Passionate About Pizza: Making Great Homemade Pizza (9 page)

sides to allow the pizza crust to rise without falling out. Pans for thin-style pizza generally have a very small lip. Another difference is the type of material from which they manufacture the pans. There are aluminum, steel, stainless steel, and ceramic pizza pans. I am sure there are others that I have not seen. They also come in coated, uncoated, anodized, non-stick, or other fancy finishes.

I suggest that you use the pans that you have or that you can easily obtain. You do not have to use pans specifically designed to make pizza. You can use cookie sheets, sheet cake pans, jellyroll pans, or almost any kind of oven-save pan. My pizza pans are just basic pizza pans purchased from various kitchen stores or received as gifts. I followed the instructions to season them with oil (for the steel pans) and they have worked wonderfully.

Pizza Peel

A
peel
is a wide, flat board with a long handle. Professional bakers use a peel to slide pizzas, breads, and other baked goods directly onto the floor of a commercial oven. Pizza peels are available in a variety of paddle sizes, paddle materials (most are wood, but some have metal or composite paddles), and handle lengths. You can generally find a home-sized peel that has an approximately 14 – 16" square paddle with a six inch handle; these work very well.

If you want to cook many pizzas at once (such as for a pizza party) you might want to have two peels. That way you can assemble a pizza on one peel while you take another pizza out of the oven using the second peel. My second peel is about the same size as my wooden one but it has a thin aluminum paddle. I use it to take cooked pizzas out of the oven so I do not burn my wooden peel too much. I am sure it would take thousands of pizzas for the burn to do any real damage to the peel. I think that was just the excuse I told myself when I wanted another kitchen toy – another pizza peel! I finally got a third peel (another wooden one) to allow me to make up two pizzas and put them into the oven at the same time so they will finish cooking together. Once again, you need only one pizza peel; more than that are a luxury. I used just one peel for quite a few years and many, many pizzas.

It helps if your peel is exactly the same size as your pizza stone. This way, when you shape and assemble your pizza, you will be able to create the largest pizza your stone can handle knowing it will fit. If your peel is larger than your stone, consider marking your peel to show the size of your stone so you can accomplish the same thing. If your peel is smaller than your stone, your pizza peel will limit the size of your pizzas rather than your baking stone.

See the section entitled “Pizza Peel Technique” (on
page 73
) to learn how to properly use a pizza peel.

Pizza Screen

You can use a pizza screen for the times you do not want to bother with a pizza peel and a baking stone. I have two, but I rarely use them because I have become so used to the peel and baking stone method of baking a pizza. I must also confess that I like the crust best when it cooks on a baking stone. However, there are types of pizza that have a tendency to stick to pizza peels and therefore may be much easier to handle when you bake them using a pizza screen.

The standard style of pizza screen is a circle of expanded metal that looks like mesh. There is another style of pizza screen made from a thin aluminum disk having many large holes punched in it. You place the pizza dough on the lightly oiled pizza screen after shaping. You then assemble the pizza on the screen and place the whole thing in the oven directly on the rack. The holes in the pizza screen allow heat in and moisture out. Pizza screens help bake crust with consistency somewhere between crusts baked on a stone and crust baked in a pan. Pizza screens are handy little devices, so go ahead and use one if you it is more comfortable to you than using a pan or stone.

The two style screens work similarly but their cooking characteristics are just a little different. The screen with the holes punched is a little sturdier but allows less airflow through. Pick the one that you prefer or that is more easily available and gain experience with it. You will be making great pizza in no time!

I must confess that I have another use for a pizza screen. When I must resort to making a frozen pizza, I sometimes place it on a pizza screen to aid getting it in and out of the oven. Amazing what having kids will do to a pizza chef!

Sauce Pans and Sauté Pans

You will need some pans in which to sauté ingredients and cook sauces. Use whatever pans are convenient for you or the ones that you like best. One thing you should keep in mind, though, is that the pans you use should be non-reactive. Non-reactive pans are pans that do not react with any kind of food cooked in them. For example, highly acidic foods such as tomatoes can react with some types of aluminum pans, discoloring the pans and taking minute amounts of aluminum into the food as you cook it. Glass, anodized aluminum, nonstick coated, porcelain coated steel, enamel coated steel, or stainless steel materials are typically non-reactive.

Serving Tray

I stumbled across a pizza-serving tray that consists of a pizza pan with a perforated bottom and a plastic tray on which this pan sits. The genius of this device lies in the way the two pieces work together. When you put a hot, cut pizza on the serving pan, the juices and steam from the pizza can go through the perforations onto the plastic tray. This keeps the pizza crust crispy and contains the mess, too. The plastic tray also insulates your hands and table from the heat of the pizza. This type of pizza serving tray helps keep the second (and third...) piece of pizza tasting just like the first!

Unfortunately, I have not seen the particular brand of serving tray I bought in stores recently. After some persistent searching, I have found a similar type of pizza pan that works for serving, too. This pizza pan has a perforated bottom, but instead of a plastic tray, it has several small “feet” punched into the pan that holds the pan above the surface on which it sits. This ought to provide the same benefit of keeping the pizza crust crispy, although without the benefit of containing the mess. In practice, the feet are not tall enough to provide as much airflow as the pizza needs to keep the bottom from getting moist. Luckily, I have also found a plastic serving tray that has bumps to support its contents above the bottom of the tray. The combination of the pan with the holes and the tray with the bumps works like the plastic tray I first found. However, you have to buy the pan and tray as separate items and put them together yourself. I have also recently seen a metal pizza pan with large dimples to keep the pizza supported. Evidently, I am not the only person looking for solutions like this. Keep your eyes open and your creative juices going and you will find the solution that works for you!

Utensils

All the utensils you really need to make pizza are the same things that you would generally have available in your kitchen for other types of cooking: a mixing bowl, some measuring spoons and cups, a work surface, a sauce pan, and a pan to cook the pizza on. In addition to the items already discussed in this chapter, there are a few utensils that might make your pizza making easier, but really do not affect the taste of your pizza.

A few frequently used utensils are:

• Cheese Grater
• Dough Scraper
• Garlic Press
• Heavy Duty (Wooden) Spoon
• Measuring Cups
• Measuring Spoons
• Mixing Bowls
• Serving Spatula
• Wire Whisk

Pizza Ingredients

The
Passionate About Pizza System

You will make great homemade pizza every time you try if you ignite your passion and follow a systematic approach to making pizza. Plan your pizza-making activities, use the same equipment and high-quality INGREDIENTS each time, use proven preparation techniques, rely on your recipes, and work to make continual improvements.

Ingredients

The most important thing you can know about the ingredients for making pizza is that you should use the highest quality ingredients you can. Higher quality usually does not cost much more, and you will notice the difference in taste. Beyond that tip, I want to pass on to you some of the things I have learned about various ingredients. This section describes the following ingredients (click to follow link):

Cheese
Fat
Flour
Flavored Olive Oil
Herbs
Liquids
Non-stick Cooking Spray
Salt
Tomatoes
Toppings
Yeast

Cheese

You can use almost any cheese on your pizza. In fact, you do not need to use any at all! Go ahead and express your freedom of choice. The flavor of the cheese you use has a big impact on the flavor of the pizza. By using different varieties of cheese like Mozzarella, Provolone, Romano, Parmesan, and all the other varieties, you are in control of the taste of the pizza. Choose cheese flavors that complement the other pizza toppings you use or choose cheese that brings a distinctive punch to the pizza. Get the best quality cheese you can afford or the brands that you trust so that you pizza comes out great. You may notice some cheeses melt differently, some produce oil as they cook, or the cheese’s texture may vary. Make notes or remember your preferences.