Homemade Pizza Hacks

Baking pizza from scratch at home can feel intimidating and may yield underwhelming results, making you wish you had just ordered from your favorite pizza place instead. The small portable pizza ovens on the market today are amazing for creating Neapolitan-style pizza at home, and they are significantly less expensive than large traditional wood-fired ovens. However, they still require a financial investment and a certain skill level. But have no fear: You do not need fancy equipment or years of training—or even homemade dough, for that matter—to create great pizza at home.

Crust

There is no need to tirelessly knead dough by hand or toss it in the air to create the perfect crust. By utilizing rising time and a large sheet pan, you can easily achieve a delicious homemade pizza dough at home (recipe below). When you are short on time, “ready to bake” pizza dough is available in most grocery stores. You can elevate this dough with a simple flavor-boosting trick: Once the crust is shaped, lightly brush the outer edge with olive oil or melted butter, then sprinkle with minced garlic, flaky sea salt, dried herbs or grated Parmesan. Continue with sauce and toppings as usual.

Sauce

Homemade pizza sauce can take hours to execute, and it usually calls for in-season tomatoes plus a slew of other ingredients. On the other hand, store-bought pizza sauce can be too thick and overpowering in flavor. Using canned tomatoes—often hanging out in the back of the pantry—is the greatest pizza sauce hack of all time. You can use diced or whole tomatoes, just make sure they have no added flavors. Canned San Marzano tomatoes have the best flavor and texture for sauce. No need to cook the tomatoes, just briefly blitz them in a blender and spread on top of your pizza dough. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Or skip the classic tomato sauce and try a Creamy Vodka Sauce.

Toppings

When baking pizza in a conventional oven, choose low-moisture shredded mozzarella cheese over other varieties. The crust will stay crisper once you’ve added all the sauce, cheese and toppings. That said, fresh mozzarella or burrata cheese is divine as a garnish after the pizza is baked. Simply bake your pizza with tomato sauce alone. After it comes out of the oven, add salty prosciutto, fresh mozzarella or burrata cheese, arugula, a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Other delicious additions to pizza after it comes out of the oven include hot honey, chili crisp, pesto, microgreens, poached eggs, balsamic vinegar, fresh basil, truffle oil, slow-roasted tomatoes or ricotta cheese.

Baking

Although not necessary, pizza stones or baking steels can elevate your homemade pizza experience. When pizza goes into the oven on a cold pan, the crust remains soft. When pizza goes into the oven onto a piping-hot stone, the crust becomes delightfully crisp without the toppings becoming a burnt mess. When cooking with pizza stones or baking steels, use parchment paper to transfer the pizza from the counter to the stone. Simply place the stretched round pizza dough onto a piece of parchment paper before adding sauce and toppings. Transfer the paper and pizza to the preheated stone or steel with a pizza peel or cutting board. Slide it off the same way. 

Sheet Pan Pizza

Serves 4  

This pizza is easy to whip up any day of the week. It has a texture similar to focaccia, thanks to the olive oil: soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. Finish it with your favorite sauce and toppings. 

1 packet quick-rise yeast (2¼ teaspoons)

½ teaspoon granulated sugar

1¼ cups warm water, heated to 110–115°

4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons kosher salt

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus ¼ cup for pan

In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water. Set aside until the yeast is foamy, 3 to 5 minutes.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough attachment, add the yeast mixture, flour, salt and 3 tablespoons olive oil. Mix on medium speed for about 5 minutes. Mix on high speed for another 5 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic. Alternatively, you can knead the dough by hand for 10 minutes.

Coat a large sheet pan with the remaining ¼ cup olive oil. Roughly shape the dough into a rectangle and place on the oiled pan. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and set in a warm place to rise for 90 minutes or until it has doubled in size. After the dough has risen, stretch and push the dough to fill out the sheet pan. Cover and let rise another 90 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 475°. Spread sauce, cheese and toppings on top of dough. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes.