All you New York makers can stop reading this right now. However, if you’re a maker who grew up with real NY pizza, then moved to a place lacking it, like, say, Los Angeles, this site is for you.
Jeff Varasano, a New Yorker in Atlanta, has spent years figuring out how to replicate the dough, get his home oven up beyond 800 degrees F, and perfect his sauce and toppings. His mile-long webpage chronicles it all in glorious detail so you can learn to do it yourself. I cannot look at his pizza photos without wanting to curl up into a ball, crying gently, waiting for someone to ship me back to 1983, to my buddy Carlo’s dad’s pizza place for a slice.
Heat is the real key to it all. You can’t cook a good pie in 15 minutes at 500F. It’s got to be more like two minutes at 850F. But most of us don’t have coal-fired brick ovens. What’s the secret? Hacking the safety latch on your electric oven and cooking with the cleaning cycle, which can get above 975F. You’ve got to be careful doing this, but isn’t it worth it? Your home’s got insurance anyway.
Jeff Varasano’s NY Pizza Recipe
There is also a wonderful online community of other home pizza makers, check out the New York Style forum on Pizzamaking.com.
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