How Joshua Weissman Makes His Perfect Pizza: Every Decision, Every Step

When it comes to making an at-home pizza,

[wheels squeaking]

you gotta make a lot of decisions.

You have to pick dough, sauce, cheese, toppings,

garnish, and how all of that's gonna come together.

Some ingredients will lead you to ruin

while others will lead you to the perfect pizza.

I'm Joshua Weissman and this is every decision

I'd make to make the perfect at-home pizza.

Let's talk about dough.

[wheels squeaking]

A great pizza dough is chewy.

It has a nice salt level.

It's nicely colored and it's bubbly

but we have a lot of doughs here.

Let's see, we have a cauliflower,

smells like a saltine cracker.

There's no salt.

It's not chewy and there's no flavor in it whatsoever.

All right, next up we have Bob's Red Mill.

Look, I love Bob.

He's a good guy.

Another gluten-free pizza crust.

It tears like a shortbread almost.

There's just not enough salt in this.

There's not much flavor to it.

There's zero chew.

There's almost like a gummy, slimy quality

to it and it's obviously from the gluten-free flours.

Look, not everybody can eat gluten and I respect that

and I understand it, but it's just not the same.

Trader Joe's, gotta respect it.

This looks kinda like pita.

It even has a pocket, hello.

This is a big step in the right direction.

It's still a little dry, but not as dry.

This is closer to pita than it is a pizza dough.

A pizza dough to me has like almost a salty,

creamy quality while you're chewing it that this

just doesn't have.

Market Pantry.

I've never in my life ever eaten one of these and boy

am I not excited.

Holy

fudge.

Yeah. Yeah.

We can stop there.

It's a tortilla vibe.

The worst tasting dough I've ever put in my mouth.

It's got like a vinegary quality to it.

Super dry, zero salt.

It has so many additives that are made to

stabilize this thing and keep it good for years.

I'm sure that this is great

in a nuclear fallout, but not right now.

Now moving on to Pillsbury Doughboy.

Ah, childhood nostalgia.

If you know, you know.

It smells like Pillsbury Doughboy crust.

Oh, okay.

It tastes exactly like their biscuits.

Oh, it's burning my mouth a little bit.

Is that normal?

You can literally taste the leaveners in it.

There's about five different kinds of oils and fats in here.

You don't even need fat or oil in a pizza dough.

Frankly, you don't want to take away

from the nice flavor of good toasted bread.

Frozen pizza dough.

The frozen pizza dough, I don't know what brand this is,

is the closest in taste to what I want.

Again, it's missing a little bit

of the salt that I want, but that's an execution thing.

They could just add more salt to the dough

and it would be where I want it.

That being said, it's too dense.

These are all pre-made.

If I were to pick one,

it would be a resounding win for the frozen dough.

Now this, this is a homemade dough.

The salt I wanted.

Even in comparison to the frozen dough, the homemade dough

wins by a landslide.

It's just like a much more diverse experience.

The outside is super lacy, thin, crispy

but the inside is chewy.

It's got a nice pull and a stretch, when you bite it.

Lemme show you how to make it.

Flour, salt, water and yeast.

That's it.

So that means that every ingredient counts.

Get the best double zero type flour you can get.

And ideally the highest quality water.

Evian tends to work really well

especially with a sourdough, high mineral content, right?

Yeast, whisk that in until it's dissolved.

Double zero type flour, fine sea salt.

We're gonna pour all of our yeast water into there and stir.

Alright, so now you can see the flour starting to hydrate.

It's turning into more of a dough.

Slap, fold, just until it starts to soften up a bit.

And then we're gonna let it rest.

Covered for 15 minutes.

Alright, we're rested.

Softened up, you hear that? [patting dough]

And we're gonna do more slapping and folding.

We're gonna grease our bowl lightly with olive oil.

This is just to keep it from sticking.

Get it coated in the oil.

Now we're gonna wrap it in plastic wrap

'cause it's gonna take a little nap

in the fridge overnight for 12 to 14 hours.

Crucial for flavor and texture.

Okay, it's been overnight, get it loosened

and you have a dough.

This is going to get divided into five pieces,

which should be around 250 grams each.

Fold one corner, the other corner, and again, corner corner.

We're gonna fold over and we're gonna lightly

do the exact same thing that we did earlier

and eventually it looks like this.

So we're gonna cover these and let them prove

for three to four hours.

Our dough is done.

Wow, it's glossy, it's beautiful, it's smooth, it's perfect.

This is the perfect dough to make a pizza.

Next, let's talk toppings.

What makes a good pizza topping?

For one, it should not overpower the pizza.

For two, it should add good flavor.

For three, it should add good texture.

And four, you know, non-optional.

It should be fun.

Look, I know it's a big debate

but I'm a big fan of pineapple on pizza.

It's salty sweet.

The acidity helps cut the richness.

It's good.

Now, this isn't going on my perfect pizza

because my perfect pizza is very classical

and highly simple.

Black olives.

I

hate black olives on a pizza.

It's more of like a watery, salty,

briny taste and doesn't really contribute much.

Anchovies. These make a great sauce.

They're salty, they're briny, there's umami.

I would never put it on this pizza because, well

a lot of people don't like anchovies.

I wanna make a pizza that everybody could enjoy.

Next, I'm guessing this is Italian sausage.

It's a little too rich, it's very fatty.

It makes the pizza a little too oily for my taste.

Now, spinach, okay, we're making a pizza,

not a garden salad.

Typically you would see this on a white pizza

and that's not what my perfect pizza is.

Now, mushrooms, I don't really love them on a pizza

but mushrooms are a little too boring.

I think the texture would pull away

from what makes my perfect pizza.

Now the perfect topping

for a perfect pizza would be pepperoni.

We have a natural properly aged pepperoni

and we have pre-sliced from the store.

You tell me what you want.

This tastes like, well, mass manufactured vinegary meat

but this has like so many other things.

It's funky.

It's almost borderline cheesy, it's just more flavorful.

The properly aged pepperoni is what I would choose.

I cut these slightly thicker because when this bakes

it's gonna curl up

into a nice cup and hold pepperoni fat in it.

Oh no, there's like a poorly sliced one I have to eat.

I'm gonna set this other half aside.

This should be enough pepperoni for one pizza.

My choice is hand sliced proper pepperoni.

Now let's talk sauce.

A good pizza sauce needs to be flavorful, not too watery

and have a good color.

So this is Rao's or Rao's sauce.

They have a pizza and a marinara.

I'm gonna be honest, I feel

like this is probably the same, but we're gonna find out.

I mean, there's a pretty clear difference.

The pizza sauce, not a fan.

It's got too much of a Chuck-E-Cheese vibe, dried oregano.

It feels like a fake pizza sauce when you do that.

It's also a lot sweeter and less salty.

I don't think this is gonna contribute the right

flavor we want for this pizza.

This on the other hand, it's saltier.

It's got a little bit of acidity

and it's more plain in its flavor, but in a good way.

It lets the tomato shine.

I don't mind it, but we need more tomato flavor.

Now since we're on tomato sauce, let's talk Prego.

Hate. Smells like a foot.

Way too sweet.

You can barely taste the tomato, the ketchup of pizza sauce.

We got another Rao's.

I'm a fan of the brand.

I've never had their Alfredo though.

That's awful.

This tastes nothing of cheese.

Even if it was good, a white pizza sauce does not belong on

my perfect pizza.

Alright, pesto.

Pesto tastes good.

But you know, I do feel like a pesto pizza

for some reason is a specialty pizza.

It's not an OG pizza.

Not everybody's gonna be in the mood for this

but the one I'm making, everyone will be.

If you don't have time to make your own sauce,

I would go with this.

But for my perfect pizza,

we're gonna make the sauce from scratch.

We have a little bit

of our pepperoni that's been diced that's gonna go

in the pan.

You can see already immediately the red streaks

and that's what I want.

Sliced garlic and a little bit red Fresno chili

for a little bit of spice and a little bit of pepperiness.

Now we add our crushed San Marzano Italian tomatoes/

A little bit of salt to taste,

tiny pinch of sugar just to curb the acidity.

And we're gonna simmer this and cook it

down until lightly thickened, about three to five minutes.

Okay, so this is reduced down.

Now we're gonna add a touch of extra virgin olive oil.

And now the sauce is ready.

Really fresh, high quality,

straight tomato flavor, but it's cooked.

It's not raw tomato.

It's everything that I want for my perfect pizza.

Now for my favorite part, cheese.

When it comes to cheese, there's really three things.

Cheese pull, texture, and of course flavor.

Okay, so let's first talk mozzarella.

We have three variations of our mozzarella.

First, burrata, okay?

It's very soft.

You cut into it, it's creamy, it's smooth,

it's very rather liquidy.

And while it's nice,

it's gonna take away too much from this pizza.

I don't want this on my pizza.

This is a specialty pizza item.

Next we have our fresh mozzarella.

Now while it's nice, it's a little bit softer.

You can see that it kind of tears a little bit.

If you were to ring this out

there would be literal liquid dripping from it

which is cool, but it doesn't quite lend itself

to as toothsome of a cheese as I want.

I don't think that it's gonna work

on this pizza in particular.

And finally, we have our low moisture mozzarella.

It's the exact same concept as this

but the difference is it's extremely dense.

It's got a nice toothsome-ness

and it's gonna be able to retain its strength

once it's been baked at the highest possible temperature

in your oven, you'll still have that texture we want.

Cheddar. I'm not sure I've ever seen a scenario where

cheddar did a good thing for a pizza.

We already have a flavor

in our mind of what a pizza should be

and the sharpness of a cheddar just doesn't make sense.

Provolone is a sandwich cheese.

A sandwich inspired pizza is a specialty pizza.

This is a classical pizza.

Now onto ricotta.

I think ricotta's fun on a pizza, but honestly

I don't really like ricotta on a pizza.

It just kind of adds a little bit of texture

but it's too quiet.

It's not rich enough.

It's not fun enough.

Monterey jack.

Now this feels like it might be a provolone scenario

and almost borderline is

but it makes the most incredible cheese pulls.

I mean, it looks beautiful.

And also just watching it pull away

as you're eating your pizza.

It's an experience.

Now, parmigiano reggiano, this is the most flavorful thing

on this entire board by a hundred x.

So perfect for this pizza.

Monterey Jack for the perfect cheese pull,

low moisture mozzarella for the perfect texture.

and parmigiano reggiano for maximize flavor.

These three will work together to

create the perfect pizza cheese.

And now garnishes.

A great garnish doesn't need to be cooked.

It doesn't overpower the other ingredients.

And of course it adds flavorful intrigue.

First, let's talk about arugula.

I think most people would add this

for some sort of a spicy note.

And if you wanna add something spicy

maybe like pick an actual spicy ingredient like a pepper.

Now let's talk about ranch.

You know, if I was 13 years old, this would be good.

While I think a homemade ranch could be good on a pizza

on a perfect pizza, no, it does not add, it overpowers.

Let's talk hot sauce.

This is not just spicy, it's also acidic

and I don't want any more acidity on this pizza.

It's level and it's already balanced.

Kraft grated Parmesan cheese.

This is like mostly potato starch or

like wood chips or something.

I would never use this at all.

Balsamic glaze.

It's so overpowering.

All you're gonna taste is balsamic glaze.

And that ruins all of our hard work.

Now, a lot of pizza places are gonna give you dried oregano

and crushed red pepper flakes.

The only way you're gonna get the true flavor

of these is if you somehow manage to actually chew

on them in your mouth, which is pretty unlikely

with all the other stuff that's going on in there.

It's a distraction.

Chives, big fan of fresh chives on a pizza.

It adds a light onion-y flavor, and it lifts the flavor

and somehow it brings all the flavors together.

I like this one.

Basil. Yes, it's herbaceous.

Yes, it's fresh, but somehow it is arguably one

of the most iconic ingredients in pizza known to man.

I love it in a pizza.

Last, hot honey.

I love hot honey on a pizza.

It's not gonna overpower the flavor.

It's gonna come together to create a harmonious

flavor that's a little bit spicy, a little bit sweet

but it's not taking away from what we worked hard on.

I'm gonna say yes to this.

My final choices are hot honey, fresh basil

and fresh sliced chives.

Finally, we're gonna put it all together.

We're building this on a pizza peel.

I have a mix of all purpose flour

and cornmeal to help this slide around on the pan.

There's a lot of ways to shape a pizza.

I think the easiest way is to work it around your knuckles.

Let gravity kind of do the work for the first bit

and then stretch and turn, stretch, turn.

This is what they do at Domino's.

Sauce goes in the center.

Not too much.

Use the back end of your spoon.

Now, a little bit of our Monterey jack.

Mozzarella in equal portions.

And then just a little bit of parmigiano for the flavor.

That's gonna go all over.

And finally, pepperoni and our pizza is ready for the oven.

Our pizza stone has been preheating

with the oven at its maximum temperature.

You need this hot.

In a pizza oven, you're normally cooking it

at like 700 degrees.

Your at-home oven's not gonna do that.

So get as close as you can.

Let it preheat for an hour.

And then this goes in.

Our pizza is done.

Before we eat this, we garnish it right.

Basil leaves, our chives, our hot honey.

And now we taste.

This is everything I want in a pizza.

The dough's salty.

It's chewy.

I immediately get a crisp bottom, but a nice soft cushy top.

The sauce doesn't overpower it

but I immediately get that nice vibrant tomato flavor.

The fragrance from the herbs on top.

A little bit of spiciness

in the sauce and spiciness in the pepperoni.

Balance this pizza out.

A nice hot honey.

These are all the elements that make my perfect pizza

but everybody's gonna have their own opinion.

That's fine.

But I would really advise that you give this one a shot.