce.
- 10
Bake the pie on a preheated baking steel until the undercarriage is fried and rigid.
Slide the heavy pan directly onto the 550°F baking steel. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, rotating the pan 180 degrees at the 10-minute mark. Use a metal spatula to inspect the bottom; it should be a deeply mottled, mahogany brown.
- 11
Rest the pizza in the pan, extract to a wire rack, and finish with oil and cheese.
Allow the molten cheese to stabilize in the pan for 3 minutes. Run a knife around the perimeter, then confidently lift the entire pizza out onto a wire rack to prevent a soggy crust. Dust aggressively with the remaining Pecorino and finish with a cross-hatch of extra virgin olive oil before slicing into squares.
Notes
Respect the baker's percentages.
Reproducibility relies entirely on math. This dough requires a 65% hydration rate and exactly 0.4% instant dry yeast to properly ferment for 24 hours in a cold refrigerator without blowing out.
A baking steel is non-negotiable for domestic deck-oven emulation.
A standard home oven lacks the intense thermal mass to fry the bottom of a heavy Sicilian square without a highly conductive baking steel preheated at 550°F for a full hour.
Diastatic malt powder chemically forces a pizzeria-quality crust.
Its active amylase enzymes continuously break down starches into simple sugars during the cold ferment, guaranteeing an aggressive, dark Maillard browning that home ovens normally fail to produce.
Do not substitute fresh mozzarella or pre-shredded cheese.
Fresh mozzarella will flood the dough with boiling water, and shredded cheese contains anti-caking agents that ruin the melt and break the lipid barrier. Deli-sliced low-moisture whole-milk is mandatory.