In recent times, many amateur pizza chefs have taken advantage of the lockdown to learn new cooking skills, hone the old ones, acquire the tools to make homemade pizza and even buy a state-of-the-art home oven.<\/p>\n
Pizza-making is an art and doing it at home is all the more difficult,\u00a0<\/strong>since you don\u2019t normally have the specialist equipment at hand as we have already seen in another article of our blog\u00a0(four tips to make homemade pizza like a pro).<\/u><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The main difference lies in the performance of the oven.\u00a0Modern home ovens can perform almost as well as commercial ones.<\/strong><\/p>\n In addition to traditional refractory wood-burning ovens,\u00a0stainless-steel wood-fired ovens, lighter and easier to handle,<\/strong>\u00a0are gaining momentum.\u00a0Even most recent gas and electric ovens are much more effective as they reach very high temperatures while keeping consumption low<\/strong>, which was absolutely unimaginable only ten years ago.<\/p>\n If you have a proper oven, you are already halfway to your goal, so just add some\u00a0essential tools for making a restaurant-quality pizza at home.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The purpose of this article is to learn more about the utensils for making homemade pizzas according to the type of oven you have and the style of pizza you want to cook.<\/p>\n In the first part of this article, we will focus on\u00a0all-purpose tools for any type of pizza,<\/strong>\u00a0that is, basically, the implements to take the pizza in and out of the oven and to clean the floor.<\/p>\n Later, we will address the issue of the\u00a0essential tools for cooking with wood-fired ovens and those specifically designed for gas and electric models.<\/strong><\/p>\n Finally, we will deal with a handy tool to\u00a0expand the cooking options of a wood-burning oven and one to protect your appliance against adverse weather conditions.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Do not forget that the type of oven affects the kind of pizza dough we will make and thus the style of pizza we will bake\u00a0<\/strong>as we have already explained in this article\u00a0(how to make pizza dough based on the type of oven).<\/u><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> Let\u2019s start by talking about\u00a0the essential tools needed to make a pizzeria-quality pizza\u00a0<\/strong>regardless of the type of oven you use.<\/p>\n The pizza \u201cal piatto\u201d is usually cooked in\u00a0a wood-burning oven<\/strong>\u00a0but it can also be made in gas-fired or electric ovens as long as they hit very high temperatures and have a refractory floor.<\/p>\n The pie is baked directly on the floor, so to handle it, you can\u2019t get along without three indispensable instruments.<\/p>\n Then you can add two more tools that will stand you in good stead:<\/p>\n Let\u2019s look at them.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> The pizza peel is the shovel-like tool to slide the pizza into the oven.<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Its tapered edge allows you to slip it easily under the pie and put it into the oven. The peel must remain into the oven\u00a0no longer than is strictly necessary<\/strong>\u00a0to place the pizza, so that it doesn\u2019t heat up and makes it harder to slide pizza off.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> It is the tool that allows you to rotate pizzas and take them out of the oven.<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s smaller than the pizza peel and it slides more easily under the pies. Furthermore, by using it to get the pizza out of the oven you keep the pizza peel cleaner and sanitised.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> This brush comes with brass bristles<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0to scrub the oven floor from food residue and combustion by-products.\u00a0This utensil is key for cleaning wood-fired ovens<\/strong>\u00a0that burn much less cleanly than gas-burning or electric ones.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> This peel holder allows you to keep your kitchen organised while you are cooking. In addition to provide a place to store your pizza peels, its modern design makes it\u00a0a stylish decorative element especially for an outdoor kitchen as in the case of the Alfa Forni\u2019s Veolia pizza peel holder.<\/u><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> The\u00a0pizza cutter<\/a>\u2019s purpose is, you guessed it, cutting pizza<\/strong>\u00a0and, in this regard, it can be replaced by a knife. However, if you want\u00a0high-speed, clean-cut slices of pizza,\u00a0<\/strong>that\u2019s the thing for you. It\u2019s particularly suitable for round or Roman-style pizza.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> <\/p>\n In the cooking world, the wood-fired oven is king.<\/strong>\u00a0Baking with firewood has a really special charm and imparts unique flavour to food.<\/p>\n The wood-burning oven is more demanding when it comes to getting firewood, lighting it and managing the temperature, but\u00a0once you get the hang of it, the results are far superior to other cooking appliances.<\/strong><\/p>\n Here are some accessories that can come in handy:<\/p>\n Let\u2019s see them in detail.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You can clean the wood-fired oven using a brush in conjunction with a cloth.<\/strong>\u00a0More specifically,\u00a0wipe most of the dirt off with the brush and use a damp cloth to clean it up.<\/strong><\/p>\n The damp cloth also allows you to lower the temperature of the oven floor<\/strong>\u00a0and not to burn the bottom part of the pizza when baking starts. Should such a thing happen, lift the pizza with the help of the small peel to move it near the fire and to cook the top.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The fire separator is\u00a0useful for making pizza cooking in a wood-burning oven more homogeneous.<\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s a L-shaped metal plate that acts as a barrier to separate the flames from the pizzas.<\/p>\n Its aim is to laterally balance the cooking of pizzas by reducing their exposure to direct heat<\/strong>\u00a0(radiation). The heat transfer will take place mainly by conduction (from the hot floor) and by convection (circulation of hot air around the oven).<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> This attachment\u00a0does make baking in a wood-fired oven easier.<\/u><\/a>\u00a0It\u2019s fundamentally a metal support on which you can place the firewood in a more orderly way for lighting the oven<\/strong>\u00a0and maintaining the fire.<\/p>\n In particular, the firewood burns away from the oven floor and favours a greater airflow that increases the combustion efficiency. It also allows you\u00a0to easily move the fire to the different parts of the oven<\/strong>\u00a0by lifting it with the small peel.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This is an extra for people that want to move the embers around the oven.\u00a0Its crescent shape makes it easier to collect the residue after the combustion of wood<\/strong>\u00a0all along the internal perimeter of the dome.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.alfaforni.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/turner-pizza-peel-pizzaiolo.jpg\")
<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/h2>\n
The must-have tools to make round pizza \u201cal piatto\u201d (on a plate)<\/h2>\n
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![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.alfaforni.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/large-pizza-peel-set-alfa-forni.jpg\")
<\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>1. The pizza peel<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.alfaforni.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/turner-pizza-peel-set-alfa-forni.jpg\")
<\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>2. The little pizza peel<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.alfaforni.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/brush-peel-set-alfa-forni.jpg\")
<\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>3. The pizza oven brush<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.alfaforni.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/vela-peel-holder-alfa-forni-copper.jpg\")
<\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>4. The pizza peel holder<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.alfaforni.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/rotella-tagliapizza.jpg\")
<\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>5. The pizza cutter<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.alfaforni.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/large-pizza-peel-alfa-forni-pizza-peel-set.jpg\")
<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>Do you want to know which is the best oven for you?<\/h2>\n<\/div>
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.alfaforni.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/anteprima-download-en.png\")
<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\nThe best accessories for making homemade pizza in a wood-burning oven<\/h2>\n
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The cloth<\/h3>\n
The fire separator<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.alfaforni.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/portable-one-domestic-wood-fired-pizza-oven.jpg\")
<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>The wood rack<\/h3>\n
The ember rake<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.alfaforni.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/turner-pizza-peel.jpg\")
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