How to Make the Perfect Homemade Pizza with your Ooni Koda

The Ooni Koda Pizza Oven is a favourite of ours.

It easy to use, looks great, portable, but mainly it cooks really good homemade Pizzas.

Whilst an Ooni can cook a Neapolitan-style pizza in as little as 60 seconds, the longer you prep, the tastier and better the Pizza will be!

We’ve tried and tested the Ooni Koda at GardenStreet, and come together with our perfect pizza recipe.

Step 1: How to Make the Perfect Pizza Dough

For a truly authentic Italian taste, it comes down to the dough. If you get the dough wrong, then the chances are the Pizza will be a failure.

A key to making the right dough using the right ingredients, and working the mixture at the right temperature.

We’d always recommend using ‘00’ flour. This is typically milled in Italy, and is a semi-fine texture (not too course, and not too fine & powdery).

1. Put 200ml of cool water into a bowl
2. Bring 100ml to the boil, then add it to the cool water (this is the perfect temperature for activating the yeast)
3. Add a 7 gram sachet of active dried yeast to the water, along with 10 grams of salt
4. Put 500 grams of ‘00’ grade flour into a separate bowl, slowly adding the yeast water as you mix by hand. Keep slowly adding the water/yeast mix bit by bit, until you’ve added it all.
5. The dough should now come together in a ball. Flour a clean, flat, surface and knead the dough with both hands for 15 minutes. This dough should now be firm, but also stretchy and elastic-like.
6. Cover the dough in a bowl with cling film, and leave in a warm place to rise for 3 hours

Step 2: How to Knead & Roll the Pizza Dough

After 3 hours of the dough resting, it can now be rolled out into suitably sized pizza bases (to suit your appetite!).

Knead the dough for 10-15 minutes, and once done tear off a chunk (this will be rolled out to form your base). Sprinkle flour onto a flat surface and roll using a rolling pin.

We tend to make our pizzas 12 inches in size. To get a true Neapolitan style base, the dough needs to be rolled out thin enough to see light through when you hold it up (whilst avoiding any tears). This is usually around half a centimetre (3-5mm) thick.

For a true artisan appearance, don’t make your base perfectly circular! It can be an oblong shape. This gives a real authentic homemade appearance when served, as store bought ones will always be perfectly circular.

Step 3: The Best Pizza Toppings

Avoid to add too much sugar to your pizza toppings. Store bought Pizzas typically include around 3 to 4 grams of sugar.

We want our homemade pizza to bring out the real natural flavours of the toppings, and not be too sweet.

For this, we only include 3 ingredients to flavour; sun-dried tomato paste (£1.19, Waitrose), Galbani Mozzarella (£2.25, Waitrose), and basil leaves (home grown using our Galaxy High Planter).

To prepare, unevenly spread the tomato paste on the base (to taste). Roughly chop chunks of mozzarella and place them on the pizza. Put the basil leaves on, keeping the leaves quite large (around 2-3cm).

Don’t worry about the placement of the cheese or basil, as again a unique ‘unsymmetrical’ appearance gives that artisan feel to the pizza. Besides, the cheese will melt and spread once cooked anyway.

Step 4: Heating the Oven

Heat your Ooni Koda to the highest temperature. Always heat the oven first before putting the pizza in; the best pizzas cook at the highest temperatures. Our recipe will take around a minute to cook.

The final step? Enjoy your creation. Once you have mastered the art of this recipe, be more adventurous with your recipes.

Try adding Palma ham or prosciutto mushrooms.

The Ooni Koda Pizza Oven, available at GardenStreet from £259 and on display in our Cheshire Showroom.

If you would like to check out more fantastic recipes ensure you visit this link for food you can cook Teppanyaki-style.