Fourth of July : The Stone and the Peel

If you’re making pizza the traditional way--in the oven--a baking stone makes all the difference in quality. The stone simulates the inside of a professional pizza oven right in your own home. The bottom of the crust rests directly on the hearth, which eliminates any possibility of an underdone bottom and ensures even crispness. You can’t ask for anything better than that.

Pizza stones, which are now widely available in department stores and cookware shops, are really large ceramic tiles. Place the stone on the bottom rack of the oven and allowed to heat for 30 to 60 minutes before the pizza is baked. In some ovens the bottom rack will make the stone too hot; experiment with a couple of crusts before deciding which rack you want to place the stone on.

If you’re using a pizza stone, you’ll have to be able to set the raw pizza on it when it’s hot. The way to do this is with a peel, which is a sort of flat wooden shovel especially made for loading the oven with pizza; a pizza-sized piece of stiff cardboard works about as well. Sprinkle cornmeal or semolina over the peel or piece of cardboard, and instead of placing the dough in a pan, arrange the formed crust on the cornmeal. Allow it to rise there if the recipe calls for a rise.

When you’re ready to bake the pizza, add the toppings. Poise the cardboard or peel over the stone. Then, with a sharp, deft push then pull, slide the pizza onto the stone. The layer of cornmeal or semolina will let it slide off easily. Pizza cooks quickly on a stone, so begin checking for doneness after about 10 minutes.