One of my favorite memories as a kid is making pizza. I remember being able to customize the pizza exactly how I liked it. Plus, it encouraged me to be a little more creative and try new flavors. The thought of making a personalized pizza was mind-boggling!
My cousins have a “Pizza Night” tradition every Friday where they watch movies and feast. I have decided to steal this idea and make custom pizzas every Friday!
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The only issue is that I don’t have any pizza cookbooks. Surprisingly, there are quite a few new cookbooks out that focus on pizza making! Let’s take a peek.
Eataly: All About Pizza, Pane & Panini: Regional Pizza, Bread & Sandwich Traditions
Eataly
Eataly is a worldwide retailer of the highest-quality Italian foods. Since a lot of us are cooking at home, they’ve decided to help. Eataly: All About Pizza, Pane & Panini: Regional Pizza, Bread & Sandwich Traditions cookbook recognizes how the world has changed since 2020. We should be able to take these skills home to share with our loved ones.
Recipes include homemade pizzas and calzones, bread for sandwiches and paninis, and delectable focaccia. You will find different kinds of crust options for the pickiest eaters. They display how unique each recipe is using authentic Italian ingredients.
The instructions are thorough. They’ve made each step very easy for even novice bakers.
Unfortunately, I cannot show you any pictures! I promise you that they are gorgeous.
The Joy of Pizza: Everything You Need to Know
by Dan Richer
The Joy of Pizza: Everything You Need to Know cookbook is at the top of my list! I admire the message, “Pizza is simple: dough, sauce, cheese, toppings. But inside these ordinary ingredients lies a world of extraordinary possibility.”
I truly believe this is why so many people love pizza. There is so much variety when making your own!
In this cookbook, the author begins with the most important part first – the crust. There are many ways people enjoy their crusts. He makes sure to provide the best flavor and texture for each kind.
If you’ve ever wanted to dissect pizza The Joy of Pizza: Everything You Need to Know cookbook is perfect for you. There are graphs to educate us on the best tomatoes to use. Not only that, but all the toppings fall under certain umbrella categories (i.e. heat, meat, creamy, bitter.) These charts are here to help us make some of the best-tasting pizza combining unique ingredients for fantastic flavor.
There is a whole techniques chapter that shows us exactly how to knead, stretch, and prep our pizza doughs. It is often referred to throughout this cookbook.
I am immensely delighted by this cookbook and can’t wait to do a video look-through when I get my hands on it!
The Ultimate Chicago Pizza Guide: A History of Squares & Slices in the Windy City
Steve Dolinsky
Steve Dolinsky is a famous food journalist. He started on a journey with his first book, Pizza City, USA: 101 Reasons Why Chicago Is America’s Greatest Pizza Town tasting more than 185 pizzas all over the region. In this cookbook, he focuses on notable restaurants and dishes that we can take home.
In The Ultimate Chicago Pizza Guide: A History of Squares & Slices in the Windy City we learn about the history, styles, and locations that make Chicago pizza the country’s greatest.
Here’s a list of chapters you will find in this cookbook:
PIZZA BASICS
Feature: Chicago Pizza Family Tree
1. What Is Chicago-Style Pizza?
2. Methodology
3. Glossary of Pizza Terminology
PIZZA STYLES
4. Tavern-Style (Chicago-Style Thin)
Feature: Chicago-Style Thin Recipe
5. Deep-Dish and Deep-Pan
Feature: Labriola’s Deep-Dish Recipe
6. Stuffed
Feature: Nancy’s Stuffed Recipe
7. Neapolitan
8. Sicilian, Grandma, and Sheet Pan Bakery Slices
Feature: Stevie’s Squares Recipe
9. Detroit-Style
10. Artisan Gas, Coal, and Wood-Fired
11. Roman
Feature: The Pizza Puff: A Chicago Original
12. Thin
13. NYC and By-the-Slice
14. Pizza Nights and Pop-Ups
Feature: Pairing Chicago Beers with Pizza
15. Suburban Stars
Feature: Gluten-Free Pizzas in Chicagoland
I had no idea that there were so many types of pizza!
The cover of this cookbook may not be my favorite, but inside and throughout the photos are fantastic. They showcase each recipe and restaurant.
Roberta’s: Still Cookin’
by Carlo Mirarchi and Brandon Hoy
I desperately wish I could show you in the inside of Roberta’s: Still Cookin’! The photos are glorious.
Roberta’s Pizza has been featured in the New York Times, GQ, Bon Appetit, New York Magazine, and more. Some of their recognizable fans are the Clinton family, Beyoncé, and Jay-Z. They’re originally from Bushwick in Brooklyn and constantly expanding. They even have frozen pizza you can take home.
With this cookbook, we can now make some of these classics. Some of these recipes include the Normcore, White and Greens, King Thao Kong pizzas.
Roberta’s: Still Cookin’ cookbook includes more than just pizza! There are recipes for cocktails, pasta, salads, and desserts.
Modernist Pizza (MODERNIST CUISINE)
by Nathan Myhrvold (Author) and Francisco Migoya
I’m very excited about the Modernist Pizza trilogy of books. Not only are they informative, but the authors are from my hometown, Seattle.
These cookbooks are for the scientifically inclined. We learn about every little thing that goes onto a pizza. This includes the anatomy of tomatoes, the aging effects of mozzarella, and even learning where the heat comes from in an oven.
They have included lots of visuals for all of the technical aspects of pizza making throughout.
When you decide to make a recipe from this cookbook, you’ll notice all the little details. There are charts on how to weigh, scale, and size each ingredient. Luckily they’ve included a whole list of substitutions for most pizzas.
This is a lengthy cookbook series! Modernist Pizza contains over 1,000 traditional and contemporary recipes to make pizza from around the globe!
~Kaiti