The Joy of Pizza: Everything You Need to Know

by Dan Richer, Katie Parla Narrated by Will Collyer

Overview

Learn to make artisan pizza the American way in this ultimate guide to the perfect pie from the creator of "the best pizza in New York" (New York Times).

Pizza is simple: dough, sauce, cheese, toppings. But inside these ordinary ingredients lies a world of extraordinary possibility. Dan Richer has devoted his life to discovering the holy grail of pizza: the secret to making a truly transcendent pies. The pizza at his restaurant, Razza, has been named the best in New York by The New York Times-despite the fact it's in New Jersey. Richer's pizza is among the best one can eat in America, if not the world.
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For him, the joy of pizza begins with the crust-a rim that is crisp, deeply caramelized, and shatters when you bite through it. The crumb is delicate and floral-scented, with a gentle note of acidity. The crust has large, open holes separated by thin, pearlescent cell walls. And the sauce, cheese, and toppings? You'll unlock their mysteries inside these pages. Every day, Richer assesses his pizza with a 56-point rubric that helps him come as close to pizza perfection as any mortal may dare.
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In The Joy of Pizza, Richer shows how to achieve each one of these ideal pizza attributes in recipes suited to home bakers and professionals alike. He includes instructions for making doughs with commercial yeast as well as sourdough starter, and for baking in ordinary home ovens as well as high-temperature ovens such as the Ooni and Roccbox, and even wood-fired outdoor pizza ovens. The book is rich with step-by-step photography, and features QR codes linking to instructional videos and portraits of every pizza before and after it meets the heat of the oven-so you'll know exactly what to do to create superior results.
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The ingredients are simple. The methods are straightforward. And the results are deliriously delicious.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"What makes this book so compelling and perfect for beginners is that Richer starts with the basics. Perfect your own pizza dough, sauce, and cheese selection before combining them all into creative concoctions... You’ll learn how to assess your cheese, measure your cooking temperatures, make your own sourdough, and much more. The Joy of Pizza is beautifully photographed and offers useful tips for beginners and advanced skills for pizza pros."—Cool Material

Home cooks interested in learning how to make pizza from scratch will appreciate this cookbook by rising culinary star Richer... The recipes for different kinds of pizza dough (including sourdough) are worth the price of admission alone, but the book also helpfully includes rubrics for evaluating tomatoes, olive oil, and mozzarella.—Library Journal

"For Dan Richer, the best pizza is not in New Jersey, or New York, or even Italy—but wherever you happen to be. As long as you get your hands on the finest local ingredients and master the art of dough-making, you can produce a truly exceptional pie from just about anywhere. The Razza chef/owner explains this, along with everything else he’s learned in his 20 years of making pizza, in The Joy of Pizza."—Thrillist

"It's difficult to manifest subjective feelings like 'joy' into tangible objects. But, if joy were a food, we can all agree that it would be pizza. Now there's a new treatise on the subject, and it takes the form of a 288-page book that looks good enough to eat."

—UrbanDaddy

"Dan Richer, chef of Jersey City institution Razza, and Rome-based writer Katie Parla team up on this exuberant celebration of one of the world’s favorite hand-held meals, replete with tips and recipes for how to achieve airy yet crispy crusts and masterful flavor combinations."—Saveur

"[T]he perfect reference for home cooks and professionals alike."—Food52

"This book is for pizza lovers, period."—Good Morning America

"I could eat these pizzas for every meal."—Kelsey Lynch, author of Cooking Through Trader Joe's, Glamour

"You love it because it’s perfect but do you know how to make it? You will after reading this. Written by the chef of Razza, the New Jersey pizzeria that makes food critics cry and the NYTimes betray its own city, The Joy of Pizza covers every step in the pizza-making process. Using simple ingredients, you’ll make 2022 the Year of the Pie, using just your regular old oven."—GearMoose

"The definitive pizza book for the home cook. Not even close. And [Richer and Parla] are as smart as it comes on all matters culinary. Huge winner."—Andrew Zimmern

Library Journal

10/01/2021

Home cooks interested in learning how to make pizza from scratch will appreciate this cookbook by rising culinary star Richer (the award-winning chef and owner of Razza in Jersey City) and cowriter Parla. This guide covers all of the details of pizza-making, with particular attention to the dough: calculating the protein in the flour and the temperature of the water; fermentation; stretching and shaping the dough just right before sliding it into a blazing hot oven; how to know when a pizza is perfectly done. There are even instructions for using a wood-fired masonry oven, and vivid photographs to guide readers through the steps. The recipes for different kinds of pizza dough (including sourdough) are worth the price of admission alone, but the book also helpfully includes rubrics for evaluating tomatoes, olive oil, and mozzarella. VERDICT For serious pizza aficionados, this cookbook gives step-by-step instructions to achieve the perfect Margherita pie from scratch; less committed bakers can up their game with the innovative toppings.—Susan Hurst, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, OH

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173102843
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	11/09/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged

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