You don’t need a pizza oven to make a delicious and easy deep pan pizza at home with these simple tips from expert pizza chef Marco Graziani. Learn how to do it in a two-hour pan pizza masterclass with Marco at Kedron. Marco is a pizza perfectionist and a traditional Italian pizza advocate but doesn’t blanch when asked about pineapple on pizza. Not traditional, he says, but it’s all about your personal taste.
Marco Graziani is a member of the Neapolitan Pizza Association
Easy deep pan pizza
Marco is a pizza perfectionist and a traditional Italian pizza advocate but doesn’t blanch when asked about pineapple on pizza. Not traditional, he says, but it’s all about your personal taste.
His goal is to create the same pizza connoisseur culture in Brisbane as he has seen develop in Italy over the past five years by creating a pizza-loving community. You’ll find him and Grazinai Homemade on Facebook, Instagram and Youtube with plenty of tips for pizza making. He is a member of the Neapolitan Pizza Association (Associazione Verace Pizza napoletana, AVPN), a non-profit organization founded in June 1984 in Naples that safeguards and promotes the culture of real pizza napoletana.
The key to a great pizza is getting the dough right, says Marco. So, he has perfected a six-hour fermentation pizza dough that is extremely easy to make and to digest. He shares his techniques and tips in the masterclass, and everyone leaves with a ball of dough they have made themselves. This can be stored in the fridge overnight, brought out at lunchtime to rise and cooked for dinner.
Marco runs the hands-on deep pan pizza masterclasses at Brisbane’s Farm House Kedron for small groups.
Get the ingredients right with this pan pizza masterclass.
Marco’s Pan Pizza Masterclass
This is not the first pizza-making class I have attended, but it is the only one that has taught me how to make an easy deep pan pizza at home using my own oven without a lot of equipment.
Having a backyard or deep filled with a pizza oven and firepit seems mandatory these days, you can even get them at Aldi! As fellow class participant Maria says, it’s all about getting a pizza oven these days but she believes its better to start by perfecting your dough technique. Maria serves up pizza to her hungry family once a week and is using Marco’s class tips to perfect her technique and encourage her teenage son to make his favourite food.
This deep pan pizza method means that I can have all the fun of eating quality pizza at home with just a small amount of preparation.
It’s also a pizza that you won’t regret eating the next day. Proper fermentation and cooking make a pizza that is easy to digest and kind to your stomach.
Marco guides you step by step through the hands-on dough making process. Yes, you get your hands a little floury, but that’s all part of the fun. At the end, you can enjoy a supper of Margherita Pizza and Focaccia that has been made on the night.
The Graziani Homemade Deep Pan Pizza Masterclass runs from 7 pm to 9 pm on Thursdays at Farm House Kedron and costs $79 per person.
Chef Marco Graziani with a young pan pizza masterclass student
Top Pan Pizza Masterclass tips from Marco
- Measure everything carefully by weight. Buy some digital scales to get it right.
- Use top-quality flour. Marco recommends 00 Flour with a low protein level between 11g to 12 g.
- Buy a temperature gun to check that your dough does not overheat during the making process.
- Use a 30 x 40 cm baking dish lined with baking paper and have a cooling rack on hand for the pizza when finished. Marco got his from Kmart.
- Cook one tray at a time using the middle shelf on a non-fan forced oven setting.
At the end of the deep pan pizza masterclass you can enjoy a supper of Margherita Pizza and Focaccia that has been made on the night.
It doesn’t end with the class
After the class finishes, relax with delicious ice cream from Miss Sophia’s Gelateria which is right next door to Farm House Kedron. They make the gelato here onsite daily using local produce and they are open until 10 pm.
Class graduates are invited to join a Facebook group where they can share their pizza-making successes and failures. Marco is happy to help everyone find pizza perfection in their kitchen.
A big thank you to Marco Graziani for hosting us for this pizza-making class.
