Like most Americans, I’m a fan of pizza. At least once a week, some combination of crust, sauce and toppings are in my belly. Most of the time, my dinner comes from a store-bought dough, homemade sauce and heaps of fresh veggies; but in a pinch, I’ll chow down on the frozen stuff, too. I don’t discriminate, especially if I’ve been on the bike for a few hours. Pizza is a great food for athletes — a perfect blend of carbohydrate and protein. The combinations of toppings are endless — when you make your own pizza, you can be as healthy as you want to be or load up on the naughty stuff if you’re treating yourself after a long run.
But I wouldn’t call any of those dishes great pizza. No, great pizza is for special occasions, when my husband and I put on date-night wear (read: clothes not made of lycra) and head to restaurants where pizza is an art form. Florencia is a neighborhood favorite, and Pizzeria Bianco is a Phoenix icon (people actually wait in line for hours to eat here!).
In other words, homemade pizza isn’t great pizza. Or so I thought. But friends, I have seen the light, and now I believe. I believe! I BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF PIZZA!

Last month, I received a copy of The Pizza Bible, the first comprehensive guide to pizza-making from 11-time World Pizza Champion Tony Gemignani. At first glance, the book looked tasty. Upon actual reading, though, it looked complicated. Suddenly, I understood why restaurant pizza is great pizza — when you make everything from scratch, the process of making a good pie can take days. Letting the dough rise for 24 to 48 hours, creating a perfectly balanced sauce, measuring ingredients on a scale instead of spoons and cups, prepping individual ingredients to create a cohesive flavor — it all takes time.
But oh, man. Is it worth it. I’m obsessed with this recipe book. If you think I’m going back to frozen pizza, you’ve got another thing coming.
Gemignani’s recipes are complex when taken in as a whole, but quite simple when broken down in to individual components (crust, sauce, toppings). I wouldn’t tackle these recipes on a weeknight — these pizzas don’t come with a “30 minutes or less” guarantee — but if you and your paramour are foodies, the recipes are a great date-night experience you can have at home. Just prep the dough ahead of time, so you can get to the good stuff. (I’m talking about making pizza here, not … well, I suppose you’d get to that other good thing sooner, too.)
What I really like about this book is that it’s truly a comprehensive book on pizza. Most recipe books offer variations on the same crust, but The Pizza Bible has more than 100 recipes, from Chicago Deep-Dish to specialty doughs made from ancient grains. From there, Gemignani walks you through different types of sauces for each crust, and explains why certain toppings go so well together. A thoughtful pizza is a great pizza.

So how do you make a great pizza? Follow the word of Tony Gemignani. Amen.

The Ten Commandments of Pizza

Reprinted with permission from The Pizza Bible by Tony Gemignani, copyright (c) 2014.  Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Penguin Random House.

1. Thou shalt use a scale to weigh ingredients.
2. Though shalt not rush the rise.
3. Thou shalt use two pizza stones or steels rather than one.
4. Thou shalt not put cold sauce on pizza dough.
5. Thou shalt not put cold dough in a hot oven.
6. Thou shalt not overtop thy pizza.
7. Thou shalt not make a pizza larger than thy pizza peel or stone.
8. Thou shalt return thy pizza to the same spot after rotating it.
9. Thou shalt slice thy pizza before adding finishing ingredients.
10. Thou shalt brush thy stones to clean them after each pizza.

For elaboration on these commandments, get a copy of The Pizza Bible. You won’t regret it.
A great pizza makes the light shine down and the angels sing! Have you converted to The Church of Pizza? —Susan