Wood-Fired Oven Cookbook: 70 Recipes for Incredible Stone-Baked Pizzas and Breads, Roasts, Cakes and Desserts, All Specially Devised for the Outdoor Oven and Illustrated in Over 400 Photographs

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I really love the Gozney perforated peel for most of my pies because it slides well and comes with both short and long handles. For another solid peel, Epicurean makes one of pressed wood that is dishwasher safe.

Ooni Pizza Topping Station is another one of my favorite tools. It has two large and four small containers for your sauce, cheese, and toppings, and has seal-tight lids for storing in the fridge. The tilted holder keeps everything at the perfect angle for fast pie prep. But, now, with the proliferation of affordable pizza ovens, the average home cook can eschew the frozen pie and easily fire up an artisanal one. It might be hard to restrain yourself, but minimize toppings when you can. Overloaded pies are hard to launch and might slop over onto the stone—which is difficult to clean. A thin coating of sauce and a mere scattering of toppings generally works best. Speaking of sauce, pre-cooked sauces do not do as well in pizza ovens compared to sauces that are made with canned tomatoes. Save the cooked or jarred sauces for pizza in your kitchen oven.Sometimes the best pizza sauce is also the simplest. My recommendation is this: For every four pizzas you want to make, take one 15-ounce can of whole peeled canned San Marzano tomatoes, crush by hand, and season with salt and pepper. That’s it. That’s the whole recipe. And yes, splurge on the fancy San Marzano DOP tomatoes. Their natural sweetness and the wonderful texture make a major difference, as they are less watery and have fewer seeds than other tomatoes. It should just taste like a bright, fresh tomato enhanced with seasoning. When you first start, resist the urge to zhuzh, you’ll be amazed how well this works. But obviously, if you want to add things like red pepper flakes for heat, or some dried herbs for depth, follow your intuition. Pizza Dough While a pizza oven is a feat of incredible engineering, delicious pizza requires more than just a medium to bake it in. When you begin making homemade pizza, it’s nice to have some guidance. These are the top takeaways from my time learning the art of pizza-making in Italy. 1. Buy Pre-made Dough

If you don’t have a pizza oven, you can use the Baking Steel on your grill, kamado, or in your kitchen oven. And, to go along with that, Fibrament makes my favorite baking stone. First and foremost, you do not have to be a great crust maker to be a great pizza maker. Grocery stores sell perfectly good raw pizza dough, and many local pizzerias are happy to sell you their dough as well. Do not feel that you must go down the rabbit hole of doughmaking to have a wonderful homemade pizza. Having said that, if you do want to make your own, using actual Italian 00 flour , which is specially milled for pizza and pasta making, will make a major difference in flavor, texture, and elasticity of the dough. Companies like Caputo and Molino Grassi are widely available in grocery stores and online. If you cannot find Italian flour, King Arthur Bread flour is always dependable. 2. Encourage Stretchy DoughBabadoh dough containers make prepping and storing those perfect dough balls super simple. As silicone molds with lids, they keep your dough round, and the balls are easy to pop out. For best results cook from chilledEnsure pizza is piping hot before serving and serve immediately. Guidelines only as all cooking appliances vary in performance. Oven cook For pizza ovens, I recommend the sauce I made at the Molino Caputo flour company in a class with one of their most famous pizzaiolos, Davide Civitiello. (See Must-Have Recipes for Homemade Pizza below.) 6. Adjust Heat for Different Style of Pizzas