Rea said, “The recipes I was probably most nervous about including [in] the book was the pizza section as a whole. Pizza is a form of bread, so that’s complicated enough right there, but also we have distinct regional pizzas: Neapolitan, New York, [and] Chicago. These are pizzas that have extremely distinct form factors and huge, rabid fandoms. I didn’t want to betray the original recipes, and I wanted to make recipes that were consistently re-creatable in the home kitchen. The pizza is the big wild card. We’ll see how that shakes out.”
As Rea alludes, anyone who’s ever made pizza at home knows that, while quick, it’s not exactly easy the first time you do it. Additionally, having or not having the right gear can make or break your homemade pizza. Beyond this, most homemade pizza recipes result in some sort of thin-crusted, not-exactly-a-perfect-circle take on the food group, that can’t really be categorized as one particular “style” of pizza. It’s still good, but it’s not pro-level. Maybe Rea’s pizza recipes — which thoroughly recognize those distinct regional pizza styles — can change all that. You’ll have to try them yourself to find out.
“Basics with Babish” by Andrew Rea is out now wherever books are sold.