The last time we talked about pizza, you gave me a bunch of advice and opinions on pizza ovens and I shared them in a post. Now it’s time to report back on my pizza journey (as well as on a new favorite sandwich that I recreated from a Texan food truck, recipe below).

I am in deep, enduring love with our pizza oven. Cooking with it is so different from a stove. It’s as if you’re the captain of a small ship, feeding it coals to keep the engine running, steering its course, and heeding the whims of the passengers. When you make pizza, people gather around you and peer inside the oven. Everyone likes to play with the infrared temperature gun. And when you serve up a fresh pizza, it’s like bringing a birthday cake with candles aglow to a table. Everyone centers their attention; you can feel the joy.

The other fun part is that people want to participate. When I’m at my stove, no one asks to brown the chicken. When we had our neighbors over for pizza in Ojai, at one point I needed to run into the kitchen and I asked Marty and Max, a father and son, if they’d mind taking charge of the oven. “We’ve been waiting for you to ask us,” Marty said. Max also brought an incredible dough using his sourdough starter. I will work on getting his recipe for you!

I don’t want to spoil the video below, which takes you from oven installation to oven curing to pizza making, but I want to be sure to share some resources that complement it: ...