Pizza is magical

I am incredibly lucky to be married to someone whose favorite food is pizza. It means we’re constantly exploring different doughs, toppings, and techniques. It means a freezer that always has homemade dough and a family always ready to start a fire and teach anyone nearby how to make a pie.

Great dough is great bread

There are a million ways to think about pizza dough, but I am firmly in the camp that great pies start out as great bread. So whether it’s focaccia for making Detroit-style or a sourdough for Neapolitan, start with a great bread.

And if you want great bread, start with Ken Forkish. He has various pizza doughs — and even a wonderful pizza dough book — but for me, the best pizza is just a relatively soft, simple sourdough (think, 65% hydration, AP flour). I can make it in my sleep — as can everyone post-covid — and it is super resilient.

You just need to give it a few days in the fridge.

This is key, because not only will everything loosen up, but the extra yeast production will give the dough an incredibly deep, robust flavor. It also freezes remarkably well — just make sure you have time for the yeast to wake up and start their happy belching.

The focaccia adventure

Our friend Todd pivoted his incredible culinary skills into Detroit-style pizza during covid and has transformed how I think about pizza. I love making focaccia, so the idea of frying it in cracked cheese was frankly pretty exciting.

But really, like all cooking, pizza is about great friends and slow cooking. Almost like smoking, it’s about making and tending a fire, planning days in advance, and then letting everybody explore and build flavors together.