There has been a big development in my life this week: Finally, after years of desire, I purchased a Gozney Arc. It hasn’t arrived yet (not me, staring out the window, waiting for the UPS truck), but I have big plans for what I want to make once it does.
Pizza, of course (duh), but what kind? The walk-before-run crowd would probably advise starting with something straightforward like a Margherita or a simple New York-style cheese pizza while I get to know the oven. But I know myself, and I probably won’t be able to resist the siren song of the Caprese New York-Style Pizza, topped with cherry tomatoes, pesto, and burrata (I mean, look at that photo), which we developed for our recently released cookbook The Book of Pizza. Or a New Haven pie, which by design has a deliciously charred crust that seems easy for a fledgling pizzaiolo to master (like my colleague Martin Philip says, you gotta burn to learn). Or a pizza topped with corn, pickled jalapeños, and cilantro! I don’t want straightforward, it seems; I want maximal.
My teenagers are also pizza maximalists, preferring a thick-crusted Detroit-style pie to something thin and crispy. I got the larger of the two Gozney ovens in order to accommodate a pan pizza (though it’s also excellent in a regular home oven, too), and I’ve been pregaming by watching and rewatching my colleague Martin Philip’s video on how to do it al fresco.
A fledgling pizzaiola gets her wings,
