DIY pizza

By Alex Rush

It’s not delivery, it’s do-it-yourself!

The pizzaiolos from Roberta’s in Bushwick are teaching three pie-crafting classes this January, including one that shows students how to cook with a wood-burning oven.

Anthony Falco and Angelo Womack will run their workshop at Best Pizza on Havemeyer Street, a serious wood-fired slice joint that opened in October. They’ll instruct up to 12 pupils on dough-making, topping distribution and how to properly cook their pies in a 1,000-degree oven. Those with big backyards can even learn how to construct their own wood-burning oven, like Paulie Giannone did before he opened Paulie Gee’s in Greenpoint.

But you don’t need a fancy oven to make a great pizza. Falco and Womack are also offering a more practical workshop that demonstrates how to make a pie in a conventional electric oven. 

The goal of the class is to show that amateur bakers can still churn out great pies — as long as they hand-knead dough, use uncooked canned tomatoes for the sauce and drizzle olive oil on the crust so that it gets nicely browned in the oven.

“And the best part is that students get to eat the pizza they make,” said Harry Rosenblum of the Brooklyn Kitchen, which sponsors the class.

Wood-fired oven class at Best Pizza [33 Havemeyer St. between N. Seventh and Eighth streets in Williamsburg, (718) 389-2981], Jan. 24 at 6:30 pm. Tickets are $125; Home pizza-making class at the Brooklyn Kitchen [100 Frost St. between Manhattan Avenue and Leonard Street  in Greenpoint, (718) 389-2981], Jan. 23 at 2 pm. Tickets are $75. For info, visit www.thebrooklynkitchen.com.

Photo by Bess Adler