Pizza: Is there a better-loved meal that comes in a box? Maybe it got you through school or a work party, and you’ve probably even eaten it cold for breakfast. Pizza’s birthplace may be Naples, Italy, but let’s face it: The hot dog needs to watch its back if it thinks it’s America’s signature food.
Meet the Expert
Chef Tony Gemignani is a world pizza master, known for his pizza-making—and pizza-throwing—skills. He is president of the World Pizza Champions; the first and only Triple Crown winner at the International Pizza Championships in Lecce, Italy; and the 2007 World Champion Pizza Maker at the World Pizza Cup in Naples, Italy—the first American and non-Neapolitan champ. Naples has even made him an official U.S. Ambassador of Neapolitan Pizza, one of only three in the world.
This chef’s starting point was the family dinner table. Friday night was always pizza night when he was a kid.
“Part of my family is from Gombitelli and Lucca, Italy. When I visited them for the first time, they made us a pizza,” he said. Though he’d grown up on a fruit farm in California, he found he had a lot in common with his Italian relatives: big, loud family meals and a passion for fresh ingredients. At 17, he started making pizza himself and fell in love with it.
He opened the highly regarded Tony’s Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco in 2009 and Tony’s Slice House in 2010; the Slice House franchise now has more than 140 locations open or under development. He’s also written four cookbooks, including “The Pizza Bible” and “The Pursuit of Pizza: Recipes from the World Pizza Champions.”
The Dough
Use the Right Flour
Just Add (a Lot of) Water
Higher hydration—a high ratio of water to flour in the dough—makes for a better crust, though the wetter dough will be harder to work with.Mr. Gemignani said to push the limits. “The more water, the crispier the crust during the baking process,” he said.
Add a Browning Agent
To get a nice browning effect on the crust at lower baking temperatures, Mr. Gemignani suggests using a recipe that calls for sugar or honey, or adding a low diastatic malt. This is a syrup, powder, or extract, available in the baking ingredients aisle of the grocery store, that increases the enzymatic activity of dough, converting the sugars more quickly into carbon dioxide (causing the dough to rise) and alcohol (a tiny amount that cooks off in the baking process).Don’t Skip the Salt
Mr. Gemignani recommends the weight of the salt be at least 2 to 3 percent of the weight of the flour.Plan in Advance
A good dough needs to rise for 24 to 48 hours, enough time to allow it to ferment for better flavor, texture, and digestibility.The Sauce and Toppings
Let the Tomatoes Shine
Sauces vary with pizza style, size, and toppings. For thin-crust pizzas, Mr. Gemignani recommends a sauce made with canned San Marzano tomatoes. These tomatoes come from southern Italy between Naples and Salerno, where the volcanic soil helps produce an intense flavor that balances sweetness and acidity. Run them through a food mill and season lightly with sea salt.Sauces for thicker crusts generally need to be “more robust,” he said. In addition to salt, he adds onion powder, garlic, fine black pepper, dry Greek or Italian oregano, fresh basil, and extra-virgin olive oil to these sauces. Still, these ingredients should be on the lighter side, because a tomato sauce is about “the tomato first, and then the seasoning.”
Match the Cheese to the Style
The cheese “all depends on the style of pizza,” Mr. Gemignani said. “For example, a classic Italian typically uses grated mozzarella, while a Neapolitan uses fresh mozzarella or mozzarella di bufula.” What we call mozzarella in America is typically grated from an aged/dry loaf mozzarella.Time the Toppings Right
In America, typical beginner toppings include pepperoni, black olives, bell peppers, mushrooms, and sausage.“In Italy, it’s usually fresh basil, extra-virgin olive oil, prosciutto, shaved Parmigiano, cherry tomato, and arugula.”
But don’t put these on before the pizza hits the oven.
“The biggest mistake for home pizza makers,” Mr. Gemignani said, “is over-topping pre-bake pizzas.” Piling toppings onto the dough not only makes it harder to maneuver the pizza into the oven, but also may defeat your efforts to get a crispy crust: “The moisture from a covering of burrata could make a crust soggy, so add it later, just before serving.” Other toppings don’t benefit from the heat and even become less desirable: Prosciutto di Parma, goat cheese, feta, banana peppers, green onion, Parmigiano, burrata, arugula, basil, and cherry tomatoes can all go on after. “Use more ingredients after the bake than before—you’ll have both a stronger and crispier pizza.”
Some of Mr. Gemignani’s favorite toppings include spicy soppressata (a dry-cured salami), ‘nduja (spicy Calabrian spreadable pork sausage), peppadew peppers, Piave cheese, balsamic glaze, semi-dried mini tomatoes, garlic-infused agave, and even vegan cheese.
“I celebrate every style of pizza and always have since the beginning of my career,” he said. In fact, he even doesn’t mind—gasp—pineapple on a pizza, verboten for loyalists of pizza Napoletana.
“I find that the sweetness is nicely complemented by the more savory flavors,” he said. “Pizza and food in general is about balance, and if pineapple is balanced with the right ingredients, it can be a beautiful thing.”
The Tools of the Trade
Baking Steels
You can give your conventional oven a boost by placing a pizza stone or pizza steel—a thick, flat metal sheet, also called a baking steel—on the oven rack and letting it preheat. When you place the pizza on it, the full heat will immediately and evenly hit the dough, and since the materials retain heat well, the temperature won’t waver at the touch of the room-temp dough. This ensures an evenly baked crust.Pizza Peel
This big wooden paddle helps you carry the pizza and transfer it in and out of the oven, as you don’t want to burn yourself trying to situate the pie. Mr. Gemignani recommends a perforated peel, which “allows the flour, semolina, or cornmeal to fall through, making less of a mess,” he said. He’s also a fan of the Epicurean pizza peel, which uses a paper composite material as an alternative to wood. “[It] is dishwasher-safe, thin, and easy to use compared to wood peels.”
To cleanly transfer the pizza onto the stone or steel, think of a magician’s tablecloth-whisking trick: “Hold the peel level and parallel to the stone (not angled downward), and position the peel so the pizza is right where you will want it to be on the stone. Give the peel a gentle, quick push-and-pull motion, which should make the far end of the dough slide off onto the stone, and then immediately pull the peel sharply toward you, keeping it low and level.” As you “whisk” the peel away, the pizza will fall into place without disturbing the toppings or shape of the crust.
To Toss or Not to Toss?
Finally, does the dough really have to be thrown airborne?“The force of the toss helps naturally stretch out the dough, and can help create a crisp crust on the outside while keeping it light and airy in the middle,” said Mr. Gemignani, who’s won competitions in the practice. “But it is not essential for making a delicious pizza.”
Stick to the basics and follow these tips, and you’ll be hosting pizza night in no time.
