Pizza starts out with whatever bread recipe you are most comfortable with. Here at the farm, the dough for pizza crust is identical to dough for making bread. The 2-1 Sourdough bread recipe works great, but make whatever dough you are used to.
Pizza can be baked on a cookie sheet in an ordinary home oven, in a cast-iron skillet, on an outdoor grill, or any number of dedicated pizza ovens. For most pizza, the hotter, the better. Most pizza on the farm is made in a commercial deck oven set at 600 degrees F. We also sometimes use our wood-fired brick oven, where temperatures can be even hotter. When using an ordinary kitchen oven, temperatures are difficult to get above 450 degrees F, so cooking times will be longer. We used to use clay pizza stones in the kitchen oven, but now we either use a cast iron skillet or a stainless-steel pizza "stone."
Roll out or stretch the dough to shape. Use plenty of corn meal if you are assembling the pizza on a peel. If you don't have a peel, use a cookie sheet. Sauce should be applied first, then other ingredients. Avoid the temptation to put too much total toppings on the pizza--this tends to weigh down the crust. Don't be afraid to go all out with spices. When no one is around, we pile on plenty of sliced garlic and medium-hot peppers (usually Aleppo).
Bake the pizza until cheese is bubbling and crust is developing brown spots. Slide onto a wooden surface to slice. Enjoy, then go make another one!
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