FREE THE PIZZA - How To Make Great Pizza In Your Home Oven
  • Home
  • About
    • Press
    • Work With Blaine
  • Pizza Memories
  • Free Sample
  • Blog
  • Pizza Tools
    • Modernist Pizza
    • Peter Reinhart's Detroit Pizza
    • Serhan's Ooni Pizza Ovens
  • Contact
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Video
  • Slice Out Hunger Donations For Los Angeles Wildfire
  • Home
  • About
    • Press
    • Work With Blaine
  • Pizza Memories
  • Free Sample
  • Blog
  • Pizza Tools
    • Modernist Pizza
    • Peter Reinhart's Detroit Pizza
    • Serhan's Ooni Pizza Ovens
  • Contact
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Video
  • Slice Out Hunger Donations For Los Angeles Wildfire

​Saturday Afternoon Pizza Posts 

The Homemade Pizza Blog At Free The Pizza

For a free sample of the Free The Pizza book, click here

Dude, it's just pizza. But can a pizzaiolo from New Jersey be an object lesson in finding the joy?

4/5/2025

0 Comments

 
Pizzaiolo Dan Richer holding pizza dough and smiling

I saw an extraordinary thing at Pizza Expo in Las Vegas. Dan Richer of Razza, considered by some as the best pizzeria in the nation, was at the Ooni ovens booth demonstrating their new Halo Pro spiral mixer. It was arguably a glimpse at unbridled joy in the making of pizza dough.
 
I know that a lot of people, newbies especially, approach pizza dough with trepidation. Some even regard dough as the enemy. Perhaps the requirement to knead dough gets the relationship off on the wrong foot. The idea of having to force water and flour to cooperate could be perceived as a kind of conflicted relationship fraught with animosity. I’ve said it before. Saying it again: pizza dough is your friend. And watching Dan Richer in action was an object lesson in feeling the joy that anyone making pizza could take to heart.

Read More
0 Comments

When it comes to a defining memory of pizza, nobody expects to see the Finnish grandmother or the bottle of ketchup...

5/11/2024

0 Comments

 
Blaine Parker of Free The Pizza and Kristian Tapaninaho, CEO of Ooni pizza ovens

You have a defining pizza memory, don’t you? We all do. You remember the place, the taste, the smell, and the people involved. But does it include your grandmother?
 
It does at Pizza Expo.
 
Pizza Expo in Las Vegas is like any trade show, but with better snacks. It’s the kind of place where business happens, but it happens just a little differently than at the car-wash trade show next door.
 
In a way, the pizza business is the family you choose. And the people you meet on the trade-show floor are also a little different. For one, it’s all about pizza.
 
And if you don’t already know, pizza is all about people.

Read More
0 Comments

If you've never made pizza before, buying a pizza oven is one of the biggest mistakes you can make.

5/16/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
The first question you need to ask yourself before buying a pizza oven is this: Do I know how to make pizza? If the answer is no, you don’t know how to make pizza, the best thing I can recommend is to step away from the ovens and step towards your kitchen. It's less expensive than buying an oven. And the pizza you make will be far better than most pizzerias you've been to--and definitely better than any delivery pizza that's been steaming inside a cardboard box for 30 minutes or more. 
 
It’s not sexy, but you’ve already got a pizza oven sitting right there in your kitchen. When you bring the right tools to your home oven, you can make some killer pizza. The trick is this: you need to know what you’re doing. And if you don’t know what you’re doing, and you start messing with little, annoying, hard-to-use pizza ovens, you could learn to hate making pizza and never want to do it again. The joy of pizza is lovely. Burning lots of starter pizzas is not. 
 
It's possible that you’ve been enchanted by the new breed of outdoor pizza ovens. They’re made by companies like Ooni and Rocbox. These ovens can range anywhere from about 300 bucks to over $1,000. They’re usually fired with wood pellets or gas. And they have legions of rabid fans.
 
Want to know the dirty secret about these ovens? They will not make pizza for you. Just as a $900 camera does not know how take the pictures for you, a $900 oven does not know how to make pizza for you. That’s your job. And the oven doesn’t make it easier to bake a pizza. In fact, if used to the fullest extent of its thermodynamic insanity, it can make baking a pizza one of the most challenging things you’ve ever done. See also: black and charred crusty things. 

There's nothing wrong with buying a pizza oven--but it helps if you do it AFTER you've made pizza one of your favorite bad habits. Habits are second nature. They can be practiced almost subconsciously. And you can get there with pizza. Knowing how to make dough without thinking about it, and going into The Zone, slinging half a dozen pies for a night of pizza with friends, is far more impressive than spending money on an oven that you can't use. 

Nobody wants to hear it but developing the habit of making pizza is cheaper and easier than buying an oven. Don't buy a pizza oven. Yet. Buy the simple tools for your home oven. Read the right books. Practice the pizza. A dedicated oven can follow. And if you'd like to be on the mailing list for when the Free The Pizza book is released, click here. 

Free the pizza!
0 Comments

    Author

    Blaine Parker is the award-winning author of the bestselling, unusual and amusing how-to pizza book, Free The Pizza. Also known as The Pizza Geek and "Hey, Pizza Man!", Blaine is fanatical about the idea that true, pro-quality pizza can be made at home. His home. Your home. Anyone's home. After 20 years of honing his craft and making pizza in standard consumer ovens across the nation, he's sharing what he's learned with home cooks like you. Are you ready to pizza? 

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019

    Categories

    All
    Accidental Calzone
    Aleppo Pepper
    Altoona Pizza
    American Pizza
    Anchovy
    Anchovy Pizza
    Andris Lagsdin
    Apizza
    April Fool
    Artisan Pizza
    Asian Fusion Pizza
    Authentic Pizza
    Award-winning Pizzerias
    Bacon Pizza
    Baking
    Baking Steel
    Bechamel
    Best Cheese For Pizza
    Best Pizza
    Best Pizza Lists
    Bianco
    Bianco Dinapoli
    Books
    Boring
    California Pizza
    California Pizza Kitchen
    Calzone
    Celebrity Chef
    Char
    Cheese
    Cheese Graters
    Cheese Pizza
    Cheese Snob
    Cheesy Pizza
    Chef Victor Krone
    Chicago Style
    Chicken Pizza
    Chickpea Pizza
    Chilis
    Chopped Champion
    Chop Shop Park City
    Christmas Pizza
    Cilantro
    Clam Chowder Pizza
    Cooking Pizza
    Costco
    Courage
    Covid Pizza
    Cpk
    Creative Pizza
    Crushed Red Pepper
    Dan Richer
    Delivery
    Detroit Pizza
    Dianne Jacob
    Diastatic Malt
    Dough
    Duck
    Easy Homemade Bread
    Easy Homemade Pizza
    Fake Meat
    Family
    Famous Pizzerias
    Fancy
    Fast Dough
    Fast Pizza
    Fear
    Fermentation
    Fire
    First Field
    Food Craving
    Food Snobbery
    Free Pizza
    Fresh Mozzarella
    Fruit On Pizza
    Garlic Pizza
    Gift Pizza
    Gluten Free
    Gluten Free Pizza
    Great Homemade Pizza
    Greek Pizza
    Hawaiian
    Hawaiian Pizza
    Healthy Pizza
    Historic Pizzerias
    Homemade Pizza
    Homemade Pizza Dough
    Homemade Pizza Sauce
    Hometown Pizza
    Hot Dogs On Pizza
    Hot Pepper
    Hot Pepper Pizza
    How To Make Pizza
    Imitation Pepperoni
    Indoor Pizza Oven
    Ingredients
    Inspired Pizza
    Inventing Pizza
    Italian Cooking
    Jersey Fresh
    Jersey Tomato Pie
    Joy Of Pizza
    Ken's Artisan Pizza
    Kinds Of Pizza
    Kitchen Safety
    Kitchen Scale
    Kneading Dough
    Koji
    Kristian Tapaninaho
    Launching Pizza
    Leftover Pizza Dough
    Legacy Pizzerias
    Low Moisture Mozzarella
    Making Pizza Round
    Marcella Hazan
    Margherita
    Marinara
    Meatloaf
    Meatloaf Pizza
    Meat Pizza
    Mezzaluna
    Mise En Place
    Mississippi Pizza
    Mistakes
    Mobile Pizza Business
    Modernist Pizza
    Modernist Pizza Review
    Monster Pizza
    Mormon Pizza
    Mozzarella
    Naples
    Neapolitan
    Neapolitan Pizza
    Neo Neapolitan
    Neo-Neapolitan
    New England Pizza
    New Haven Pizza
    New Jersey Pizza
    New York Pizza
    No Knead
    Obituary
    Onions
    Ooni
    Outdoor Pizza Oven
    Outrageous Pizza
    Oven Temp
    Paris
    Park City Pizza
    Parmesan
    Parmigiano Reggiano
    Patience
    Paulie Gee
    Pepperoni
    Pepperoni Pizza
    Peppers
    Peter Reinhart
    Pi Day
    Pineapple On Pizza
    Pizza Around The World
    Pizza Book
    Pizza Charity
    Pizza Cheese
    Pizza Christmas Gifts
    Pizza Classes
    Pizza Competition
    Pizza Cookbooks
    Pizza Crust Pot Pie
    Pizza Cutter
    Pizza-dough
    Pizza Dough Bread
    Pizza-fear
    Pizza-flour
    Pizza-gifts
    Pizza-habits
    Pizza Hacks
    Pizza-hate
    Pizza Holiday Gifts
    Pizza-hut
    Pizza Improv
    Pizza Inspiration
    Pizza-in-strange-places
    Pizza-joy
    Pizza-lust
    Pizza-margherita
    Pizza Marinara
    Pizza-marinara
    Pizza-memories
    Pizza Mistakes
    Pizza-mistakes
    Pizza Not Politics
    Pizza-oven
    Pizza Ovens
    Pizza-party
    Pizza-patience
    Pizza-peel
    Pizza-peeps
    Pizza-pi
    Pizza-pi-vi
    Pizza Politics
    Pizza Quest
    Pizza Questions
    Pizza Recipes
    Pizza Satire
    Pizza Sauce
    Pizza Secret
    Pizza Steel
    Pizza Stone
    Pizza Stuck
    Pizza Styles
    Pizza Think
    Pizza Today
    Pizza Tomatoes
    Pizza Toppings
    Pizza Trends
    Pizza University
    Pizzeria
    Pizzeria Sei
    Poetry
    Politics
    Portland Pizza
    Premium Ingredients
    Prep
    Prime Roots
    Proofing Dough
    Pulled Pork Pizza
    Recipes
    Refrigerator Pizza
    Reinhart
    Rocbox
    Rock & Roll
    Rolling Dough
    Rush
    San Marzano Tomatoes
    Sausage
    Scott's Pizza Tours
    Scott Wiener
    Secret Ingredient
    Secret Pizza
    Serhan Ayhan
    Settebello
    Shrimp Pizza
    Simple Pizza
    Slice Out Hunger
    Soup And Pizza
    Sourdough
    Sourdough Pizza
    Spicy Pizza
    Steel
    Stretching
    Stretching Pizza Dough
    Stromboli
    Styles Of Pizza
    Thanksgiving
    The Joy Of Pizza
    The Zen Of Pizza
    Time
    Timing
    Tips
    Tomatoes
    Tomato Pie
    Tools
    Too Wet
    Torn Dough
    Trenton Tomato Pie
    Tribecca Allie
    Vampires
    Vegetarian Pizza
    Virgin Islands
    VPN
    Weighing Ingredients
    Wet Dough
    Wet Pizza
    White Clam Pizza
    White Pizza
    Why Pizza
    Wine
    Wood
    Wood Fired Pizza
    Wood-fired Pizza
    Yeast

    RSS Feed

Privacy Policy
Terms Of Service
© Copyright 2021-2025. All rights reserved.
As a ShareASale Affiliate and an Amazon Associate, we earn a small percentage from qualifying Amazon purchases at no additional cost to you.
When you click those links to Amazon (and a few other sites we work with), and you buy something, you are helping this website stay afloat, and you're helping us have many more glorious photographs of impressive ​pizza.