Pizza

The secret to a great pizza Margherita is to use the best ingredients you can find—and to approach them with restraint. (Just because a little cheese is good doesn't mean a lot will be better!) We always start with our all-time favorite pizza dough, adapted from chef Chris Bianco, of Pizzeria Bianco, in Phoenix. This slightly wet dough, in conjunction with a hot pizza stone, produces a crisp yet chewy crust, the perfect canvas for bright homemade tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, and verdant basil leaves.

Start making the dough one day in advance; it needs to be refrigerated overnight.

These come out extra-crispy when you use a pizza stone. If you don’t have one, a heavy-duty rimmed baking sheet works well; invert it so that you can remove the pizza easily.

No need to heat up the oven. Not only is grilling faster than baking, but it also adds a nice smoky flavor to the pizza.

Avoid the temptation to add too many toppings; a pizza should be more bread than topping. In fact, the basic dough in this recipe may be used to prepare a delicious grilled bread as well as the base for pizza. Shape the dough as you would for individual pizzas, and then grill it over hot coals for about 2 minutes on each side, until it is blistered and browned. After the dough is turned, drizzle with olive oil and scatter it with fresh herbs such as oregano, basil, thyme, or rosemary.

Food editor Gina Marie Miraglia Eriquez picked up her technique for grilling pizza during a college visit to Al Forno, in Providence, Rhode Island. Here, she tops that irresistibly charred crust with ingredients that have a natural affinity for one another: sweet cooked-down onions, toasted walnuts, and the bite of Gorgonzola.

Pizza bianca (white pizza) is a Roman dish that's more like seasoned flatbread than your typical pizza. It's great with the salumi and cheese.

Frozen puff pastry makes a quick and easy crust for this modern take on pizza.

Four ingredients and a few minutes are all it takes to put together this crisp, bubbly masterpiece. A quick drizzle of truffle oil adds a final flourish of decadence.

Crisp on the bottom and chewy in the center, this gluten-free pie gives pizzeria fare a run for its money. Feel free to vary the toppings to suit your taste (keeping in mind that processed pepperoni and even some brands of pre-grated cheese may contain gluten, so read ingredients carefully.) This recipe makes two 10-inch pies—perfect for two very hungry people or two to three pretty hungry people. For easy weeknight meals, make a double recipe of the baked crusts and freeze some to top and broil when you need them. See our related story for more information and sources for gluten-free ingredients.

Aged Gruyère gives extra-nutty flavor.

Baking the crust first keeps it from getting soggy beneath the toppings.

You can slice and dice the ingredients for these no-cook pizzas in advance, but serve them right after assembly so the flatbreads don't get soggy.

This Italian pie, also known as a torta rustica, is made with an olive-oil crust and can be served for dinner or breakfast the next day.

Love the crust? Eat up! It's a solid source of heart-smart folate.

Feel free to swap in store-bought pizza dough here—the most important part of the recipe is grilling the pies.

There's enough dough for one more pizza, so freeze the extra. The vital wheat gluten flour is high in protein and helps create a chewy crust. It's sold at some supermarkets and natural foods stores. Bread flour will also give great results.