It's easy to do pizza night at home and here's how

Who doesn't like pizza? Many of us like it so much that ordering a cheesy, gooey pie is a beloved weekly tradition. But how many of us — especially beleaguered home cooks with young children — have tried making it? If you're not already making pizza at home, Alexandra Stafford's approach should convince you that it's not only possible, it's actually not that hard. Her new book is Pizza Night: Deliciously Doable Recipes for Pizza and Salad.

Evan Kleiman: Welcome to Good Food. I love talking about pizza.

Alexandra Stafford: Me too. I could talk forever about it.

How did Pizza Night start for you?

Pizza night has been a long-standing tradition for as long as I can remember, even from when I was a kid. I talk about this in the introduction. The earliest association I have with it is when my parents were getting divorced and my mom was trying to console my sister and I, who were crying. She said, "When we move, we'll have pizza every Friday." We were both like, okay, we're good, conversation done, we can move on with our lives. 

Then, as I was looking for inspiration for the book when I had this idea of coming up with 52 pizzas, one for every week of the year, I looked back on my life and started with all my favorite pizzerias over the years. I realized that pizza had been such an important part. It was sort of the answer to all of life's biggest challenges and hardest questions. Pizza was always there. I think lots of people can relate to that. In good times and bad times, it's there, it's comforting. That's how it started.

"Pizza Night" considers the seasons for a different pizza each week of the year. Photo courtesy of Clarkson Potter.

Many people fell into the rabbit hole of breadmaking during lockdown. I think for those of us who didn't, making bread and pizza dough can certainly fall into that category of something that seems too complicated to be able to sustain as a weekly home cooking practice. Is it? 

No. I feel like with anything, you just have to do it once and then you realize how easy it is. All of the recipes in Pizza Night are no-knead dough, so you just mix together flour, water, salt, yeast. And there are, of course, sourdough variations. They do not require a stand mixer. They do not require kneading. You just mix the ingredients together and from there, you let time do the work.

You give us a choice of four basic doughs with some tweaks thrown in. Can you describe the four?

There's a Neapolitan-style pizza dough and there's a sourdough variation of that. There is a thin crust pizza dough and there's also a sourdough variation of that. There's a sourdough variation for all of them. Neapolitan is the classic poofy crust and it's a little bit softer. For people who like a thinner, sturdier crust, the thin crust dough is for them. Then the pan pizza dough is basically like a focaccia but that's what's used for Sicilian-style pizza, Detroit-style pizza, grandma-style pizza, cast iron skillet pizza. It's really light and airy. The fourth dough is a gluten-free pizza crust and it's thin and crisp. I think with gluten-free, going the thin and crisp route is the key to success.

Do all of these recipes follow the same basic flow?

They do. They all follow the same basic flow. Mix together flour, salt, and a little bit of instant yeast. Add the water, let it rise. After you mix the dough, if you let it rest for 30 minutes then come back to it and do a little stretch and fold, you'll see how the dough really transforms. It becomes a little more elastic and strong, and the flour is hydrated. It doesn't call for kneading. It's just this stretch-and-fold step that really helps the dough come together and then that's it. Then, it rises for 10 to 12 hours. 

You can do it in the morning and let it rise all day. You can do it at night. It's very forgiving. It can be less than 10 hours, it can be more than 12. There's lots of wiggle room. Once it's risen, ball up the dough balls and get them into the fridge. You can use them, if you need to, within an hour or so of balling them up but, ideally, if you get them in the fridge, even better things will happen.

Are we using any specialty flours for the different recipes?

Yes and no. All the recipes were tested with both bread flour and all-purpose flour. I've always used King Arthur, that's my favorite. But any all-purpose flour or bread flour, ideally unbleached, will work. 

I think for pan pizza dough, bread flour is the way to go. A strong bread flour will give you the sturdiest crust. For home oven pizza, I am also a huge proponent, like for the Neapolitan style, of bread flour or all-purpose flour. King Arthur contains a little bit of malt in their bread [flour] and all-purpose flour. One of the biggest challenges with cooking pizza in a home oven is browning. Home ovens just don't get hot enough. So if you use a flour that contains a little bit of malt, you're setting yourself up for success.

So you're not using any 00 flour for the Neapolitan?

Not in the Neapolitan, no. 00 flour is great for an outdoor oven, a high heat oven. I find that for a home oven, you'll get better browning if you use bread flour, and you'll get a little bit of a poofy outer crust. You'll have better success with a bread flour or an all-purpose flour. 

00 flour is a beautiful flour. It's known for its extensibility. I use some of it in my thin crust pizza dough, actually. But I find they vary from brand to brand. They'll make a much wetter dough, which can be trickier to work with. And again, bread flour is a little bit more forgiving. The dough will be a little bit stronger. But for the thin crust pizza dough, I love 00 flour. It extends beautifully. 

In the thin crust dough, I also use a little bit of semola rimacinata, which is basically semolina that's been ground even finer. It has a nice texture and pliability. You don't have to use it. Again, you can make the thin crust pizza dough with 100% all-purpose flour and it will work beautifully. But if you are looking to make it to how the recipe is designed, 00 flour with this semola is a really nice combination.

A hatch chile pizza is inspired by Mexican street corn salad. Photo by Eva Kolenko.

Are the different doughs baked at varying temperatures to get the characteristics that you're looking for? Is the pan pizza baked at a very different temperature than Neapolitan, for example?

Not much different. For Neapolitan, I recommend getting your oven as hot as possible. For me, that's 550 convection roast. I'm a huge proponent of the baking steel. You'll get that oven spring that you're looking for. You'll get a nice, crisper bottom. I do the same thing for my thin crust dough. Get your oven as hot as possible. 

For the pan pizza dough, it's slightly less. So the Sicilian, the Detroit style, the cast iron skillet pizzas, I call for a parbake. They bake for 10 minutes or a little bit less, depending on the style, seven to 10 minutes, at pretty high heat, 500 degrees. Once those are topped, they bake for a little bit longer, 10 to 12 minutes versus five to six minutes for the Neapolitan and the thin crust. Because it's a slightly longer bake, the temperature is lowered a little bit to 475 degrees.

I think for many home cooks, learning a new set of recipes, like pizza, is an excuse to purchase a whole new set of tools. What do you think are the non-negotiables that make it a lot easier, where you're not struggling so much?

The first thing for me would be a digital scale. Anybody who bakes at home, they probably have one. But if you haven't started baking by weight, it really is time. You are setting yourself up for success, if you start with properly measured ingredients. Measuring by weight is the only way to measure properly. If we both measured the dough ingredients by volume, in cups, we would get two completely different [amounts]. Our doughs might look similar but they would be different. 

The real reason to use a scale is that given the flour that you're using, and given the environment that you're using, you may find that you need to use a little bit less water,  maybe the dough is just a little bit too wet given your humidity. Again, all flours absorb water a little bit differently. If you don't start with accurate measurements, you can't really make meaningful adjustments. You may think that you're using less water the next time around but volume measuring cups are so inaccurate that you may not be. Measuring with a scale is important so that you can quickly pinpoint the magic ratio that works for your dough so that you can replicate that magic ratio.

Also, one of the things I love about it is that you have less things to wash. You can just bring it back to zero and add the next ingredient.

Absolutely. It's faster. You set your bowl on your scale, take your flour bag, pour it in, and it's faster. It's easier. I think it's essential.

Okay, so we have our scale. What else do we need, that'll make it so much easier?

The best investment... I love an outdoor pizza oven. They're really fun. Brands are coming up with more affordable options. But in terms of a home oven, the best thing you can invest in is the baking steel. Lots of people have stones and pizza stones were great for years. I always tell people, if you have a stone and you're happy with it, don't go and buy a steel. But if you really are looking to improve your pizza game at home, you'll get much better results with the steel. 

The reason is that steel is a better conductor of heat than stone, so it's going to transfer the heat from the surface of that steel to the dough faster. That's what's going to help get that oven spring. It's going to create those glorious bubbles throughout that you're looking for. And it's going to help the bottom crisp better than a stone.

Let's talk about those outdoor pizza ovens. I don't know if you're sponsored by anybody but do you have one that you like, that you think is dependable? And is it super expensive?

I am not sponsored by any of them and I have a few. I have the Gozney Dome, which is probably more expensive. The two big brands are Gozney and Ooni. The Gozney Dome is the one that looks more like a pizza oven than these other portable varieties. The Ooni Koda 16 is maybe the middle of the line in terms of expense for Ooni's options. It's really excellent. It's large, so you have space to turn. I think sometimes what's really challenging about these small, outdoor portable ovens is that people get them really hot and then there's no wiggle room to turn. With any of them, it's a real learning curve. But I find the Ooni Koda 16 has a nice enough space. It's very easy to control and it really works beautifully. That and my Gozney Dome are the two that I love.

Let's talk about what goes on the pizza. We all love a cheese and tomato pizza, no matter the form it takes. It's classic. But you have so many great combination ideas that are organized seasonally. We're in summer now. Can you create a pizza for us that you would love to eat for summer? And then tell us what the salad and dessert accompaniments would be for that pizza.

I love corn on pizza. I think it's so good. This one has Hatch chilies and corn. When the corn is fresh and sweet, you don't even have to cook it. Pizza is a great vehicle for leftovers so let's say you had leftover corn from the night before. You can strip that off the cob and then use the corn, [whether it was] steamed, grilled, whatever. 

This recipe specifically calls for raw corn and roasted Hatch chilies, which I order from, I think it's called the Roasted Chili Company. I forget. I roast them then I freeze them. They're so nice to have on hand. You can also get those little cans of Hatch chilies that are already roasted and drain off some of the liquid (you don't want it to be really wet). This has Oaxaca cheese, which is a really nice melting cheese. That's one of my favorite summer combinations. It has a little bit of chili powder, as well. 

That one is paired with a melon and cucumber salad with mint. It's fresh and bright. It's like a fruit salad but because of the oil and the vinegar, it pushes it out of fruit salad territory. It's just a nice balance to the chilies, corn, and Oaxaca cheese. 

I don't have a dessert that matches every single pizza but there are five desserts in the book. They're all very simple desserts. One of my favorites for the summer is berries and cream. My dad is British and this is something we would eat all summer long. I almost worry that it's so simple, people won't make it because they might think, how could it be good? You just put a little cream in every bowl, top it with fresh berries. Raspberries are delicious but [you can use] strawberries, blueberries, blackberries. Then you sprinkle it with a little sugar. It's so fresh and simple and delicious. Everybody loves it. That's one of my favorite summer desserts.

Cubed watermelon, cantaloupe, and cucumber makes for a kid-friendly summer salad. Photo by Eva Kolenko.

Use mixed berries or a single berry for this three-ingredient dessert. Photo by Eva Kolenko.