Your Pizza Oven Can Cook More Foods Than You Think

One reason why restaurant pizza often tastes better than homemade is because it's baked in a pizza oven rather than a regular kitchen oven. The best way to achieve that same delicious flavor and texture is to build your own. However, is the expense of building a pizza oven worth it? Yes, because you'll be able to use it like your kitchen oven. It's a type of oven, after all.

Just like you can use your regular oven to roast meats, fish, and vegetables, you can do the same in a pizza oven. Doing so has the bonus of imparting a smoky flavor similar to what you taste in grilled foods. If you use a wood-fired pizza oven, you can play around with various woods to infuse different flavors. Even portable versions like the Gozney Roccbox Outdoor Pizza Oven or the Ooni Koda 16 Gas Pizza Oven can work like kitchen ovens as long as there's enough space inside to cook what you want. For instance, the oven opening will be too narrow to roast a rack of lamb, but you should be able to fit a low-profile pan and cook a spatchcocked chicken in record time.

What's more impressive, perhaps, is that you can use a pizza oven to bake breads and desserts, too. Ciabatta, brioche, sourdough, garlic bread, and banana bread are just a few examples. When it comes to desserts, you want to choose ones that will benefit from the smoky flavor, such as cheesecakes, fruit crisps, and brownies.

When you want to use your pizza oven instead of the kitchen oven, there are a few differences in the process. The most obvious of these is the effort involved in preheating, particularly when using a wood-fired pizza oven. While a gas pizza oven only requires setting the temperature like a regular oven, a wood-fired pizza oven entails starting the fire properly, using the right amount of wood to raise the temperature, and adding bits of wood during cooking to maintain that temperature.

Another aspect to keep in mind is that pizza ovens are designed to reach high temperatures. In fact, pizza is typically baked at around 700 degrees Fahrenheit. When you're cooking other foods, you should give the temperature time to drop to the ideal temperature. If you're making a full meal, you could get the most out of the entire process by cooking some foods, such as vegetables, while the oven is preheating. Then, after the main course comes out, you can roast some dessert fruits with the residual heat as the oven cools. How close the foods are to the flames and coals will have an effect, too, but don't be afraid to experiment.

Additionally, make sure that any cooking accessories and tools you use are oven-safe and can withstand high temperatures, especially if you decide to try roasting food during the preheating process. Consider using a Dutch oven, wire racks, and aluminum foil hacks to cook in your pizza oven.