What makes a great pizza

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Hello, I'm new to the crowd and would like to build a pizza oven. From what I have been reading so far on this group, the round one is best for Pizza, as least, my choice so*far.*
I also have a passion for good Pizza, and has there been anyone out there that has a special technique that they think makes their pizza just a bit more special? I'm not talking about just the fantastic oven, wood fired, to cook it in, but the ingredients and how it is prepared before it hits the oven? Mmm, great Pizza, don't it make your mouth water and with a great bottle of wine or beer or your favorite beverage? I believe like the Italians, a good wine with your food makes a good food, better. Any comments?
Perry Wise

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Thin crust, very hot oven. I spray or swab olive oil on the crust
before adding the sauce. This helps it toast nicely and keeps it from
getting soggy. I cook it at 700F (hearth temp) and it's done in about
a minute. Then it moves to the front of the oven to cool down a bit
before cutting and eating.

Jim

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Perry,

You have Alf (an English brick oven builder), Wally (an Italian pizzaiolo) and Jim (the first Pompeii builder in CT) in agreement. Round is good for pizza. That's a pretty good global sampling.

Have you taken a look at the Verace Pizza Napoletana specification? -- it's a good read. If I could summarize, the idea is to use great ingredients (flour, olive oil, tomatoes, mozzarella, etc.), do it all by hand and use a brick oven. Italian food, as Wally has been saying, is all about great ingredients. Think about eating everything that goes into your pizza (other than the flour) before you cook it -- that's a good way of focusing on ingredients.

The VPN pages are at:

http://www.fornobravo.com/Vera_Pizza...apoletana.html

There are also a bunch of pizza pages, starting at:

http://www.fornobravo.com/Brick_Oven...pes/pizza.html

It's a start!

James

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at first i had the tendency to undercook my pizza leading to a less*crispy crust than i wanted.*(also the wife and kids tend to overload the toppings which makes it difficult to reach crispy nirvana). i find i have to leave it in until some black spots begin to appear on the crust. there's a picture here of a pizza from pepe's (new haven) <http://www.cpsusa.com/ebay/pizza.jpg>http://www.cpsusa.com/ebay/pizza.jpg*which nicely illustrates this. notice how, on the right side, there are some areas that have started to go black. i can reaffirm jim's comment, the hotter the oven, the better the pizza.
Robert