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The Best Way to Cook Your Homemade Pizza

The Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, which protects the appellation and advocates for the authenticity of true Neapolitan pizza, requires that pizza be baked in a 485°C (900°F) wood-burning oven, in less than 2 minutes! But since we’re not all lucky enough to have a wood-burning oven in our yard or kitchen, we’ll have to make do with our good old domestic oven.

In the oven

Without a doubt, the best way to cook homemade pizza is in a very hot oven (230°C to 290°C/450°F to 550°F) on a pizza stone. But if you don’t own one, an upside-down baking tray that has been preheated as well as a pizza grill can also provide good results.

The most common issue about cooking pizza with toppings is the accumulation of liquid at the surface, which creates a wet texture.

Here are some tips to avoid this nuisance:

  • Top your pizza at the last moment and, above all, don’t overdress it with sauce and vegetables that release a lot of liquid while cooking.
  • If the stone is placed in the upper third of the oven, the crust will crisp up nicely and the toppings will brown well, but it will be more difficult to handle the pizza so close to the element. Cooking your pizza in the middle of the oven offers a good compromise: the hot stone will ensure that the bottom of the crust will be well baked, while the radiant heat from the oven roof will cook the toppings on the surface.
  • If needed, finish cooking your pizza under the broiler to get a beautifully golden surface (don’t do this, though, if your pizza is on parchment paper, as it can catch fire). 
  • Another option consists of precooking the crust with no toppings, for about 3 to 4 minutes, before garnishing it.

On the barbecue

If you wish to enjoy the beautiful weather, cook your pizza on the barbecue! Watch Ricardo explain how he does it (in French only) and check out our recipes for pizza on the barbecue.

Slide Your Pizza into the Oven Without any Disaster

Who dreams of sliding their pizza with grace and elegance on the stone, like a real pizzaiolo, with a pizza peel? There are 1,001 tricks out there to help you do this without messing up, like dusting the board with flour or cornmeal. But through exhaustive trial and error, we’ve determined that the most foolproof method is to use parchment paper. The paper doesn’t interfere with the cooking process (the crust gets practically just as golden brown and crispy), but the paper may burn. To avoid this inconvenience and optimize the cooking, remove the paper halfway through the cooking time. It’s not essential to do that, but should you wish to, here’s how:

Topping and Cooking Your Pizza in 3 Steps

  1.  Place a large sheet of parchment paper on a flat baking tray (with no sides) or wooden board. No need to sprinkle oil or dust with flour. Place the pizza dough you stretched in the air with your bare hands on the parchment paper or stretch it directly on the paper to the desired size. Smaller pizzas are preferable because they’re easier to handle. Add the toppings of your choice.
  2.  Slide the pizza (still on the parchment paper) onto your cooking surface (a pizza stone or upside-down baking tray, preheated).
  3.  Halfway through the cooking time, remove the parchment paper by pulling it sharply with a pair of tongs. Don’t worry, it’ll come off easily.

When the cooking time is over, remove the pizza from the stone or baking tray by pulling it with tongs, sliding it on top of a wooden board to serve.

Christina Blais

For Christina Blais, explaining food chemistry to the masses is as simple as making a good omelet. Holding a Bachelor and Master degree in Nutrition, she has been a part-time lecturer for over 30 years in the Department of Nutrition at the Université de Montréal, where she teaches food science courses. She has been sharing the fruits of her experience with Ricardo since 2001, during his daily show broadcast on ICI Radio-Canada Télé. And diehards can also read her Food Chemistry on our website. You can follow her on Facebook at @Encuisineavecchristinablais.