Can you make good pizza at home without a pizza oven?
Joe, Preston, Lancashire
Yes, but it’s more a question of which style of pizza you’re going to have the most success with. “The biggest thing is the temperature of the oven,” says Rich Baker, co-owner of Flat Earth Pizzas in east London, “because domestic ovens simply aren’t hot enough to achieve what a pizzeria does.” Joe might, he suggests, fare better with a grandma pizza, which is cooked in an oiled baking tray for about 15 minutes – “It’s ideal for the oven,” he says. But if you’re hankering for a floppy Neapolitan or crisper, New York-style slice, construct it in a hot cast-iron frying pan, then, once it has some colour on the base, pop it under a high grill until bubbling. “That’s the method I use if I don’t have access to a pizza oven,” says Nick Buckland, co-owner of Yard Sale Pizza in London, which opens its tenth site in Tottenham next month.
You’ll also need a good basic dough recipe, which happily requires only a handful of ingredients – flour, water, yeast, salt – although, Baker adds, you could also include sugar, honey or olive oil “to help it brown better”. Flour-wise, Joshua Ward, co-founder of Palm’s Pizzeria in Margate, uses 00 for his New York-style slices: “You want a fairly high protein content, because it helps build the dough’s structure, meaning it won’t tear when you handle it”; you could also use strong white flour, a mix of the two, or even add a little rye. Buckland also goes for 00 with “at least 13g protein” and, for three 12-inch pizzas, mixes 500g with 270ml water, and 1g fresh yeast (or ½g dry, active yeast in a little tepid water). He then adds 30ml more water, followed by 15g salt and 15g extra-virgin olive oil, and mixes for about 10 minutes, until it forms a smooth, elastic dough. “Fold into a ball, put in a lightly greased bowl, cover and leave overnight” at about 18C : “That’s the perfect spot between letting the yeast do its thing, but without it happening too quickly.”
