About a decade ago, when I first read online about trying to make Neapolitan-style pizza at home, the consensus seemed to be that it took about 7 minutes to bake a pizza at 550°F. Obviously, that's a lot longer than the 90 seconds typical for true Neapolitan pizza, so you compensate as much as possible with dough hydration to keep it from getting too crispy.
Until recently, my baking steel setup was giving me pizza in the 5-6 minute range. I was even turning down the temperature because the heat conduction from the steel was so fast that the bottom crust was almost burning before I could get the top to cook properly. Then we went to Naples last October, and what stood out to me most about the pizza there was how soft and fluffy the crust was. My pizzas had plenty of flavor, but the crust was not where it needed to be.
I started turning the heat up and trying to bake for less time, but the real turning point was when I ordered two ceramic baking stones to use instead of my old baking steel. I preheat them to 550°F for an hour, then turn on the broiler while I put the pizza together and leave it on for the whole bake. Now it only takes me two minutes to get good browsing on the top and bottom, and the crust stays nice and soft. The gas oven makes things complicated for baking with steam, but for making pizza it seems to do pretty well.
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The toppings (aside from the olives, which are just for me) were inspired by a pizza that we had in Bergamo three years ago, and they've been my wife's favorite pizza toppings ever since.
I don’t know about a soft crust. I’m in the thick crisp focaccia style school. But you got my attention with this excellent pizza. Great toppings too , with making your own cured meat. 👍