How to recognise
a real Neapolitan pizza

Before judging a pizza, you first need to know what the term "Neapolitan pizza" actually covers. Born in Naples, it stands out for its hand-worked dough, a very quick bake in the wood-fired oven and a deliberately simple topping. At Di Micheli, a stone's throw from Place des Cardeurs in Aix-en-Provence, this is exactly the tradition we keep alive every day, with a team of five passionate people gathered around the oven since our trattoria opened in September 2021.

Recognising a real Neapolitan doesn't require being an expert: you only need to observe a few details at first glance, then at the first bite. The rim, the softness of the dough, the baking marks and the simplicity of the topping tell you on their own how serious a pizzeria is. Here are the criteria we apply to our own pizzas, and that you can check on any plate.

The first clue is read around the edge of the pizza: the cornicione, that puffed-up crown that borders the topping. On a real Neapolitan, it is thick, airy, dotted with air pockets and marked with a few brown, almost black spots: this is the famous leoparding. Far from being a flaw, these spots signal a flash bake at very high temperature, where the dough swells and caramelises on the surface. A pizza that is evenly golden, flat and stiff at the edges instead reveals a slow bake at low temperature, foreign to the Neapolitan tradition.

Beneath the topping, the dough is the real benchmark. A true Neapolitan rests on a soft disc, tender in the centre, that folds without breaking — that's how it's eaten in Naples, folded in four. This texture comes from a long fermentation: at Di Micheli, our dough rests for 48 hours at 70% hydration before going into the oven. This maturing time makes the pizza lighter, more fragrant and above all easier to digest. If you feel heavy after a pizza, it's often the sign of dough that hasn't fermented enough.

The last criterion, probably the most decisive, is the baking. A real Neapolitan pizza comes out of a wood-fired oven heated to around 450°, where it stays only a few dozen seconds. This intense heat is what gives the leoparding, the softness and that slight smoky taste impossible to imitate in an electric oven. This is the gesture we repeat at every service, in our trattoria in Aix-en-Provence, with fresh produce and a tight menu, with no frozen dough.

The art of the Neapolitan "pizzaiuolo" is even inscribed on UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage list. To explore its history and codes further, browse Neapolitan pizza on Wikipedia, then come and put theory to the test on our plates.

Now that you know the signs of a true Neapolitan — an airy cornicione, leoparding, soft and long-fermented dough, wood-fired baking — all that's left is to check them for yourself. Book your table at Di Micheli, on Place des Cardeurs in Aix-en-Provence, and look at your pizza before the first bite: you'll never see it the same way again.