It’s taken me many years, and many thousands of pizzas, to refine my technique. And to be honest, my Neapolitan-style pizzas don’t really meet the standard set by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, the world authority on Neapolitan pizzas. (The Karu is the only oven here that the AVPN recommends.)
But over the years, I have accumulated a few tips for those of you who find making a pizza to be a little bit awkward or intimidating. If you’ve refrigerated your dough, bring it to room temperature first. Sprinkle flour or cornmeal generously on the peel before you assemble your pizza. Be patient and stretch it from the inside out. It is cheating, but I also am guilty of using a tiny rolling pin ($10) to help me get the dough as thing as possible.
An authentic Neapolitan pie will use a few specific ingredients. When you’re making your own dough, reach for 00 flour, which is milled specifically for pizza and pasta. Fresh mozzarella will make your pizza damp, so I use a mix of fresh and shredded, low-moisture cheese for the cheesiest, meltiest pie. If you’re not sticking to a strictly Neopolitan recipe, we also have a few favorite pies we’d like to recommend. Cizmar and I like a good Buffalo pie with Frank’s Red Hot and pickles. I also recently tried Brightland’s Pizza Oil in a squeeze bottle; while it’s good as a finishing sauce to drizzle over pies, you could make your own for much cheaper by putting olive oil and herbs in a squeeze bottle.
Pizza ovens are more versatile than you might think: I cook everything from salmon to steak to chicken thighs in mine by preheating a cast iron pan in a hot oven and popping the food right in. For more guidance, Ooni has a cookbook; chef Francis Mallman’s books are also a good source of inspiration.
