Without any doubt Anthony Mangieri’s pizzas are much more exacting than the set rules dictate. Just watch the care he takes in assembling his pies as opposed to how fast they sling them in Naples. It’s not that the guys in Naples are hasty or necessarily care less; Mangieri knows what he wants to yield from his product. He knows all the rules, but his intimate understanding guides him on when it is better to break them.

Anthony Mangieri may not have been the best example to use because for the most part he does adhere to guidelines. He buys whatever ingredients serve his pizzas the best, and loves to support local producers. He stated that he would have loved to have supported domestic makers of buffalo mozzarella, but the quality wasn’t there. He uses the VPN approved cheese from Campania because he knows it is superior.

John Darsky expressed philosophical reasons to not use 00 flour, which is a big “no no”. I have found that a finely milled American flour will do a remarkable job of producing a pie that fits the Neapolitan style. Mixing techniques and hydration will differ, but I personally prefer a counterintuitive higher protein flour to any of the cheaper brands of 00 that the wholesalers in my area carry.

I’m belaboring a basic point that even though formal education is helpful, it is important to have such solid understanding of what you wish to produce, how to produce it, and not be bound by someone else’s rules when they don’t fit.

Beddia is on my wish list. I really want to get some hidden hills cheese now too!

@MikeandLillian: Nothing piques my interest more than pizza in South America. My next big trip will be to explore the culture of nearby Brazilian pizza.

Finding out about the crust might be difficult without some inside info. I did at least get a look at a cross section of a slice on the following Facebook page. (I'm making an assumption that this actually a photo of one of their pizzas)

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=333024763389450&set=pb.333019613389965.-2207520000.1364920995&type=3&theater

It's just a stab in the dark, but a simple lower protien a/p flour could be a start in the right direction. The crust is thicker with a tight crumb suggesting a lot of yeast and a shorter very controlled proof time. The overall color indicates a very low heat bake. Just a stab in the dark.

If the crust was on the heavy side as opposed to soft, it would suggest a less hydrated dough.

I was in Orlando and walked right past this place yesterday after buying some Oregano at Penzy's. I've wanted to try their pizza for a while, but was burned out after eating almost nothing but Tampa Bay area NY style pies for the past few days.

I talked to one of their pizzaiolo's while back, and remember him mentioning them looking at Antico in Atlanta, and am pretty sure that their oven is an Acunto.

@TheKaz - Totally agreed. The first time I saw an actual pie there, it was late at night and very dark inside. The look fooled me, but it was so crowded I couldn't sit much less order. Under the light of day it didn't look the same, and basic flavors and textures in no way resembled anything like Sally's Pepe's or Modern.

What did I expect from a gas oven?

Wow Kenji, That is an unbelievable amount of pizza in 24 hours. I had the fortune to hit almost all of the same spots over a three day period, but was bummed after walking all of the way to Starita to find it closed for the day.

@ Adam: That is seriously humbling, so thank you!

@ Lux_Lisbon: I was seriously more taken with the look of your Rosa!

My first adult attempt at making pizza in an electric oven a few years back resulted in such a soft un-charred undercarriage that I totally gave up on the oven opting to use an outdoor gas oven. A few weeks ago, I made another attempt in a friend’s electric oven, using the same basic method that you described, and had success right out of the gate.

The reason for the comparison is that the two different electrics probably performed differently. My basic theory is that my non-performing home oven was not just not generating enough heat for the stone to hold or radiate 550˚. This was happening even when trying to heat the stone for a couple of hours. I didn’t use an infrared thermometer back then, so I have no scientific data behind any of this, but think that my fancy wall oven was just plain wimpy.

If you were able to measure the temp of your stone, it would give you a lot of insight into the performance of your oven. I’m agreed with the comment that cold dough is a big “don’t”(this applies to cold sauce as well), but there may be other forces at work here. The biggest deal is to figure out what is going on with your stone. I don’t have a steel, but it seems to be working for plenty of others.

@ Jimmyg: As much as I love looking at everyone’s pizzas, I have had your rianata on my mind since I saw your first one a few months back. The flavors described remind me of a long lost childhood favorite. There was a local Italian restaurant run by an Sicilian family that had pizzas using most of these flavors. The tomatoes were crushed instead of using a sauce, and the flavors were magic.

I’ve had a few successful attempts at getting the flavor spot on in the past, but because I wasn’t scientific with taking notes, I’ve had bad luck lately. If any of these intense(especially pecorino) ingredients are out of balance, it just doesn’t work. By young pecorino, are you by chance using something other than romano? That pie even looks like what I remember.

Congratulations on your oven! I've been cooking in my own homemade oven for just about a year now.

As far as a starting point, it would be best to identify what style of pizza that you would like to make. Some of the major differences between styles will involve different types of flour, and different levels of hydration. Equally important will be temp and cook time. Because so many factors are interdependent for a desired result, don't build up hopes for excellence the first time out. No matter what others will enjoy a hot pizza of any kind from a wfo.

Let me know what style of pizza you are going for, and I can give you more specific ideas. My particular oven does Neapolitan style really well, and is not really suited to do a typical NY style slice pie, although I am still experimenting with some lower temp pies.

As far as sauce, no matter what style you want to make, start with good quality whole tomatoes. I use a san marzano with low citric acid add salt and olive oil, and that's it. There are so many different sauces on NY style pies that are totally different than mine, so if there is a specific goal, it might be better to hear an example of a restaurant that you would like to emulate.

For sausage, I think that it is better done to taste. Perhaps take a recipe like this one in the in the NY Times and build upon it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/dining/hot-italian-sausage-recipe.html

I make sausage almost every time that I cook, and lately have been enjoying the texture of veal instead of pork. Other flavors that can give accent are different dried peppers, wine, a sharp hard cheese, or fennel pollen(which really intensifies the fennel flavor. Cook the sausage in a skillet, taste a lot, keep notes, and once you hit perfect flavor, you will have your own recipe for making and storing raw sausage. Hope this is a helpful start.

@scott123: So glad you thought of Fibrament, it looks very easy to find. I’m actually excited about this now. My oven burner is 18k BTU, and the dimensions are a bit larger at 19”x 24”, so at 39.5 BTUs per sq inch, it is on the low end of workable, but I’m willing to take a gamble.

@Adam: The Rosa pizza looked great, and the steel did a great job on the undercarriage.

I’m not surprised about cooking on the bottom compartment. I may have done something like this back in the very un-scientific days when impulsive cooking usually involved alcohol, so I can’t remember for sure. I’m looking forward to future results.

@ Scott123: Many thanks. Luckily the oven does go to 550, and was a fairly high end unit when it was new. It unfortunately doesn’t have the broiler in the main compartment, and hasn’t been used for pizzas in years. I just never got great results. I do have a lot of 2.5” thick fire brick that could be used to amplify heat, but still have to contend with all of the heat coming from the bottom.

DYI is not a problem, I’m just trying to avoid a lot of lackluster results. It’s so disheartening to put in the energy, and then not get something fantastic back out. I’m always open to any thoughts.

I actually gave Five Guys another chance yesterday, and really felt it was a bland, and very poor choice considering that there are a couple of better independent "fast food" style burger places in my small town.

I kept thinking back to the seemingly enormous popularity of this very "grass roots" fan base, and I realized that I have never met anyone who was crazy about this burger.

I was dining in and could not ignore that every inch of eye level space was filled with giant posters of great reviews in a giant bold red typeface. The one closest to me was from Time Out New York, stating that it was the "Best of New York". Really!? In the land of Shake Shack, and so many other cool places!?

I looked on Time Out's site, and got a list of some very mouthwatering burgers, and Five Guys wasn't mentioned. Not that I'm making any accusations, but it seems a little research into their rave reviews might shed some perspective on this.

When a first tried them several years back, they were still basically local to D.C., and the only reason that I stopped was because of several large billboards extolling how much the public loved their food.

As far as this survey, I wonder how many participants are really into burgers, and how many just really bought into marketing hype.