If you’re on the hunt for the best books about pizza recipes, look for ones that are easy to read. A pizza recipe book with high-quality illustrations can also help evoke your palate and easily list all of the key ingredients.
To help you shop, we looked at some of the most reviewed and highly rated pizza recipe books on the market.
There’s nothing like a tasty, comforting slice of pizza on a Sunday afternoon. First invented in Naples, Italy, pizza is one of the world’s most popular and delectable dishes—and one of the easiest to make as well!
Making pizza is practically an art. The diehards may disagree, but there are so many ways to prepare this delicious dish. And with the help of the best recipe books authored by the world’s most renowned pizza chefs, you can make easy weekend pizza night recipes to slices that satisfy even the most discerning pizza lovers.
Here are some of the top pizza recipe books on the market!
A Quick Comparison of Our Favorites
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Our Top Pick: Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish
A New York Times best seller. This artisan bread and pizza recipe book features recipes for all skill levels and time constraints. It’s a great option for both total beginners and seasoned bakers.
Authored by Portland’s most recognized and beloved baker, Ken Forkish, it is the first book he wrote before “The Elements of Pizza,” another great pizza recipe book that I’ll talk about next. His recipes in the book are easy to follow, making it one of the most comprehensive bread books out there.
And when it says it tackles the fundamentals of artisan pizza and bread, it covers everything from all types of yeasted, pre-fermented, and sourdough bread.
And if you want to take your baking game to the next level, you can follow his step-by-step instructions to create a levain starter using only flour and water. It has a whole chapter that dumbs down the levain-making process.
Forkish discusses in the Flour Water Salt Yeast how to prepare the dough in an intelligent yet easy manner—you’ll surely view pizza dough from a fresh perspective. Pizza fans can use a stone or a cast-iron pan to try out various doughs and sauces to produce a pie that’s baked to perfection!
Flour Water Salt Yeast is more than just a compilation of excellent bread and pizza recipes. It’s also comprehensive baking education. An indispensable tool for bakers who wish to level up a basic bland dough into exceptional artisan bread.
It includes a walkthrough on baker’s proportions. As well as guides on tricking ingredient ratios to make custom doughs. The book also has guides on how to adapt to bread baking timetables to suit your daily life.
Many beginners, however, struggle with the sourdough section-based levain bread. Others also say the recipes are a waste of flour.
Pros:
• Detailed, easy-to-follow recipes, and overall beginner-friendly
• Clear illustrations
• Provides in-depth baking techniques
Cons:
• The sourdough section-based levain bread might be a struggle for beginners
• Recipes waste a lot of flour
The Elements of Pizza by Ken Forkish
Here’s another masterpiece from Ken Forkish. The Elements of Pizza tackles all aspects of pizza dough. It talks about everything from the different styles of pizza, their ingredients, and various techniques for making the dough and pizza topping recipes.
It offers a handy pizza-making process. This goes from picking the perfect pizza dough recipe to the final process of choosing the right toppings for your pie. In this book, Forkish shares over a dozen dough recipes including gluten-free ones.
It allows you to make an easy dough that you can use within the day to a 48-hour fermented dough. He goes into great detail about the dough and how varying ingredient ratios and cooking times can affect your finished product.
The book also includes all the tips for transforming dough from a dough ball into an oven-ready stretched pizza. In this book, Forkish is basically saying that quality dough and a hot oven are all you need. He has some of the most no-fuss pizza-making recipes out there.
In addition, Ken Forkish owns multiple pizzerias and bakeries. The Elements of Pizza is his second book, following the renowned Flour Water Yeast Salt, widely regarded as among the best bread-making books of all time.
He’s used his meticulous approach to bread dough to find the best pizza dough to make our beloved dish. The book is sometimes nearly technical in tone, but very reader-friendly. Following clear and skilled instructions, anyone can shape their pies and load pizza peels and stones with the expertise of a pizzaiolo.
However, while he knows his doughs, his recipes here are only suitable for home ovens. Forkish didn’t mention conversions or even references to home pizza ovens. I think it’s safe to say this book needs an upgrade to keep up with today’s technology.
Pros:
• Written in clear details
• Easy-to-follow recipes
• Provides a sample timing schedule for each dough
• High-quality illustrated photos
Cons:
• Doesn’t work for home pizza ovens
The Pizza Bible by Tony Gemignani
Written by pizza legend Tony Gemignani, The Pizza Bible is a go-to source for recipes for almost every pizza style known. From Napoletana to Calzones to fluffy Sicilian pan pizza to wood-fired pizzas, you can make any pizza style to satisfy your palate.
It also covers American pizzas from Detroit, St. Louis, and New York-style pizza. Chicago-style pizza has its own chapter. It’s complete with dough varieties and other recipes for Chicago deep dish and cracker-thin. As well as skillet pizza toppings and ingredients.
California-style pizza is a chapter that includes a variety of great recipes, ancient-grain flours, and unexpected flavor profiles.
The Pizza Bible also has final sections that tackle different pizza styles as well as a variety of other Italian-American sides such as bread, meatballs, and leftover dough options. It even covers cocktail recipes!
One of the best chapters in the book is the Masterclass where Gemignani walks you through each of the steps. A true gold mine for beginners, this book features a plethora of recipes that your pizza stone may have been missing out on.
There are many recipes that leave out the finer details. This recipe explains what you need to do in each step. It tackles the necessary ingredients and equipment, mixing and forming dough balls, and spreading, topping, and baking the pizza.
Gemignani deserves praise for his generosity with this one. He offers all his techniques and secrets of the world’s best pizzas so you can bring them into your kitchen.
However, while he knows his pizza, he skips over tomato sauce recipes. He suggests just buying canned products and calling it a day. The book is also rather verbose—12 pages just for tossing the dough? Come on, now!
Still, you’ll appreciate the wealth of knowledge you gain from the book.
Pros:
• Features almost all the different pizza styles in the world
• Comes in organize sections per region, so it’s easy to navigate
• Clear, and detailed instructions
• High-quality illustration photos
• Beginner-friendly
Cons:
• Skips the pizza recipes
• Wordy
Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson
According to The New York Times, Tartine Bread is the most beautiful bread book ever published. It’s another dough bible for both amateur and professional bakers. Chad Robertson, co-owner of Tartine Bakery in San Francisco, is widely regarded as the best bread baker in the country.
It mainly tackles all things bread. However, it emphasizes sourdough and has several pizza recipes. This book is one of the most famous sourdough cookbooks out there due to the detailed steps for making sourdough and fermented dough.
Such an approach has since evolved into a staple in the sourdough community. You can then use the dough to make pizza as directed in the book. Tartine Bread tells you how to bake amazing and simple bread with only flour, water, and salt. It has clear instructions and high-quality, step-by-step illustrations.
The approach he used in the book is more complex. It takes longer due to the extra step of using wild yeast instead of packet yeast. I can recommend this book to anyone looking for recipes for sourdough. But it may not be a good first book for a beginner pizza maker.
Chad Robertson’s rugged, unique bread evolved over a decade of collaboration with the top artisan bakers in the US and France. Then another decade baking in a little wood-fired oven on the Northern California coast. And now is your turn to bring those recipes into your own kitchen.
It also includes variations showcasing a beautifully diversified selection of bread as well as lots of sweet and savory dishes that use the day-old bread to make sandwiches, puddings, classic soups, and delectable baked French toast.
The recipes, however, are quite narrow in scope, with little flexibility and no instruction on when and how to use other ingredients aside from the basic ones.
Pros:
• Beautiful cover
• Great for both amateur and professional bakers
• Clear step-by-step instructions
• High-quality illustrations
Cons:
• Recipes are narrow in scope
• Provides no instruction on how to use other extra ingredients
• Not a good first recipe book for beginners
Mastering Pizza by Marc Vetri
Here’s another all-time favorite pizza recipe book among chefs and novices alike. Written by award-winning chef Marc Vetri, Mastering Pizza is an excellent read since it teaches you how to make savory pizzas no matter the type of oven or equipment available to you.
You can even use Roccbox or Gozney aside from your kitchen oven. And since Vetri’s guide concentrates on a range of basic doughs, you can still reach the proper hydration level. This will allow you to make wonderful, homemade pizza with your oven.
Since a home oven requires more water in the dough, he prescribes doughs with varying hydration percentages.
Marc Vetri shares many ways to make sure that your pizza is baked to perfection. His years of experimenting with different recipes in Italy helped him develop his own techniques. Even an experienced home chef can still pick up something new from his book.
As a fan of Forkish’s work, Mastering Pizza follows in the footsteps of The Elements Of Pizza. It’s pretty detailed and extensively researched. Instead of describing all pizza styles, its focus is on the key components of dough: flour, fermentation, various ovens, and equipment.
He focuses on Italian recipes with an American twist. The first few chapters center around the art and science of pizza. They are based on Vetri’s excursions to authentic Italian pizza giants such as Franco Pepe.
The second half is also quite interesting, featuring 11 pizza dough recipes for various styles and hydrations. Vetri then goes into detail describing how to stretch and cook several styles. Think about home oven and wood-fired Naples, cast iron and grilled pizza, wood-fired and home oven Romana, and more.
However, while it has lots of illustrations, some home chefs still find some of the recipes too complex.
Pros:
• Detailed instructions on how to make doughs
• Great for both seasoned chefs and beginners
• Has great illustrations
• Ideal for making handmade pizzas as it emphasizes using whatever oven or equipment you have
Cons:
• Some chefs find some of the recipes too complex
Pizza by James and Thom Elliot
This book has one of the coolest and most quirky covers. You’d think it’s a pizza box but it actually contains all the knowledge you need in making the most delicious-tasting pizza at home.
It’s authored by the pizza pilgrims James and Thom Elliot. Pizza includes a lot of info that stems from the two brothers’ journey of opening numerous pizzerias in London after wandering around Italy.
It differs from other pizza recipe books. This one will take you on an international journey to investigate the obsession we all collectively have with pizza. This book begins with the traditional backstory and history of pizza before delving into various city styles of pizza as well as the best restaurants in each area.
Think about cities like Naples, New York, New Jersey, Paris, Rome, New Haven, and Chicago. You’re basically embarking on the same journey that the Elliot brothers went on and fell in love with. So, if you love to travel and try out the world’s favorite pizza styles, this book may be a fantastic option.
It includes a chapter on a Neapolitan pizza dough recipe and preparing pizza in their favorite method. This method entails using a frying pan or skillet and heating it under a broiler to replicate a hot pizza oven.
One thing I appreciate about this chapter is that it includes 20 pizza recipes, and that’s a lot! Each has a full-page illustration, ranging from pepperoni to mortadella spicy honey and pistachio.
The book is also peppered with sections of bonus pizza information. You’ll discover what drinks go best with each pizza, and pizza box artwork. The only downside is that the book’s flow can be difficult to grasp sometimes due to the numerous interruptions. But, I think it’s still an overall good pizza recipe book.
Pros:
• Cool graphic cover
• Covers a lot of the world’s favorite pizza styles and pizzerias
• Offers guides on a simple yet clever way of making delicious pizza
• Comes with bonus info
Cons:
• Might be hard to follow at times
The Essential Wood Fired Pizza Cookbook by Anthony Tassinello
Last but not the least, this book by Berkeley’s famed Chez Panisse chef Anthony Tassinello. According to Alice Waters, owner of Chez Panisse, Tassinello’s passion for cooking with fire is contagious. He has profound expertise in making wood-fired pizza.
The Essential Wood Fired Pizza Cookbook is an exciting and well-written book by a master that has done it all. A teacher you can truly rely on. This is the ultimate pizza cookbook for creating delectable recipes in your wood-fired pizza oven.
You can learn how to make simple recipes like a classic Margherita pizza. And you can also go for more adventurous and demanding dishes if you like.
Chef Anthony Tassinello walks you through the time-honored technique of crafting and enjoying a perfect wood-fired oven pizza. He starts with the initial drawn-out moments when the hot dough goes up against your oven floor to that steaming first bite.
Gotta applaud the chef for this one. He not only shares how to make mouthwatering pizzas, but calzones, focaccia, and hand pies are in the book too. And he does so while also reminding you of the delight of savoring delicious home-cooked meals with friends and family.
The book comes with over 85 recipes including fresh variations on classic pizzas to new creative combos. It also features a chapter on “beyond pizza,”, which highlights the adaptability of wood-fire cooking.
From the first-hand users’ experience, however, the book doesn’t indicate dough formulas in weight for some strange reason. Anyone who goes to the expense and effort of buying a wood-fired oven is most likely dedicated to perfecting their dough recipe.
A pizza maker thinks that the book isn’t really specific about how to prepare it, only suggesting that a long cold fermentation is preferable. Just a few things to keep in mind here.
Pros:
• Detailed and well-written
• Ideal for those who have passion for wood-fired pizzas
• Covers many unique pizza recipes
Cons:
• Doesn’t indicate dough formulas in weight
Picking the Best Pizza Recipe Book
Each text written in the books of one of the most crave-satisfying dishes can help you go from beginner to pro. But what really makes a good recipe book? Here are a few things you need to consider in choosing the best pizza cookbook so you can start slinging that dough.
Language
Cooking is easier when your guide is written in a language you can understand. This should be a no-brainer. When a recipe book is written in the language you speak, you connect with it. Most cookbooks on the list are published in English, though. It’s a universal language and may be the safest option for you.
Easy To Follow
If you’re a beginner, you’ll need to learn the jargon. Tutorials written in jargon and complex phrases are difficult to comprehend. You will benefit more from a brief, bulleted, or pointed instruction with simple, clear sentences.
Illustrations
Whether well-captured photos or simple visual images, clear illustrations serve as a good instructional tool. They come in handy for beginners. A good pizza cookbook should have beautiful images, so avoid ones with sketches as they won’t help much.
Check that clearly depict the ingredients and the finished product. You can usually have a look of the inside of the book when you shop online.
Your Level of Skill
Before buying a recipe book, you need to determine your level of skill in the kitchen.
Are you a beginner? Is this your first pizza recipe book, or do you have a large collection? Does cooking make you feel overwhelmed? These questions are important as they will help you determine your level of expertise and experience in the kitchen.
Luckily, there are many pizza cookbooks available for both seasoned chefs and novices.
Format
We all love anything digital. Kindles are lightweight compared to traditional paperbacks, which would take up valuable room in your hand and shelf.
But, surely, not everyone holds a book in one hand and kneads dough with the other. And who doesn’t love the colorful shelf that books offer?
Paperback recipe books have a soft card or thick paper covering that protects the pages. This sort of cover is light, though it is susceptible to bending, folding, and creases with use.
Hardcover cookbooks have a thick and stiff covering. They are a robust and gorgeous option and they are significantly more durable than paperbacks. And due to their aesthetic and collectability, hardcover editions retain their worth better than paperbacks.
Most of the books in our recommendation are in the hardcover edition, though they are also available in Kindle and paperback formats.
Variety
You may also want to check the variety before purchasing a recipe book. You might learn something useful that goes beyond making pizza. What other recipes or dishes does it cover? Many recipe books will look good from the outside but provide only a very few repetitive pizza recipes.
Reviews
One of the best ways to find the best pizza cookbooks is by reading reviews from verified customers. These users have a first-hand experience of the book and it will give you a general insight into what to expect. Reading through reviews can also give you an idea of what types of pizza recipes a recipe book contains.
FAQs
What’s Italian pizza called?
It’s called Pizza Napoletana. It originated in Napoli and is one of the most well-known types of Italian pizza.
Which flour is best to use for making homemade pizza?
You can use all-purpose flour, which is ideal for creating a simple pizza dough recipe. It’s widely used to make various styles of pizza. The other most popular dough would be 00 flour, typically used to make Neapolitan pizza, but trial and error is always the best way to decide which flour you prefer to make your pizza dough.
Which yeast should you use for pizza dough?
There are two kinds of yeast: active yeast and quick dry yeast. Active dry yeast takes time to activate, but dry instant yeast works quickly. Since it doesn’t need to be activated beforehand, instant yeast is less prone to being influenced by extra salt and sugar in the pizza dough.
Can you keep pizza dough in the freezer?
Yes, you can, however, the yeast will stay inactive. The yeast will reactivate if you leave it at room temperature.
To freeze your pizza dough, lightly brush all sides with olive oil and then securely seal in a freezer bag. Before putting it in the freezer, pump out all of the air. Don’t forget to put the date on each bag. If stored correctly, your dough will be safe to use for up to three months.
Is it possible to bake pizza without a stone and a peel?
When transferring uncooked pizza dough to the stone or baking sheet in the oven, the pizza peel is important. But if you don’t have a pizza stone, a large baking sheet will suffice. You can also bake your pizza using a shallow frying pan, a griddle, or a thick cast iron skillet as a stone.
In place of a peel, you can use a serving platter or foil-coated cardboard.
Final Thoughts
Looking for the best pizza cookbook? The Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish may be your best option. The more than 12,000 seasoned pizza makers and home chefs that own this book swear by the level of detail and straightforwardness of the instructions.
It has easy-to-follow recipes with clear illustrations that offer in-depth baking techniques. This book is ideal for both beginners and experienced chefs.
You may also check out the rest of the top recipe books I’ve mentioned above. And don’t forget to season your beloved pizza with lots of love. Good luck and buon appetito!
