I just ordered a pizza pan. It will be here Wednesday. I figured I had better act before the steel and aluminum tariffs treble the price.

In all of my years on this earth, I do not recall ever owning a pizza pan. I guess it’s possible that one of my roommates may have had one at some point, but I can’t think of one right now.

I’ve had a pizza stone for years. Before that it was quarry tiles on the oven rack. The current – and final – set-up is my Dough Joe. It lives full-time in the bottom oven. But pizza pans?!? Nope.

For all of the homemade pizzas I’ve made over the years, it actually surprises me a bit that I never bought one. I guess I thought about it when I was cutting a pizza on the cutting board and then never thought about it, again, until the next time I was pulling one out of the oven.

Today, I slid the pizza into the oven and ordered one before it came out. I’m slowly learning to do things as I think of them. Slowly.

The pizza – sans pan – was excellent! It was made with my most favorite 2-day slow-rise pizza dough.

It is totally and completely foolproof. The minuscule amount of yeast and the refrigerated slow-rise really adds to the flavor. The dough is so easy to work, that kids of all ages could be making professional-looking pizzas their first time in the kitchen.

Reflecting back on those pizza making days at Pirro’s, we always made our dough the day before and placed it in bins in the walk-in. I always thought of it as just having lots of backup, but it definitely contributed to the awesome pies we used to produce.

Pizza Dough

  • 1 1/2 cups warm water (100º to 105º)
  • 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
  • 4 cups “00” flour or unbleached all-purpose flour plus more for dusting
  • 2 teaspoons fine sea salt
  • Extra-virgin olive oil for bowl

Sprinkle yeast over warm water in bowl of mixer fitted with dough hook. Let proof about 5 minutes.

Mix together flour and salt. Add to yeast mixture. Mix on low speed about 4 minutes or until dough forms a coarse ball. Stop mixer and cover bowl with a towel. Let dough rest about 5 minutes, then remove towel and continue mixing another 2 minutes or so.

Lightly oil a large bowl. Form dough into a ball, transfer to bowl and turn to lightly coat with oil. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature 30 minutes, then refrigerate overnight.

Punch down dough, re-roll, and return to bowl. Tightly cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or up to 24 hours.

Divide dough into 2 pieces; shape pieces into balls and place on a lightly floured work surface. Loosely cover with a damp kitchen towel and let rise at warm room temperature until doubled, about 2 hours.

I have another dough ball in the freezer for next weekend… I think I’m going to make a white pizza…