Saveur

Photo: Lisa Charles

Neapolitan pizza ovens are basically cement cupolas with stonelike floors. They're traditionally heated, by fires of olive, oak, or beech, to around 700°. If this seems a bit much to ask from your electric wall oven, you're right. You can come close, however.

Make your own "stone" floor with a pizza stone, available in houseware departments, or simply line the bottom rack of your oven with inexpensive unglazed terra-cotta tiles from flooring stores. Before making pizza, preheat your oven, with the stone or tiles in it, for at least 30 minutes.

This article was first published in Saveur in Issue #7