For the team here at Lazy Susan HQ, the best pizzas are cooked in a steel gas-powered Cozze Pizza Oven set up on your garden table. OK, we’re a little biased, but trust us, once you cook your own, you’ll never order takeaway again!
The main reason is the combination of steel construction and gas power gives you the best heat.
A modern steel gas outdoor pizza oven can reach a much higher temperature in a much faster time than a conventional oven or traditional brick pizza oven. And that higher heat cooks the pizza much quicker giving you a number of advantages in terms of both that classic texture and taste.
The Cozze will give you that perfectly crisp crust but with a soft fluffy interior. A conventional oven on the other hand, whilst only taking say 5 minutes of additional cooking time will often dry out the crust and make it tough and chewy. It doesn't sound like a lot of time but it is all it takes to go from "bellissimo" to "pessima".
The Cordierite Pizza Stone we supply with the Cozze also ensures that heat is evenly distributed across the base giving you better flavour in terms of that all-important caramelisation and a faster rise (or what the pros call “oven spring”) to give you the necessary perfect crust.
Why buy a Cozze Pizza Oven?
Our Cozze Pizza Ovens are the perfect tool for creating authentic, delicious, crispy pizza in the comfort of your own garden. They fit perfectly on our garden tables, pre-heat in only 20 minutes and will bake the perfect pie in only 2 minutes!
Featuring easy temperature control, a wide opening and cordierite baking stone, they’re super easy to operate and our 13” model will provide ample space for large pizzas up to 34 cm, while the larger 17” model we are launching soon (see the video below) will mean you can go up to 34cm XL.
Both sizes come supplied with a solid LFGB-approved* cordierite pizza stone, can be connected to either camping gas cartridges or ordinary gas bottles and feature an electrical ignition that works off a AA battery.
The innovative design of the Cozze ensures even heat distribution to ensure that cooking is fun and easy and will give you a professionally cooked and great-tasting pizza.
*LFGB Silicone is a premium grade of silicone that has passed LFGB testing standards.
Why is a gas pizza oven best?
For us, it has to be gas. Of course, if you live in a city centre flat with a small balcony, then there could be regs (always check), so an electric oven might be the better option.
However, the benefit of a gas oven is the extra heat and natural flame you get. That’s what helps to achieve perfect caramelisation and crust every time.
But gas or electric, the Cozze is easy to use and you’ll get pro performance every time. At Lazy Susan our preference is for gas as we find the natural flame gives a better taste and sizzle.
How to cook the perfect pizza
Whilst the oven is critical, achieving the perfect pizza needs the right combination of heat, which we’ve got covered, good dough, and fresh ingredients.
Good pizza starts with a perfect pizza dough
First up though, the dough. Good pizza (no matter how you cook it) is only as good as the dough you make. Don’t buy pre-made bases. Make your own it is super easy. Our go-to recipe is a classic Neapolitan-style dough that is true to Italian tradition.
Made from very simple ingredients; Water, salt, yeast, olive oil and the all-important flour. Our preference is Caputo’s “00" Pizza Flour as it gives you a nice soft, light crust and it tastes wonderful. However, most supermarkets will stock a range of good “00” flours.
The ingredients you need for this recipe:
- 1kg of Caputo’s “00" Pizza Flour
- 1 teaspoon of fine sea salt
- 2 x 7g sachets of dried yeast
- 1 x tablespoon of golden caster sugar
- 4 x tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
To make the dough:
- Sieve your flour and salt onto a clean work surface and make a well in the middle. The “00" flour is extra fine but the sieve will get any lumps out.
- Mix the yeast, caster sugar and a good quality olive oil into 650ml of lukewarm water and leave it to stand for a few minutes.
- Pour the liquid into the centre of your flour well.
- With a fork, gradually bring the flour in from the sides and swirl it into the liquid.
- Keep mixing carefully until all the flour comes together and start working it with your clean, flour-dusted hands.
- Keep kneading until you have a smooth, soft, springy dough.
- Place the dough in a large flour-dusted bowl and sprinkle a little more flour the top of it.
- Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel and place it in a warm room for one hour and the dough has doubled in size.
- Remove the dough and pop it on a flour-dusted surface and knock it back by kneading it to push the air out. this is called knocking back the dough.
- Divide the dough into eight and this will give you a medium-sized pizza. Drop it to six if you want to go large.
Pro Pizza Tip
As you fire up your pizza oven, roll the pizzas out. The 20 minutes it takes to heat up is just the right amount of time to get them ready and topping on. You don’t want your dough sitting around too long and drying out. You can also sprinkle a light dusting of semolina flour on the edge of the pizza for a super tasty crust.
How to cook the perfect pizza in your pizza oven
For best results, you need to get the oven nice and hot. Our advice is to wait the full 20 minutes and let it get up to around 400°C before you pop your first pizza in and this is what will give you that perfect crispy but soft and airy base in rapid time.
The key to a good Neapolitan-style pizza is the crunch and our Cozze Pizza Oven with its cordierite baking stone and a good dough sprinkled with a little semolina flour will deliver perfect results in only 2 minutes of cooking.
The hot oven and our recipe will give you what the Italians call “corniccione”, which is basically that perfect rim or crust that is airy, raised, crunchy, slightly charred on the outside but lovely and soft and fluffy on the inside!
Before you light your oven, make sure that the pizza oven and the pizza stone are correctly and safely positioned on a level surface.
Connect the gas bottle to the pizza oven and start the oven at the highest temperature. Your Cozze pizza oven has three burners in total, two on the sides and one at the back of the oven. Check that all three are lit.
The pizza stone will always take longer to heat up than the oven itself and will only be hot enough to cook on after a minimum of 20 minutes. The Cozze features an infrared thermometer, so you can easily see when the stone is up to the desired 400°C.
Please also be aware that heating time can be affected by the wind and outside temperature too.
When your pizza oven is ready to start cooking, follow these steps:
- Gently slide the pizzas into the oven and onto the pizza stone using a pizza paddle.
- Turn the heat down to medium so that the top of your pizza does not burn and after about 30 seconds, take the pizza out, rotate it by a quarter and gently push it back in again.
- Repeat until your pizza is crisp and the cheese has melted.
- Gently remove the pizza from the oven and place it on a cutting board.
- Leave your steaming hot pizza to cool slightly before cutting it and sharing it with your loved ones.
- Turn the pizza oven back up to the highest temperature and leave it a few minutes before baking your next pizza.
Enjoy your Cozze pizza oven from Lazy Susan and Bon appétit!
If you’re interested in buying our 13” Cozze Pizza Oven or the soon-to-be-launched 17” Cozze Pizza Oven, please sign up for our Newsletter to be the first to hear about when our summer 2023 stock is in and any competitions, promos, sales and discounts. You can sign up in the orange box at the bottom of our Promotions page!
If you have any photos of your next pizza cookout on your Cozze Pizza Oven, then we’d love to see a few snaps for our Do Some Good charity campaign. You can tag us @LazySusanFurniture on Instagram or Facebook or email them to us at [email protected].