We’ve been seeking out how to make the perfect homemade pizza for years and it was not until we found the Ooni Pizza oven that I think we were truly satisfied with our results. Yes, that’s how much we’re obsessed with this gadget! First off, this post is in no way sponsored by or paid by Ooni. We bought this gadget with our own money and tried it for ourselves. Ooni has no idea we are even writing this post. As always, we would never recommend a product we have not thoroughly tested and vetted. That being said, we know we are not alone in our love for the Ooni Pizza Oven and wanted to share our tips on how we achieve a near perfect homemade pizza every time! We use the Ooni Koda, but feel these tips should apply to most Ooni models.

PS – if you want to also use our basic Margherita Pizza recipe, feel free! This post is more about the details of using the pizza oven.

How to properly use your Ooni Pizza Oven

There are so many things that make our Ooni Koda one of our favorite cooking tools. It runs on propane, which makes controlling the temperature super easy. It’s small and lightweight enough that transporting it is a breeze. Most importantly, it can heat up to 900°F! This particular feature, which makes the Ooni so special, can also be quite intimidating. Most of us are not used to cooking with such high heat, but if you follow these steps, you’ll be turning out traditional Neapolitan style pizza in no time!

Prepping and Preheating your Oven

• If you have used the Ooni before, be sure to scrape any remaining ash off of the baking stone.
• Open the gas valve and turn on your oven to the highest temperature setting. Leave it on high for at least 15 – 20 minutes to allow the stone to get sufficiently hot.
  • Pro Tip: Depending on the wind conditions, it is important to angle your oven in a way that prevents any strong gusts from entering the oven. This can cause the temperature to decrease or extinguish your flame.
• Once your pizza stone is sufficiently hot, you’re ready to start cooking!

Getting your Pizza Ready:

• Generously flour the surface of your pizza peel. You can use cornmeal or semolina flour instead of regular flour to give your dough a little extra crunch!
  • Pro Tip: A large sturdy pizza peel makes life so much easier! Do not buy one of those half-peel paddles. Get a full size peel between 12-14” in width. We prefer using a metal one for easy clean up and maintenance, but a wooden peels work just as well.
• Before stretching your dough, be sure to have your sauce, cheese, and toppings ready to go. It is key to assemble your pizza quickly. If you let your dough sit for too long while you slice a tomato, you run the risk of the dough hydrating the floured surface and becoming sticky.
• With a generous amount of flour on a working surface, you want to press down onto your ball of dough to form a large disc. Avoid using a rolling pin, as this will result in a greater destruction of the air pockets your dough has developed while fermenting. I like to then lift the dough from the edges while I rotate the disc, and let gravity do the work – the weight of the dough will gently stretch the dough evenly. Once you have reached the desired size, quickly lay the dough on top of your floured pizza peel (preferably close to the edge to make it easier to slide off). Avoid moving or pressing down on the dough once you set it on the peel, or else you run the risk of it sticking to the peel.
• Assemble your pizza, keeping in mind that you want to do this quickly and efficiently.
  • Pro Tip: Be wary of making a pizza with any type of olive oil base instead of sauce. It can be very tricky due to the possibility of the oil catching on fire and scorching your pizza. We learned this the hard way! It can be done, but you may not want to start with something like this.
• Your oven is hot, your pizza is ready to go in, now what?

Cooking the Pizza:

• Right before you put your pizza in the oven, lower the temperature to the lowest setting. If you leave it on high, you will end up burning the top of your pizza before the bottom is fully cooked. Only leave it on low while the pizza is in the oven. In between pizzas, return the heat to high to allow the stone to maintain a proper temperature.
• Every pizza maker’s worst nightmare is to have a beautiful pizza ready to go in the oven, and as you try to slide it into the oven, the pizza gets stuck to the peel! Your toppings start to fall off and you’ve got a mess on your hands. Here’s one of the greatest tricks no one has ever told you about!
  • Pro Tip: Right before you slide your pizza into the oven, lift the edge of the dough closest to you and blow air under it. This will help lift the dough off the peel and avoid sticking. You should see the dough rise and possibly slide on the peel – it can even appear to float at times! That’s a great sign, it means you can slide the pizza into the oven with no trouble. If the dough is stuck to the peel, it will not rise, and you should attempt to flour the sticky portions of the dough and get it unstuck before sliding.
• Location is important. Slide your pizza in the oven with one swift motion a few inches away from the flames.
• Every 10-15 seconds, slide your peel under the pizza, pull it out, and turn it about 1/4 of the way around. If the edges are getting overly burned, place the pizza further from the flames. If the pizza looks undercooked, move it closer to the flames or increase the heat slightly.
• Continue turning the pizza every 10-15 seconds until your pizza is evenly cooked. Just FYI, it’s never taken more than 90 seconds to cook a pizza in our Ooni!
  • Pro Tip: When you finish cooking your first pizza, lift the pizza and check the bottom crust. It should be cooked thoroughly and ideally crispy. If you feel like it is undercooked but the top of the pizza looks great, that means your pizza stone was not hot enough. Don’t fret! Crank it up to high again, let the stone get nice and hot, and then cook your next one!

In Summary:

Using our Ooni pizza oven has been both an adventure and a pleasure. The quality of pizza we are able to obtain at home rivals that of any shop in town, but we have way more fun doing it ourselves! One last tip. Cooking in general is an ever changing concept. We do not cook in a vacuum. Factors like outdoor temperature and humidity can have massive effects on the results of what you are attempting to make. So remember to adapt and adjust as needed, and don’t beat yourself up if “it’s not as good as last time”. That just means you get to make it again!

Happy cooking everyone!

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