Ok, so now that you have your dough, it’s time to shape, dress, and bake. Obviously, the baker has free reign over the toppings added, but there are a few guidelines you might want to consider.

1. Use tomatoes, not sauce:
The difference here being that one is cooked and one isn’t. The tomatoes that you apply to your pizza will cook in the oven and become sauce. Premade, jarred sauce will become close to solid when cooked. For a good tomato coating simply use canned whole tomatoes, seed them, and smush them up with your hands or in a blender. If you are lazy you can use canned crushed tomatoes but never use a premade sauce.

2. Simplicity is key:
While Americans seem to enjoy most food with all its components hyperbolized, good pizza only can come from a good balance of all its ingredients. This means small amounts of sauce and cheese, and restricting yourself to one or two quality toppings (fresh basil, sautéed peppers, good pepperoni etc.). Cheese control is especially necessary. It is very easy to overestimate the amount of cheese you need to apply. More cheese will not make a pizza better. Trust me.

3. Use Olive oil:
The slightest drizzle of olive oil over the pizza immediately before baking will make a world of difference. Ever wonder why homemade pizza doesn’t taste like pizza from a pizzeria? One main reason is that olive oil lends a slight, sour fruitiness to your dish that you may not notice, but you’ll definitely miss.

4. Use Romano Cheese:
The other thing that often distinguishes so-called “delivery” from homemade is the use of two cheeses: mozzarella and romano. Mozzarella is relatively flavorless; what gives pizza its “cheesiness” is actually a small sprinkling of romano, so definitely try to use it.

Stretching the pizza dough is probably the most difficult task, but a little practice will make it simple and easy. First simply flatten the dough with your fingertips into a circle (push down, not forward). Now pick it up, rest it on your two fists, and rotate, stretching gently. Soon enough you will have a thin, relatively round stretch of dough. If you are using a baking pan, as a general rule try to make your dough a little thicker than you would expect.

Lastly, set you oven as high as possible. Professional pizza ovens can go upwards of 650 degrees. In Naples they bake pizza at over 800 degrees. In other words, high heat is crucial. If you have a baking pan, you are going to want to place the pan as far down in the oven as possible, so that the bottom of the pizza can adequately form a crust. All you need to do to check if the pizza is done is see if the crust is brown. Now eat.

Happy baking.