Grains for Every Season: Rethinking Our Way with Grains

Joshua's Four Rules of Pizza Making

I take pizza very seriously, as it is one of humankind’s greatest inventions. Making pizza at home is often disappointing because, with a normal home oven, people just can’t achieve a crust like the one at a good pizzeria—chewy-crisp with the right amount of char on the edges—and they end up with pizzas that are cardboard-y. That’s because it’s not possible to get the high heat and thermal capacity of a wood-burning masonry oven by using a home oven. So I say forget about Neapolitan-style pizza and make a sheet pan pizza. You can use the same types of toppings and the crust is equally delicious, just different—slightly thick, meaning you get a lot of delicious whole-grain flavor.

Here are my four rules to keep in mind as you make pizza:

1. Do not oversauce your pizza. Pizza is about the dough; the sauce should just be an accent. No soggy pizzas, please.

Joshua's Four Rules of Pizza Making

2. Do not use more than three main ingredients for your toppings (other than extra-virgin olive oil and some grated Parmigiano). The concept will just be muddled.

Joshua's Four Rules of Pizza Making

3. Bake your pizza hotter and longer than you think you should. You want your toppings to get good and browned for the most flavor and the bottom crust must be cooked and crisp.

Joshua's Four Rules of Pizza Making

4. Once the pizza is out of the oven, finish with a drizzle of olive oil and a big pinch of flaky salt as the final flourish.