I got a pizza oven for my backyard. I have always wanted one. My idea was to get a wood-fired one, but it turns out they are too fussy for what I want to do. I went through a lot of permutations, and settled on the Alfa One gas.
I have read a ton online and watched lots and lots of videos about making pizza. It’s not a snap. The above is my second effort. I got some burrata cheese and slopped it on.
There are two things that really really matter. The heat in the oven and the dough. Anything else is a sideshow.
It takes about 30 minutes to get my oven hot enough to make pizza. The stone floor has to heat up. In Las Vegas, it gets pretty cool at night and so the stones really cool off. It’s going to be in the 80s today, but by evening it will be so cool we won’t even need our air conditioning.
I bought some dough at a local supermarket, Smith’s, but it was pretty terrible. Wet and gooey. My first pizza-making effort was a total failure. On my second effort, I went to an Italian deli, Sienna, and bought some of their dough. It came out a lot better.
The pizza above has a very thin crust, but under the heat of the oven the side puffed up. Neopolitan style.
My goal is to learn how to make my own dough and then just store it in the freezer. I bought some Caputo’s 00 flour and this fall when I get back from my place in Minnesota I will attempt to make my own.
Making dough is about time and getting the proportion of water/flour exactly right.
Pizza...by itself has been a personal quest of mine for years. I spent years traveling domestically for work and I made it a point to check out the 'best' pizzas in the particular cities and towns I worked in. There are a handful of cities that have their own niche and followings- New York and Chicago style pizzas notably. But for the most part, you can find one or maybe two good-to- great pizza makers in each city and the rest are just meh.
So now I'm retired and like you, I'm just starting to get going with my own. I have not yet committed to a pizza oven for my lanai, but I'm doing my homework. In the meantime...the flour used to make your dough is very important. But more than that...practice, practice, and more practice in both making the dough, getting the oven right. I'm using this video as my guide. Good luck. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjsCEJ8CWlg
Check out The Wood Fired Oven Chef on YouTube. Has any easy dough recipe and some great pizza recipes.