How long do you bake a pizza?

A staple student meal and popular party food, pizza comes in every size and taste. It can be easily adapted into vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free or any other version that suits your needs. This versatile dish can be bought frozen or fresh as a take-away or home-made with loads of your favourite toppings. Most people enjoy pizza’s signature crisp crusts and gooey, stringy cheese. How long do you need to bake pizza to enjoy such a perfect texture?

Professionally, pizzas are baked on stone pans in temperatures exceeding 400°C. Although it is impossible to re-create such conditions at home, you can preheat your oven to the maximum temperature, place your pizza on baking steel and bake it on the lower rack so as not to burn the cheese. Usually, home-made pizzas need 8 - 15 minutes in the oven. However, the baking time depends on many factors such as the load of toppings, thickness of crust etc. Frozen pizzas usually take longer; up to 20 minutes.

By the end of baking time, you’d better keep an eye on your pizza because the line between golden and burnt is thin. If you like extra stringy cheese, you may want to sprinkle some just before taking the pizza out of the oven.

Did you know?

The history of pizza dates back to the 18th century Naples, where flatbreads with a variety of toppings were the main food of the poor inhabitants of the city. Pizza was considered a rustic dish until Queen Margherita visited Naples and ordered a mozzarella, tomato and basil pie. She soon developed a taste for this particular variety of pizza which was henceforth known as pizza Margherita.

In the 20th century, pizza was brought to the USA by Italian immigrants. The first known pizzeria in America was opened in 1905 in Manhattan.

Queen Margherita fell for mozzarella and tomatoes; and what is your favourite pizza topping?