Equipped for Successful Pizza Making

When my mother made dough for her wonderful yeast breads, she had a measuring cup, a bowl, a big wooden spoon (which doubled as a paddle when we did something she didn’t like!) and a board on which to knead and shape her dough into breads and fantastically fragrant cinnamon rolls.  Even though you can make an amazingly good yeast dough with only a few of the simplest kitchen utensils, having some basic tools of the trade can make life so much easier when it comes to making that dough and turning out a perfect pizza every time.  Think of this as your wish list, adding tools as your enthusiasm for pizza making grows.

• Gas Grill / Oven that heats to 500 degrees Fahrenheit

• Pizza Grill / Quarry tiles or a pizza stone for the oven when baking pizzas indoors. I recommend the Charcoal Companion PizzaQue Stone Grill.

• Scale – I find that weighing ingredients is much more accurate than using measuring cups when making my pizza dough, as flour can be compacted in its container.  If you must use measuring cups, fluff the flour first then spoon it lightly into the cup and level it off with the back of a knife.  I also find it easier to use a scale for weighing topping ingredients like cheese.

• Glass measuring cup – 2 to 4 cup size. 

• Instant read thermometer – This is very useful when dissolving yeast granules in water that needs to be 110 to 115 degrees Fahrenheit.   It is important not to guesstimate the optimal water temperature because if the water is too hot, it can kill the yeast; if it is too cool, it will slow down the development of the yeast.  Since I leave nothing to chance, I always have my instant read thermometer handy.

• Mixing bowls – I like earthenware bowls, but you can use glass, stainless steel or whatever you have on hand.  It is helpful to have a large bowl for dough rising and several small bowls for preparing and storing your pizza ingredients in advance.

• Electric mixer – with a paddle for mixing and a dough hook for kneading.  My heavy duty Kitchen Aid mixer is a true work horse that has never let me down.  I must admit though, I now make all my dough with my food processor.  http://www.kitchenaid.com

• Food processor – These machines never cease to amaze me.  I recommend a heavy duty, large capacity machine with a dough blade, like the Cuisinart 14 cup food processor http://www.cuisinart.com/ .   It takes only minutes to mix dough ingredients and one to two additional minutes to knead the dough.  This is truly revolutionary – especially to anyone who has ever tried to make dough using only a bowl, wooden spoon and good old-fashioned elbow grease.

• Mezzaluna – This versatile kitchen utensil has a single or double, very sharp,  curved blade with a handle on each end.  The curve of the blade resembles a half moon, or ‘mezzaluna’ in Italian.  Mezzalunas come in varying sizes; small ones are great for chopping herbs and the large ones are sometimes used to cut pizzas.  The ideal chopping surface is a concave board, but any wooden cutting board will suffice. To safely use your mezzaluna, grasp firmly by both handles and carefully rock the device back and forth across your herbs or vegetables. Although I do have a rather large cutting board, I prefer using the mezzaluna when chopping herbs to avoid permanently staining the board. 

• Rolling pin – Pizza dough can be flattened with your fingers and stretched into shape all by hand.  Should you prefer to roll your dough into shape, I recommend using a long French rolling pin which is a thin, hardwood cylinder with tapered ends that has some good weight to it.  A standard rolling pin can also work if that is your preference.

• Pastry brush – An indispensable tool for evenly distributing oil over pizza dough before baking and for brushing the outer rim of crust after removing pizza from grill or oven; a simple step that assures a beautifully glistening crust. 

• Grater – Microplane graters are quite versatile for finely grating anything from hard cheese and citrus zest to ginger and nutmeg.  I limit my use of box graters to using the large holes for shredding softer cheeses like mozzarella.

• Pizza peel – This tool facilitates transferring your assembled pizza to and from the grill or oven.  You can also use a rimless baking sheet for this job, but the absence of a handle can make transferring you pizza a bit tricky.

• Pizza cutter – Whether you use a wheel type or a mezzaluna as described above, be sure to purchase something that is sturdy and that fits well in your hand.

This list may seem a bit overwhelming to a novice pizza maker, but keep in mind that you can make fabulous pizzas with only a handful of the tools listed above.  You can use purchased pizza dough and eliminate the need for a mixer, food processor - well - most of the items listed above.  For years I purchased my pastry brushes in a hardware store buying the 2 inch disposable ones that come packaged in cellophane. The bristle brushes, not the foam applicators!  A good sharp knife can do the work of the mezzaluna and pizza cutter if you are careful and if you have a bottle of wine in the house, you can cross the rolling pin off your list.  As you can see, where there's a will, there's a way.  And do get a pizza peel; they are such fun and you look so accomplished as you jerk that peel from under your pizza planting it smack in the middle of your smokin' hot pizza stone.  Enjoy the process.