Pizza night is the best night of the week and making your own is simpler than you think.
However, there are plenty of tiny steps that could trip you up, or make things much more
complicated than they need to be.
Avoid these common pitfalls to achieve a perfect homemade pizza.
Most grocery stores sell all manner of pre-made pizza crusts, but taking this shortcut will
make your final product less-than-stellar.
So, what can you do?
Making your own crust is easier than you probably think, especially if you have some sourdough
starter running.
A simple sourdough crust will be firm enough to stand up to all the toppings you could
possibly want to pile on, but if you don't have the time, there's a few other options.
Consider calling your favorite pizza joint to ask if they'll sell you a bit of their
dough, or head to the grocery store and think outside the box.
Pick up some naan and use that for your crust, or get a nice loaf of French bread and make
French bread pizzas.
All of these are better options than a disappointing pre-made crust, we promise.
Salt has taken a lot of heat lately, but because it's a flavor enhancer, it's key to better-tasting
food.
Take flour.
Without the addition of salt, flour isn't going to make something that's very tasty.
Given that traditional pizza crusts are made nearly entirely from flour, salt is essential.
If you don't add enough, your crust will be bland.
Don't get too heavy-handed, however, because if you're adding many salty cheeses, or toppings
like anchovies, olives, and ham, the resulting pizza will basically just be a salt bomb.
If salt is a dealbreaker for you, don't fret.
You can also add Italian herb seasoning and minced garlic to your crust for an added burst
of flavor.
While it might be tempting to pull the dough out of the refrigerator and immediately get
to work pulling, stretching, and shaping it, topping it with ingredients, and quickly throwing
it in the oven, try to refrain from doing so.
Make sure you let the dough rest on the counter, long enough to let it come closer to room
temperature and make it easier to stretch gently.
It'll take some willpower, but resting your dough at room temperature will make the shaping
a much smoother process.
Even when you're using the best of scratch-made dough, getting crust right is still tricky
— so here's some tips.
Using a rolling pin for pizza dough really should be a last resort, because hand stretching
is the ideal way to form your pizza.
While rolling out your pizza dough with a rolling pin will likely make the crust dense
and tough, stretching will help it keep that crust light and chewy.
But hand stretching can be tough, especially with a stubborn piece of dough.
If you're partway through stretching and it's getting tough to handle, let the dough rest
some more, then come back.
Don't give up until you've stretched it to a thickness between one-eighth and one-fourth
of an inch.
That's the sweet spot, the point where your pizza won't be difficult to cook and it won't
fold under all your toppings.
And that's what everyone wants, isn't it?
"I'm in love, I'm having a relationship with my pizza."
Pre-cooking toppings takes a tiny bit more effort than throwing them on top of the pizza
raw, but if you want a really, really good pizza, it's worth taking the extra time for
two major reasons.
Partially cooked, salted, or pre-cooked toppings will make your pizza ultimately taste better,
and secondly, they'll also help protect you from food-borne illness.
Pre-cooking any meats before putting them on your pizza will ensure they're cooked completely,
making it less likely that you'll get sick from eating them.
Greens, basil, and tough veggies could also benefit from a quick pre-cook.
Honestly, less is more when it comes to pizza toppings.
Pick a few veggies or meats that go well together and stick with them.
Adding too many toppings can also throw off the flavor balance and weigh things down.
And that theory goes for the cheese, too.
Cheese is really delicious and gets gooey when melted, but there is such a thing as
too much cheese on a pizza.
Get too heavy-handed with the cheese and you'll skew the balance of flavors and weigh down
your slice.
Since you're taking the time to make your homemade pizza great, you don't want to mask
all the other flavors that are there or destroy the crispiness of your crust.
While you preheat the oven, preheat the pizza stone or sheet pan that you'll bake your pizza
on as well.
This will help the bottom of the crust get all nice and crispy, which is just what you
want for your perfect homemade pizza.
A good way to move your pizza from the counter to the oven is by a sheet of parchment paper.
Craft your pizza on top of the parchment, then set it directly on the stone or pan in
the oven.
Once the pizza is done cooking, you can also remove it from the oven using the parchment
paper.
Don't forget to leave your stone in the oven to cool down, as you don't want it to crack
from a drastic change in temperature.
Pizzas cook best at high temperatures, and even though your home oven probably doesn't
get as hot as a the one at your local pizzeria, but that doesn't mean you can't make great
pizza from scratch.
Crank your oven up to around 500 degrees Fahrenheit, and that high heat means the pizza cooks quickly
and becomes crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.
You'll think your pizza came from your favorite local spot, not from inside your oven.
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