What is carry-over pasta: how to prepare it and use

The carryover dough is a part of leavened dough refreshed as if it were sourdough and used for making bread, pizza and focaccia.

Carry-over dough is nothing more than a part of a leavened dough , whether it is bread, pizza or focaccia. It is very different from sourdough because the latter arises from a spontaneous fermentation, where the bacterial colonies find their balance by triggering leavening, while in the case of carryover dough, being a dough that has already undergone a leavening process , they are present cells of saccharomyces cerevisiae , that is of the traditional brewer’s yeast.

Carry-over dough is used instead of yeast for the preparation of different types of leavened products. The proportion varies according to the season: in summer it is sufficient to add 10% of the weight of the dough, while in winter it can rise up to 20% . It is very important not to exceed the quantity because it would tend to give too much acidity to the finished product. Now that you know what carryover dough is, know that it can be treated like a mother yeast and we are about to reveal how to proceed.

How to prepare the carryover paste

1. First, prepare a classic dough for pizza, bread or focaccia.
2. Let it rise until doubled in volume.
3. Then take a part of it: indicatively we recommend 60 grams .
4. Break up the dough and put it in a bowl.
5. Add half of its weight of water and let it dissolve, stirring with a fork.
6. Combine the same weight of the dough (therefore 60 grams) of flour and knead.
7. Form a loaf and transfer it to a glass jar.
8. Your carryover paste can be stored at room temperature for a day or in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.
9. Add it to the dough only when it has tripled in volume. Then remember to always keep some aside, refresh it and keep it in the refrigerator so that you have some available for subsequent batches.

Carry-over pasta requires about the same attention as sourdough for refreshment. However, given the presence of yeast in the starting dough, preparing it is much faster.

Carry-over dough for pizza

To prepare the pizza dough, proceed as follows:

1. Get the ingredients for the pizza dough: 500 g of flour, 250 g of water, 1 teaspoon of salt, 2 tablespoons of oil, 1 teaspoon of sugar.
2. Dissolve 150 g of cooled carryover paste at least 3 hours before (it must be tripled in volume) in the water .
3. Add the flour and mix well and only at the end add oil and salt . If you want you can strengthen the dough 2-3 grams of fresh yeast.
4. Knead and let rise in the oven turned off with the light on for at least 6 hours . Rising times are very long, comparable to mother yeast.
5. Once the dough has doubled in volume, proceed as usual: roll it out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, sprinkle it with the tomato sauce, salt and oil and complete with mozzarella and other ingredients of your choice.
6. Cook at 200 ° C for 20 minutes and serve hot.

Pizza with carry-over pasta is much more digestible than the traditional one. Try it and let us know.

storage

As mentioned, the carryover paste can be kept out of the refrigerator for a maximum of one day. Alternatively, it can be stored in the refrigerator, covered with gauze, for 3-4 days.