Stones And Peels For The Home Pizzaiolo

Over the years, we've supplied you with a revolutionary technique for no-knead pizza dough, shown you how to make pizza on a grill and shared a recipe for making clam-topped, chewy crusted pizza at home.

Making your own pizza requires a simple tool kit. Beyond a rolling pin, here are the two essentials.

Stone: The biggest hurdle when making pizza at home is oven temperature. Your home oven will never get as hot as a commercial or wood-burning oven, but a preheated pizza stone goes a long way toward ensuring a crisp-crust pizza. Look for a heavy stone without a lipped edge; rectangular stones give you more surface area, but choose one that is small enough to allow for air circulation. Unglazed quarry tiles, which can be purchased at hardware stores, are a good, inexpensive alternative to a pizza stone, but be sure to choose lead-free tiles. Avoid aluminum pizza "stones." Don't want to shell out for a stone? A crisp crust pizza can also be achieved by baking it on an overturned, preheated cast-iron frying pan.

Peel: If you find yourself making lots of pizza at home, consider investing in a pizza peel. We like wooden peels because the dough doesn't stick, and you can slice the finished pizza directly on it. Peels are typically square or round-edged; round peels are essential if you're moving pizzas in a round oven, but a square peel works best in a conventional oven. Get one with a short handle for easy maneuverability.