Essential tools for pizza
Are you passionate about creating authentic Neapolitan pizza right in your own kitchen? Well, to achieve that, having the right tools is essential. In my opinion this is THE way to get a pizzeria-quality pizza. In this section I am going to highlight some kitchen tools that help to work with your pizza ingredients. And we will start from the very basics.
For example a perfect Neapolitan pizza begins with the right Mixing Bowls. These are not just containers; they’re the foundations where your dough comes to life. Choose bowls that are sturdy and spacious or smaller if you work with low amount of flour. But make sure you have several of them, because they are ideal for both mixing and proofing your pizza dough.
Measuring Tools are next in line. For pizza perfection, precision is key, especially when following traditional Neapolitan recipes where you generally work with lower amount of yeast. Having a reliable kitchen scale ensures that your dough has the perfect balance of flour, water, yeast, and salt. This precision is what sets apart a good pizza from a great one. I touched this concepts talking about the baker’s percentage
When it comes to kneading dough, your life is somehow easier when you have a good pizza dough mixer. Although this is not indispensable tool, I think that when you work with higher amount of flour it will help you in having a more consistent gluten mesh. As you know this is very important again in Neapolitan pizza, where the dough needs to be light and airy. A quality Stand Mixer or Hand Mixer does the job efficiently, saving you time and energy while delivering consistently excellent results.
Don’t underestimate the power of a good Flour Sifter. This simple tool helps creating a fine, lump-free flour.
Finally, Ingredient Dispensers help you keeping your toppings ready to be added to a pizza with ease. Moreover they help you keeping everything in order and with the correct hygiene. Does not matter if you are professional pizza maker or a pizza enthusiast, you want to manage pizza ingredients for topping paying attention to being clean.
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Here is the list of recommended essential tools for pizza:
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Mixing Bowls
In several occasions, especially on my TikTok profile, I talk about mixing bowls for pizza. But why mixing bowls are that important? And why should you buy one?
You need to think about mixing bowls not only when you are hand mixing, but also to collect and weigh your ingredients or ease the pizza proofing. with that in mind you only have few recommendations to follow.
First of all, you need several mixing bowls of different size. The small ones will help in weighing ingredients before you move in a bigger bowl for mixing. The mid and big size can be used to weigh more pizza ingredients but also to knead and have the bulk fermentation. I don’t really recommend to bulk ferment the Neapolitan pizza in a bowl, but that is a long story. For now think that you can make bulk fermentation of classic Italian focaccia and in some case also Pizza in sheet tray or pizza pan.
Second recommendation to consider is about materials. Avoid plastic at any cost. Plastic bowls are a risk to your health. When they scratch all the residues are going into your pizza dough. You will end eating micro plastic and that is bad. Don’t tell me you will be happy to have some plastic in your Neapolitan pizza! And this is very important because while kneading pizza dough ingredients, we sometimes need to scratch the borders of the bowl to keep it clean.
Last but not least, I think it is a little bit better to buy mixing bowls in aluminum or steel without anti-slippery systems if you intend to use them mainly for hand kneading. This is specifically true when making Neapolitan pizza, where we need to turn the bowl on itself to ease the initial kneading.
And now let’s jump on some good examples of mixing bowls for pizza that you can buy.
Steel Mixing Bowls
Every pizza dough requires kneading. The best way to knead by hand a pizza is to use a mixing bowl. In this collection you get various sizes bowls, perfect to knead a single pizza or enough dough for a pizza party.
They also come with hermetic lid. This is a key tool when working with the Stop&Go technique or when you want to start the pizza fermentation without changing the container.
Buy them now from one of the following links:
Purchase at Amazon.com
Purchase at Amazon.de
Purchase at Aliexpress
Glass Mixing Bowls
If you don’t like to work with stainless steel mixing bowls, having a glass one is a valid alternative. The recommendation here is to make sure you buy again various sizes to cover all the needs you may have.
I again am recommending some that come with a lid. This is critical during kneading phase to avoid that the pizza dough goes dry and gets that layer of unusable dough.
Buy a glass mixing bowl like the one below:
Purchase at Amazon.com
Purchase at Amazon.de
Purchase at Aliexpress
Ceramic Mixing bowls
Last option to consider is a ceramic mixing bowl. I am mentioning here in the list for completeness. But I am not really a fan of them. Because they are heavy and the borders don’t make an easy life for the lids.
I would honestly go for a ceramic mixing bowl for pizza only as a last resort, if you really have no other option or you really like their design, which is different.
The following links are for ceramic bowls I like:
Measuring Tools - Kitchen Scales
I can’t stress enough the importance of a kitchen scale in your culinary toolkit. Here’s why this simple tool is indispensable for achieving that authentic Italian pizza experience.
Italian pizza is a symphony of flavors where precision becomes important. Think for example at Neapolitan pizza. Very often you are asked to manipulate low amount of yeast. Especially if you are preparing small batches of pizza. Believe me when I tell you that you cannot guess here. Same goes if you are preparing a pizza sauce. You only need 1% of salt in a pizza sauce for Neapolitan, can you imagine to guess such a low amount? no way!
That said, from experience, you want to have a precision scale at least. And possibly a standard electronic scale. The first one needs to have precision of 0.1 gram or even 0.01 grams. A “standard” kitchen scale is one with precision to 1 gram. You need both because you want to weigh ingredients like salt, malt and yeast on the precision scale. The rest of ingredients on a standard scale.
Also, I prefer to recommend digital kitchen scales with replaceable common AA or AAA batteries. Otherwise rechargeable batteries. In the list below you will not find scales with CR2032 or similar batteries. In my opinion they are not convenient.
In summary, a kitchen scale is more than just a tool; it’s a bridge to the authentic art of Italian pizza making, ensuring precision, consistency, and respect for tradition in every slice you craft.
Kitchen Scale
A good kitchen scale to measure pizza ingredients has to be comfortable to use. Moreover has to be made of resistant materials. You want to buy it once and keep it for very long time, exactly like the ones recommended here.
The kitchen scale selected here is good to weigh higher amount of ingredients in a reliable way. As you now Italian pizza recipes like to have exact amount of ingredients .
Buy your kitchen scale now:
Purchase at Amazon.com
Purchase at Amazon.de
Purchase at Aliexpress
All-in-one kitchen scale
For Italian pizza recipes you need to weigh very low amount of ingredients (like yeast) and at the same time higher amount (like flour). So you often end up having two kitchen scales around: one for precision and one for the hard work.
This is where this all-in-one KitchenAid scale is going to help you reducing the space. With one plate you can measure with 0.01gr precision on the other up to 5KG!
Enjoy your all-in-one kitchen scale:
Precision scale
You all know that all of the Italian pizza recipes are based on grams and baker percentage. If you live somewhere where other measurement systems are in place, you need a gr kitchen scale.
Moreover to prepare pizza, you often need a high precision scale. In fact, Italian pizza is generally made with low amount of yeast (from 0.1% to 2.5% on the flour).
You can buy a versatile kitchen scale with 0.1g precision here:
Purchase at Amazon.com
Purchase at Amazon.de
Purchase at Aliexpress
Semi-professional
The last option to recommend i a semi-professional kitchen scale. This is going to be very useful in case you work with higher batches of pizza dough. In such scenario, having a more robust scale makes the difference.
The models that I am recommending here are not necessarily expensive. And in fact they are not like the one you find in professional pizzerias. Yet they are very good option.
Here are link to buy this semi-professional kitchen scales:
Purchase at Amazon.com
Purchase at Amazon.de
Purchase at Aliexpress
Pizza Dough Mixers
You know how when we make pizza dough by hand, it’s fun but also a lot of work, right? Well, I shared in the past some methods on how to reduce the efforts when hand kneading. For example in the article on how to make Neapolitan pizza in 6 hours. But when you are in rush and need a big batch of pizza dough, a stand mixer will be a life saver.
Think of a stand mixer like a friendly robot. It has strong arms that do all the stirring and mixing of our pizza dough. When we put our flour, water, yeast, and other stuff into the bowl, the stand mixer mixes them all together perfectly. It’s like having a magic wand that turns our ingredients into amazing pizza dough without getting our hands all sticky and tired.
However, you need to buy the right stand mixer. Because the truth is that you don’t want to spend a considerable amount of money for something that is not working as you expected.In my previous articles I recommended a few points to consider when buying a stand mixer for pizza. If you want to dig them I recommend to read that. Here I am going to summarize the most important aspects to consider to buy the best stand mixer for pizza. Then I am going to recommend what I would buy if I was you today.
In my opinion for a good stand mixer for pizza you should give priority to three elements:
- Bowl Capacity
- Motor Power
- Materials
For the first one, I always recommend to go for a bigger one if you have the space to store it. If you are thinking about it, you are buying a stand mixer also because it will simplify the job when you work with higher amount of ingredients. Motor power goes in strict correlation to the bowl. Even though it is also a matter of “technology” used to transfer the power to the dough hook. But normally tthe bigger the bowl, the higher is the motor power.
For materials have no doubt: stainless steel or titanium. And now go ahead checking what I think is stand mixer for pizza you should buy.
KitchenAid Commercial
The first kitchen essentials that you want to enhance your Italian pizza at home is definitely a stand mixer. The one I recommend hands down is from KitchenAid. This is the larger bowl version and it’s the one I would buy.
As I always recommended, go for the bigger bowl. You will not regret it. Especially when you are going to prepare large batches of Italian pizza dough!
Unfortunately available only in USA:
KitchenAid Classic
As an alternative to the bigger sister, you can buy the slightly smaller version of the KitchenAid stand mixer. It is absolutely a beast and the main difference is in the bowl capacity. A valid solution to prepare Italian pizza at home.
Make sure to find in the box all accessories like: flat beater, dough hook and possible spiral hook. If they are not there you can buy them separately since the beginning.
Buy a classic KitchenAid Artisan:
Kenwood Stand Mixer
To prepare my Italian pizza recipe I use this brand for the stand mixer. I have a Kenwood mixer that is running for over 10 years now and is rock solid. I prepared all kinds of pizza dough without issues and I would buy it again.
I one again selected a rolling pin keeping in mind the material is made. Not an old wood rolling pin but a more modern and easy to clean stainless one.
Buy the rolling pin for pizza:
Purchase at Amazon.com
Purchase at Amazon.de
Purchase at Aliexpress
Ingredients Dispensers
You have multiple ways to keep your ingredients ready to make pizza at your next pizza party. You can use dishes and then cover them before the service. Or you can use mixing bowls. But if you want to manage ingredients properly you may need some ingredients dispensers.
The advantage of having such kitchen tools is that it allows you to keep ingredients in order.You can keep various pizza sauce, mozzarella, cherry tomatoes and whatever you prefer to use as pizza topping in a very professional way. Although Ingredients dispensers are not something that you cannot live without, they definitely are a step up in your pizza making journey.
So, especially if you are often making pizza I think you may find them very useful. Below you can find various options, included some semi-professional equipment.
Ooni Pizza Topping Station
The Ooni pizza topping station is probably one of the best accessory that you can associate to a Neapolitan pizza oven from the same brand. Very well made, it’s a pleasure to keep your pizza sauce and mozzarella ready.
As you know I always want to keep my pizza making as clean as possible. This pizza topping station is ideal for both a pizza party or a pizza dinner with family.
You can buy the Ooni pizza topping stations here:
Pizza Topping Station
If you prefer to buy an alternative (and sometimes cheaper) solution as pizza topping station, this is another great option. Same materials, same concept but different brand. Stainless steel is again the main material for your toppings storage.
You only need to make sure that you have enough containers to prepare your favorite pizza topping. Then toss your pizza, open the container lid and move ingredients to pizza!
Get your the pizza topping station now:
Purchase at Amazon.com
Purchase at Amazon.de
Purchase at Aliexpress
Gastronorm Containers
Another option is to pick some standard food containers used in professional environment. They are Gastronorm containers, with some standard sizes used in restaurants and pizzerias. Although professional you can buy for cheap.
The good part of Gastronorm containers is that they use standard sizes and you can find structures to keep them together also following standards. I love them!
Get Gastronorm containers for pizza topping now:
Purchase at Amazon.com
Purchase at Amazon.de
Purchase at Aliexpress