I have dedicated much of my life to the pursuit of amazing pizza. For something so simple, made of such few ingredients, the variety – and difference in quality – is staggering. I have eaten pizza all over the world, trained with master Roman pizza maker Gabriele Bonci and even run my own pizzeria. I have made pizza in every home oven I have ever had (and with my travel-happy life, that’s a lot of ovens), each with its own quirks, for good and for bad. This recipe is the result of that labour.
Amazing pizza is all about the dough, no question. Toppings are just the icing on the cake, though high quality ingredients will always taste better. The dough is where the knowledge, experience and passion of the pizza-maker really comes through. It is what divides a transcendental experience from a pedestrian one. So the dough is the primary focus of this tutorial. I have included a few topping suggestions and my go-to recipe for tomato sauce, but you can’t go that far wrong with toppings. As long as your dough is fantastic.
You can do without almost every piece of kit except a pizza stone – this is essential for achieving the massive heat that pizza dough needs to become crisp and deeply browned. Another trick is to cook the pizza as close to the top of the oven as possible, capturing the rising heat between the stone and the roof.