If you aren’t making your own pizza…

[Anonymous]

Our family has had great pizza abroad - prob the best was in Naples but Paris had excellent pies too - until I went there I didn’t realize that the French eat more pizza than any country except Italy and the US.

But those who say you can’t find good pizza in the US are either lying or aren’t trying hard enough. So many great variations - NYC, Chicago, New Haven, Detroit - all different and all spectacular.

[Anonymous]

What is the best store bought pizza tomato sauce?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love homemade pizza but my kids consider it a totally different food group than pizza from ledos or flippin pizza. It is different.

I agree that it's different but great in its own way. Its always much lighter than anything we can order. I use Mark Bittman's recipe for dough - flour, yeast, and salt in the food processor, add water and a little oil and process (less than a minute) until it comes together in a ball, knead a few times, and let rise. Aside from the rising time, it's just a few minutes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband buys the dough at Whole Foods, and then does the rest. It allows each member of the family to get a customized slice. I like how he can make the dough thinner than ready-made pizza.

However it's a lot of work. If I lived in France, my home country, I would never make pizza at home, but would just go to a restaurant and have delicious ultra-thin pizza with interesting toppings you don't seem to have here...

What interesting toppings would you have in France?

Things that are hard to get as a combination here. For example, Provençal: tomatoes, tuna, olives, red onion. I love artichoke in my homemade pizza. Generally way less cheese and oil than pizzas here. Or the flammkuchen/tarte flambée, a pizza from Alsace without tomato sauce or cheese, but creme fraiche, thinly sliced onions and lardons (similar to bacon). Italian seafood pizza, although I suppose you can find it here too, but it's less popular.

NP. If only we had tuna on pizza. Then it would be so good.

PP you replied to. Yes, I love tuna on pizza. Coming back to note that Spaniards have their own pizza recipes, and Turkish/middle eastern pizza with spiced ground beef is a delight.

Basically every nation is making delicious variations while here it's tough to find anything but the few usuals. So in that context, when you have the time, please experiment at home with other countries' recipes! It's cheaper than going there...

“Basically” you either haven’t traveled widely throughout the US, or you haven’t adequately sampled the pizzas during your travels. It’s ok. Just know that generalizing about a whole entire nation based on your own limited experience isn’t exactly accurate. Do you really think that while you’re experimenting with “other countries’ recipes” at home, that people from those other countries aren’t making and selling pizza throughout the US? If you stopped at Domino’s, then you should know that there’s a lot more out there. If you’ve traveled and tasted widely, then you really should have managed to come across at least a few “delicious variations “ in the process.

I’m curious. How much time have you spent eating pizza in New Haven and New York? Or Baltimore? Can you tell the difference between pizza cooked in a coal oven and your home experiments? I’m not doubting that you make great pizza. I am, though, wondering exactly what pizzas you’re comparing with your own.

NP. Wait what’s up with pizza in Baltimore

+1
And how can you be sure you're getting authentic "Baltimore" and "New Haven" pizza and not Papa John style? Do you have to make sure the joint says "baltimore-style" pizza? I know Cleveland pizza is square and doughy. Not my thing but I would like to try it!

Try Matthew’s pizza.
I’m not sure if there’s still an Al Pacino pizza in Baltimore, but they had /have awesome pizza. (The one I went to when I lived there closed, but there was at least one other location).

For NYC, I like John’s on Bleeker, but that’s my personal preference.

For New Haven, I personally like Yorkside, but many prefer Pepe’s or Sally’s.

I’m not sure how to answer your question. Don’t go to chains. Ask people who live there. Read the reviews. Most cities regularly update articles and posts like: “Citiy’s best pizza…”. Also, the best places for slices ,pmight be slightly different but overlapping with the best places for pies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband buys the dough at Whole Foods, and then does the rest. It allows each member of the family to get a customized slice. I like how he can make the dough thinner than ready-made pizza.

However it's a lot of work. If I lived in France, my home country, I would never make pizza at home, but would just go to a restaurant and have delicious ultra-thin pizza with interesting toppings you don't seem to have here...

What interesting toppings would you have in France?

Things that are hard to get as a combination here. For example, Provençal: tomatoes, tuna, olives, red onion. I love artichoke in my homemade pizza. Generally way less cheese and oil than pizzas here. Or the flammkuchen/tarte flambée, a pizza from Alsace without tomato sauce or cheese, but creme fraiche, thinly sliced onions and lardons (similar to bacon). Italian seafood pizza, although I suppose you can find it here too, but it's less popular.

NP. If only we had tuna on pizza. Then it would be so good.

PP you replied to. Yes, I love tuna on pizza. Coming back to note that Spaniards have their own pizza recipes, and Turkish/middle eastern pizza with spiced ground beef is a delight.

Basically every nation is making delicious variations while here it's tough to find anything but the few usuals. So in that context, when you have the time, please experiment at home with other countries' recipes! It's cheaper than going there...

“Basically” you either haven’t traveled widely throughout the US, or you haven’t adequately sampled the pizzas during your travels. It’s ok. Just know that generalizing about a whole entire nation based on your own limited experience isn’t exactly accurate. Do you really think that while you’re experimenting with “other countries’ recipes” at home, that people from those other countries aren’t making and selling pizza throughout the US? If you stopped at Domino’s, then you should know that there’s a lot more out there. If you’ve traveled and tasted widely, then you really should have managed to come across at least a few “delicious variations “ in the process.

I’m curious. How much time have you spent eating pizza in New Haven and New York? Or Baltimore? Can you tell the difference between pizza cooked in a coal oven and your home experiments? I’m not doubting that you make great pizza. I am, though, wondering exactly what pizzas you’re comparing with your own.

I totally understand you're patriotic, PP, but I'm very sorry to say 99% of restaurant pizza in the US is objectively bad. No, I'm not talking about take-out pizza. It doesn't matter what city it's from, or how it's cooked, usually it's too oily, cheesy and salty. Bread depth isn't proportional to toppings either. The USA is a wonderful country in so many ways, but food isn't what people admire about it. I don't want to get you all prickly and offended, but it's the truth.

I’m hardly patriotic, and tastes, of course, differ. I am pointing out though, that unless you’ve actually had “99% of restaurant pizza in the US” you might not be qualified to make statements like that. If I’m wrong, then please list the 1% of restaurants that you can recommend. I’ll seek them out as I travel.

I personally get take out pizza from the same places that I eat in for restaurant pizza, so your distinction is not one that I get. I have, though, lived in a few East Coast cities which have had generations of people from Italy and Greece, among other places, making pizza that many people are happy with.

As to the rest, Baltimore, New Orleans, and NYC all have admirable food options. I don’t really care whether you agree with my tastes or know how to find those options. No offense taken. I’m not all that personally identified with pizza options, so that’s hardly an issue that I’d get offended about.

Oh, in DC I like Timber Pizza, among others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband buys the dough at Whole Foods, and then does the rest. It allows each member of the family to get a customized slice. I like how he can make the dough thinner than ready-made pizza.

However it's a lot of work. If I lived in France, my home country, I would never make pizza at home, but would just go to a restaurant and have delicious ultra-thin pizza with interesting toppings you don't seem to have here...

What interesting toppings would you have in France?

Things that are hard to get as a combination here. For example, Provençal: tomatoes, tuna, olives, red onion. I love artichoke in my homemade pizza. Generally way less cheese and oil than pizzas here. Or the flammkuchen/tarte flambée, a pizza from Alsace without tomato sauce or cheese, but creme fraiche, thinly sliced onions and lardons (similar to bacon). Italian seafood pizza, although I suppose you can find it here too, but it's less popular.

NP. If only we had tuna on pizza. Then it would be so good.

PP you replied to. Yes, I love tuna on pizza. Coming back to note that Spaniards have their own pizza recipes, and Turkish/middle eastern pizza with spiced ground beef is a delight.

Basically every nation is making delicious variations while here it's tough to find anything but the few usuals. So in that context, when you have the time, please experiment at home with other countries' recipes! It's cheaper than going there...

“Basically” you either haven’t traveled widely throughout the US, or you haven’t adequately sampled the pizzas during your travels. It’s ok. Just know that generalizing about a whole entire nation based on your own limited experience isn’t exactly accurate. Do you really think that while you’re experimenting with “other countries’ recipes” at home, that people from those other countries aren’t making and selling pizza throughout the US? If you stopped at Domino’s, then you should know that there’s a lot more out there. If you’ve traveled and tasted widely, then you really should have managed to come across at least a few “delicious variations “ in the process.

I’m curious. How much time have you spent eating pizza in New Haven and New York? Or Baltimore? Can you tell the difference between pizza cooked in a coal oven and your home experiments? I’m not doubting that you make great pizza. I am, though, wondering exactly what pizzas you’re comparing with your own.

I totally understand you're patriotic, PP, but I'm very sorry to say 99% of restaurant pizza in the US is objectively bad. No, I'm not talking about take-out pizza. It doesn't matter what city it's from, or how it's cooked, usually it's too oily, cheesy and salty. Bread depth isn't proportional to toppings either. The USA is a wonderful country in so many ways, but food isn't what people admire about it. I don't want to get you all prickly and offended, but it's the truth.

Wow, what a great example of What I like is good-What you like is bad, as if that were a fact rather than an opinion. Patriotism has nothing to do with what people like to eat. You are more than welcome to like your favorite pizza but perhaps you need to be a bit more open minded about what other people like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’ve been making pizza at home a lot since we got a Breville pizza oven. The results are fantastic. I didn’t always find the labor cost/benefit analysis worth it when we used the oven on max temperature (550 for ours) with pizza stone or steel set up. Definitely hard to calculate with the outdoor ovens that make unbelievable pizza with a whole lot of effort.

We like the NYT variation of the Roberta’s from Brooklyn recipe: https://www.reddit.com/r/ooni/comments/wcxbtp/very_happy_with_the_results_ive_settled_on/

This is the only post that has me even contemplating it; buying a specialty oven. I've tried every tip here and it's just...ok. I've never been able to make a pizza at home that has compared to a coal-fired pizza oven.

[Anonymous]

Probably breaking the rules but to avoid burnt toppings and soggy crust, I sometimes partially prebake the crust with just sauce. Then more of the sauce liquid evaporates rather than being trapped by the cheese.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’ve been making pizza at home a lot since we got a Breville pizza oven. The results are fantastic. I didn’t always find the labor cost/benefit analysis worth it when we used the oven on max temperature (550 for ours) with pizza stone or steel set up. Definitely hard to calculate with the outdoor ovens that make unbelievable pizza with a whole lot of effort.

We like the NYT variation of the Roberta’s from Brooklyn recipe: https://www.reddit.com/r/ooni/comments/wcxbtp/very_happy_with_the_results_ive_settled_on/

This is the only post that has me even contemplating it; buying a specialty oven. I've tried every tip here and it's just...ok. I've never been able to make a pizza at home that has compared to a coal-fired pizza oven.

Do you have any friends who have either the Breville Pizzaiolo or Ooni Volt? There are other cheaper ones coming on the market, but those seem to be the gold standard for now. I tried the Breville before getting it and was really impressed. I would have been reluctant to spend that much otherwise. I do the overnight ferment version of the Roberta’s dough and cook on the “wood fired” setting on the Breville which is 750 degrees. It takes 2.5 minutes and is ready for the next (smallish) pizza in 5 minutes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband buys the dough at Whole Foods, and then does the rest. It allows each member of the family to get a customized slice. I like how he can make the dough thinner than ready-made pizza.

However it's a lot of work. If I lived in France, my home country, I would never make pizza at home, but would just go to a restaurant and have delicious ultra-thin pizza with interesting toppings you don't seem to have here...

What interesting toppings would you have in France?

Things that are hard to get as a combination here. For example, Provençal: tomatoes, tuna, olives, red onion. I love artichoke in my homemade pizza. Generally way less cheese and oil than pizzas here. Or the flammkuchen/tarte flambée, a pizza from Alsace without tomato sauce or cheese, but creme fraiche, thinly sliced onions and lardons (similar to bacon). Italian seafood pizza, although I suppose you can find it here too, but it's less popular.

NP. If only we had tuna on pizza. Then it would be so good.

PP you replied to. Yes, I love tuna on pizza. Coming back to note that Spaniards have their own pizza recipes, and Turkish/middle eastern pizza with spiced ground beef is a delight.

Basically every nation is making delicious variations while here it's tough to find anything but the few usuals. So in that context, when you have the time, please experiment at home with other countries' recipes! It's cheaper than going there...

“Basically” you either haven’t traveled widely throughout the US, or you haven’t adequately sampled the pizzas during your travels. It’s ok. Just know that generalizing about a whole entire nation based on your own limited experience isn’t exactly accurate. Do you really think that while you’re experimenting with “other countries’ recipes” at home, that people from those other countries aren’t making and selling pizza throughout the US? If you stopped at Domino’s, then you should know that there’s a lot more out there. If you’ve traveled and tasted widely, then you really should have managed to come across at least a few “delicious variations “ in the process.

I’m curious. How much time have you spent eating pizza in New Haven and New York? Or Baltimore? Can you tell the difference between pizza cooked in a coal oven and your home experiments? I’m not doubting that you make great pizza. I am, though, wondering exactly what pizzas you’re comparing with your own.

I totally understand you're patriotic, PP, but I'm very sorry to say 99% of restaurant pizza in the US is objectively bad. No, I'm not talking about take-out pizza. It doesn't matter what city it's from, or how it's cooked, usually it's too oily, cheesy and salty. Bread depth isn't proportional to toppings either. The USA is a wonderful country in so many ways, but food isn't what people admire about it. I don't want to get you all prickly and offended, but it's the truth.

Maybe for your taste buds. I like pizza here more than the pizza I had in Italy. I’m a New Yorker. The extra cheese and oil is part of the taste I’ve accustomed to since childhood . There, it tastes too dry, less oily, like tomatoes on clay, very little cheese. Granted, it’s healthier and we are a fatter country but so what? I find the food snobs that hate it are the first to wolf down things like pizza, mozzarella sticks, calzones, burgers, and French fries .

And tuna on pizza is not some sort of brag worthy thing. You can place anchovies on pizza here for the same effect but better because it’s well done with the cheese.

Pizza in the U.S. is awesome. It’s very easy to find Neopolitan pizza in most cities that’s as good as anything in Italy. Italy, like the U.S. has some phenomenal pizza, but I’ve also had some very average pizza, and pasta, in Italy. If Neopolitan isnt your style, NY pizza, which can also be found everywhere, is pretty darned good.

To the Euro foodie, they lose credibility with tuna on pizza, and I like tuna and pizza, just not together. I will agree with them that Alasace Flammekueche is great.

To OP, I also love making homemade pizza. It’s easy, cheap and pretty good. It’s not as great as the top pizzeria pies, but certainly good enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband buys the dough at Whole Foods, and then does the rest. It allows each member of the family to get a customized slice. I like how he can make the dough thinner than ready-made pizza.

However it's a lot of work. If I lived in France, my home country, I would never make pizza at home, but would just go to a restaurant and have delicious ultra-thin pizza with interesting toppings you don't seem to have here...

What interesting toppings would you have in France?

Things that are hard to get as a combination here. For example, Provençal: tomatoes, tuna, olives, red onion. I love artichoke in my homemade pizza. Generally way less cheese and oil than pizzas here. Or the flammkuchen/tarte flambée, a pizza from Alsace without tomato sauce or cheese, but creme fraiche, thinly sliced onions and lardons (similar to bacon). Italian seafood pizza, although I suppose you can find it here too, but it's less popular.

NP. If only we had tuna on pizza. Then it would be so good.

PP you replied to. Yes, I love tuna on pizza. Coming back to note that Spaniards have their own pizza recipes, and Turkish/middle eastern pizza with spiced ground beef is a delight.

Basically every nation is making delicious variations while here it's tough to find anything but the few usuals. So in that context, when you have the time, please experiment at home with other countries' recipes! It's cheaper than going there...

“Basically” you either haven’t traveled widely throughout the US, or you haven’t adequately sampled the pizzas during your travels. It’s ok. Just know that generalizing about a whole entire nation based on your own limited experience isn’t exactly accurate. Do you really think that while you’re experimenting with “other countries’ recipes” at home, that people from those other countries aren’t making and selling pizza throughout the US? If you stopped at Domino’s, then you should know that there’s a lot more out there. If you’ve traveled and tasted widely, then you really should have managed to come across at least a few “delicious variations “ in the process.

I’m curious. How much time have you spent eating pizza in New Haven and New York? Or Baltimore? Can you tell the difference between pizza cooked in a coal oven and your home experiments? I’m not doubting that you make great pizza. I am, though, wondering exactly what pizzas you’re comparing with your own.

I totally understand you're patriotic, PP, but I'm very sorry to say 99% of restaurant pizza in the US is objectively bad. No, I'm not talking about take-out pizza. It doesn't matter what city it's from, or how it's cooked, usually it's too oily, cheesy and salty. Bread depth isn't proportional to toppings either. The USA is a wonderful country in so many ways, but food isn't what people admire about it. I don't want to get you all prickly and offended, but it's the truth.

This is so wrong. Basically everyone everywhere abroad is blown away by Southern cuisine. True, authentic Southern soul food has a worldwide following.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband buys the dough at Whole Foods, and then does the rest. It allows each member of the family to get a customized slice. I like how he can make the dough thinner than ready-made pizza.

However it's a lot of work. If I lived in France, my home country, I would never make pizza at home, but would just go to a restaurant and have delicious ultra-thin pizza with interesting toppings you don't seem to have here...

What interesting toppings would you have in France?

Things that are hard to get as a combination here. For example, Provençal: tomatoes, tuna, olives, red onion. I love artichoke in my homemade pizza. Generally way less cheese and oil than pizzas here. Or the flammkuchen/tarte flambée, a pizza from Alsace without tomato sauce or cheese, but creme fraiche, thinly sliced onions and lardons (similar to bacon). Italian seafood pizza, although I suppose you can find it here too, but it's less popular.

NP. If only we had tuna on pizza. Then it would be so good.

PP you replied to. Yes, I love tuna on pizza. Coming back to note that Spaniards have their own pizza recipes, and Turkish/middle eastern pizza with spiced ground beef is a delight.

Basically every nation is making delicious variations while here it's tough to find anything but the few usuals. So in that context, when you have the time, please experiment at home with other countries' recipes! It's cheaper than going there...

“Basically” you either haven’t traveled widely throughout the US, or you haven’t adequately sampled the pizzas during your travels. It’s ok. Just know that generalizing about a whole entire nation based on your own limited experience isn’t exactly accurate. Do you really think that while you’re experimenting with “other countries’ recipes” at home, that people from those other countries aren’t making and selling pizza throughout the US? If you stopped at Domino’s, then you should know that there’s a lot more out there. If you’ve traveled and tasted widely, then you really should have managed to come across at least a few “delicious variations “ in the process.

I’m curious. How much time have you spent eating pizza in New Haven and New York? Or Baltimore? Can you tell the difference between pizza cooked in a coal oven and your home experiments? I’m not doubting that you make great pizza. I am, though, wondering exactly what pizzas you’re comparing with your own.

NP. Wait what’s up with pizza in Baltimore

+1
And how can you be sure you're getting authentic "Baltimore" and "New Haven" pizza and not Papa John style? Do you have to make sure the joint says "baltimore-style" pizza? I know Cleveland pizza is square and doughy. Not my thing but I would like to try it!

Well Papa John’s tastes like cardboard, or more accurately, the box it’s delivered in. It’s easy to tell the difference in PJ pizza and decent/good pizza.

[Anonymous]

Give us the dough recipe!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the best store bought pizza tomato sauce?

Rao’s, hands down! Nothing else compares.

NP but for those asking for a dough recipe:

My go-to is the same day sourdough crust on the blog sourdough podcast. Best if you have a sourdough starter.

If not, the Roberta’s dough recipe in the NYT is great and comes out very well each time.

I am with OP, I almost exclusively make my own pizza and have all the tools to make great pie now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband buys the dough at Whole Foods, and then does the rest. It allows each member of the family to get a customized slice. I like how he can make the dough thinner than ready-made pizza.

However it's a lot of work. If I lived in France, my home country, I would never make pizza at home, but would just go to a restaurant and have delicious ultra-thin pizza with interesting toppings you don't seem to have here...

What interesting toppings would you have in France?

Things that are hard to get as a combination here. For example, Provençal: tomatoes, tuna, olives, red onion. I love artichoke in my homemade pizza. Generally way less cheese and oil than pizzas here. Or the flammkuchen/tarte flambée, a pizza from Alsace without tomato sauce or cheese, but creme fraiche, thinly sliced onions and lardons (similar to bacon). Italian seafood pizza, although I suppose you can find it here too, but it's less popular.

NP. If only we had tuna on pizza. Then it would be so good.

PP you replied to. Yes, I love tuna on pizza. Coming back to note that Spaniards have their own pizza recipes, and Turkish/middle eastern pizza with spiced ground beef is a delight.

Basically every nation is making delicious variations while here it's tough to find anything but the few usuals. So in that context, when you have the time, please experiment at home with other countries' recipes! It's cheaper than going there...

“Basically” you either haven’t traveled widely throughout the US, or you haven’t adequately sampled the pizzas during your travels. It’s ok. Just know that generalizing about a whole entire nation based on your own limited experience isn’t exactly accurate. Do you really think that while you’re experimenting with “other countries’ recipes” at home, that people from those other countries aren’t making and selling pizza throughout the US? If you stopped at Domino’s, then you should know that there’s a lot more out there. If you’ve traveled and tasted widely, then you really should have managed to come across at least a few “delicious variations “ in the process.

I’m curious. How much time have you spent eating pizza in New Haven and New York? Or Baltimore? Can you tell the difference between pizza cooked in a coal oven and your home experiments? I’m not doubting that you make great pizza. I am, though, wondering exactly what pizzas you’re comparing with your own.

NP. Wait what’s up with pizza in Baltimore

+1
And how can you be sure you're getting authentic "Baltimore" and "New Haven" pizza and not Papa John style? Do you have to make sure the joint says "baltimore-style" pizza? I know Cleveland pizza is square and doughy. Not my thing but I would like to try it!

Try Matthew’s pizza.
I’m not sure if there’s still an Al Pacino pizza in Baltimore, but they had /have awesome pizza. (The one I went to when I lived there closed, but there was at least one other location).

For NYC, I like John’s on Bleeker, but that’s my personal preference.

For New Haven, I personally like Yorkside, but many prefer Pepe’s or Sally’s.

I’m not sure how to answer your question. Don’t go to chains. Ask people who live there. Read the reviews. Most cities regularly update articles and posts like: “Citiy’s best pizza…”. Also, the best places for slices ,pmight be slightly different but overlapping with the best places for pies.

Here’s a menu for Al Pacino’s. Read it and drool.


https://www.alpacinomenu.com/