Pizza Perfection: Everything You Need Know

By Dave Joachim

Everybody loves pizza. And everybody has an opinion on what's best, what's authentic, and what is the one and only pizza dough recipe you will ever need. The truth? There are many styles of pizza out there, and they're ALL good. Pizza is essentially flat bread with stuff on top. From there, the sky's the limit. Sometimes it has a thin crust. Sometimes it's thick. Sometimes it has tomato sauce. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes other sauces like pesto are spread on the dough instead of tomato sauce. Pizza usually includes cheese, but one of the earliest pizzas--marinara--has no cheese. Sometimes pizza is round. Sometimes it's square or rectangular, like Roman style pizza al taglio (by the cut). Sometimes pizza is baked right on a hot baking stone. Other times it's baked in a pan or on a grill grate. There are no hard and fast rules.

We celebrate ALL of kinds of pizza, whether it's baked in a wood-fired pizza oven, a home oven, in a cast-iron pan under a broiler, or on a grill. The one constant among all pizzas is that it's best when made by hand rather than by machine. The difference between frozen pizza and homemade pizza is what YOU put into it. Yes, shaping dough takes a little practice. And it helps to have some tools like a bench knife and pizza peel. But making pizza is not hard. Will your first pie be perfect? Probably not, but it will probably still taste good! From there, every pizza you make will get better and better. Check out the articles and recipes below to learn everything you need to know to reach pizza perfection.