Mastering Pizza: The Art and Practice of Handmade Pizza, Focaccia, and Calzone [A Cookbook]

by Marc Vetri, David Joachim

A revolutionary guide to making delicious pizza at home, offering a variety of base doughs so that your pizza will turn out perfect no matter what kind of oven or equipment you have.“If you are serious about making pizza, buy every copy in the store.”—JIMMY KIMMEL Pizza remains America's favorite food, but one that many people hesitate to make at home. In Mastering Pizza, award-winning chef Marc Vetri tackles the topic with his trademark precision, making perfect pizza available to anyone. The recipes—gleaned from years spent researching recipes in Italy and perfecting them in America—have a variety of base doughs of different hydration levels, which allow home cooks to achieve the same results with a regular kitchen oven as they would with a professional pizza oven. The book covers popular standards like Margherita and Carbonara while also featuring unexpected toppings such as mussels and truffles—and even a dessert pizza made with Nutella. With transporting imagery from Italy and hardworking step-by-step photos to demystify the process, Mastering Pizza will help you make pizza as delicious as you find in Italy.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food, Reference, Foodie, Culinary

273 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 28, 2018

Reviews

[Toni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ordered this one for my husband; he loves it! The book concentrates on the different types of dough you can make for the crust of your pizza. Face it, if the crust isn't good, then the toppings aren't going to save it. At least that's the way we Italians feel about it. (I converted my husband, so he agrees.)
He makes the best bread and pizza crust ever. I have no patience so I toss the pasta with everything you can think of and more.
Anyway, if you enjoy making your own pizza this is the book for you.
Ciao. Buon appetito!

[Tara Weiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is science and wizardry and insight and PIZZA in this book. Helpful for mastering different styles of pizza, including different types of ovens. Also beneficial for adjusting a recipe for the environment.

[roxi Net · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was able to review this book during the week that I've had pizza daily (fate). While there is no way for me to have a domed wood oven in my home -- but I want one anyway -- it was awesome to read how they work (my pizza needs to have a crispy crust!). It's never even occurred to me to grill a pizza outdoors! Hydrating your dough -- what? This book made me laugh at my poor past pizza attempts. The photos, layout, and information are wonderful. I found it refreshing that the pizza sauce recipe is the basic one I use (minor exceptions) rather than a sauce with a grocery list of ingredients. The pizza recipes I found exciting - pecorino cheese, and black pepper, eggs, pecorino, and guanicale, etc. The only downside (besides not being able to taste photographs), is that I need more of a step-by-step recipe rather than a narrative.

[Jens Kristian Wikstøl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mange veldig gode tips! Har gjort pizzaene mine et par hakk bedre!

[The Candid Cover (Olivia & Lori) · Rating 4 out of 5]

If there is one food that I have to say is my absolute favourite, it would definitely be pizza. After reading Marc Vetri’s Mastering Pizza, my eyes have been opened to a whole new way of experiencing this versatile food. This cookbook is both educational and eye-opening, while providing home cooks with some techniques and recipes to try themselves.

Full review on The Candid Cover

[Janelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is kind of a choose your own adventure pizza making guide. Starts with several pizza dough recipes to choose from then gives instructions on how to cook each of them in different types of ovens (wood fire, home oven on a skillet, home oven on a pizza stone, grill). Then gives a bunch of topping recipes to go with each type. I LOVE the pizza I've made out of this book and don't think I can go back to a different way. Unlike the author's mastering bread book, most of these recipes do not call for special freshly ground flour (though he does suggest using 20% fresh ground), just king Arthur bread flour. I did sometime find the layout of the book a bit difficult to navigate since the dough recipes and baking instructions were not adjacent.

[Dna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This cookbook, it is a sumptuous feast for the eyes! But I’m not putting pears on my pizza. Nor eggplant. I’m an eggplant fiend, but knowing how temperamental the dark fruit can be, I would never even attempt to tame that crazy onto a pizza crust. That’s asking for trouble, and wasted pizza dough. The pizza is in this cookbook that I would make, I already know how to. However, I think this book is really really really really useful if you know nothing about though and the different types of does for different types of pizzas, which I don’t.

[Rachael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Christmas present! By far the best crust I've made at home with whole grain flour. FINALLY.

[Troy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just being honestly forthcoming: I got into pizzamaking in a roundabout way to occupy my mind during these last three and a half years of intense depression, sadness and immense grief. I enjoy it because it is quite the active (asides from the waiting time during dough fermentation) process and for all the scientific intricacies involved (temperature, humidity, etc.). Vetri and the late, great 'Dough Doctor' (Tom Lehmann) are two of my culinary inspirations. While my pizza is mediocre by my own accounts, I can't imagine how much worse it would be had I not sought the teachings of Vetri and Lehmann. I usually recommend The Pizza Bible for beginners, but love this one.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was excited to bring this home from the library and to try out the sourdough versions of the dough recipe to help me improve on our weekly favorite. Unfortunately i can't seem to find any of the recipes using the sourdough crusts and can't find any bake times for them. I'm sure i'm just missing it, but i also don't think they should be this hard to find.

Otherwise, fun book with clear information. It's also nice to see a pizza book that didn't overload the toppings.

[Catherine Woodman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to buy this book because of the wealth of information about different kinds of pizza doughs--people in the Food 52 Cookbook Club just raved about this to no end. I think the taglio dough ended up being the most popular, people used a lot of their favorite toppings, and the ability to stretch the dough out into a sheet pan to bake was very popular, as was the freezing the dough directions. All in all a great pizza cookbook (even though there are a number of competitors out there).

[Charles Eldridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

My pizza-loving 7 year old picked this book up on a lark, and I’m glad he did. It’s the dough(s) that makes this book stand out. You will find out what works best for your home kitchen thanks to the informative explanations of the different doughs…and once you have that set the world is your pizzeria. Likely one of the best pizza books out there and well worth acquiring for your personal cookbook library.

[Sanjana Datla · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are obsessed with pizza or have just returned from your dream Italian vacation (like me), then this book is for you. It's not for you if you are looking for quick recipes or shortcuts. For context, it took me three days to make the pizza dough but it was so worth it. A good crust is one of the hardest things to crack and while I can't say I am there yet, this book definitely helped me get a lot closer.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Though a lot of this book is for those with big pizza ovens, there is lots for the home cook. I was however taken back a bit by the vulgar language that he used several times. I find no need of the F word in a cookbook......therefore a two rating just for that.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only nit-picky thing on the first read-through is about yeast. Instant yeast and active dry yeast are not used 1:1.

[Kirk Dobihal · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG I wanna make pizza. Plus if I can get my wife on board I may by a home mill to grind my own flour. I make bread and pizza is a bread.

[Aasinathena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every author who aced the Pizza making are very passionate about Pizza. This also illuminates that. Sometimes I feel like its too descriptive. But was a good read :) !

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing not to love about a book about pizza, but this book is SERIOUS about pizza. I will give a recipe or two a try, but I'm pretty intimidated, I must say! Photographs are mouth-watering.

[Mairzi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gorgeous, interesting book from which I will never make a thing. The recipes and text are really interesting but are nothing I will ever attempt.

[Jodi Geever · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prepare yourself for a master class!!

[Kellie Nealeigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked a lot of the pizza recipes towards the back. But I struggled with the language that was used in some of the front sections.

[Cody Hornyak · Rating 4 out of 5]

2021. Year of the Pizza.

This is what I declared at the beginning of this year. 2019 and 2020 were spent on calzones.

They say you have to make 10,000 pizzas to become a master. Time to get good.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

A follow up to Mastering Bread, Vetri has written another winner. If you want to create authentic pizzas with actual flavor -- this book tells you everything you need to know.

[Jihang Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice cookbook sometimes poetic

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't wait to try all of these recipes!

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This cookbook is for the serious cook who either has access to a professional wood oven or willing to go through the work of buying quality flours and other ingredients. Having made pizza dough, focaccia, and calzones from scratch, I can tell this cookbook will be welcomed by those looking to take their pizzas to the next level. I received an arc in exchange for my honest review.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! I loved this book. So many tips and tricks for simply mastering the dough. Gives recipes, ideas, and suggestions based on how you are cooking the pizza. Such a fantastic resource for anyone who enjoys cooking pizza! More than just a basic cookbook!


I received an advanced readers copy of this book in exchange for my honest review

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The number on thing you can do to bake a better pizza is to know your oven.” This is just one of the many things I have learned while trying to master pizza. How your pizza dough is crunchy or bubbly depending on the amount of water to flour ratio is another. What makes this book the most interesting is the time and sheer number of pages devoted to dough. To me, pizza as always been the sauce and the toppings, but what brings that together is the dough. This book goes way beyond, thin crust, pan, stuffed. It talks about fermentation, hydration, and even grinding your own flour. Way more complicated than I expected. But I also like it for that reason. It went beyond the craziness of putting granny smith apples and caramelized onions on the same pie, and to the philosophy of pizza, and how different philosophies make different pizzas.