5 Tips For Serving Homemade Pizza At Your Super Bowl Party

Did you know Super Bowl Sunday is traditionally the busiest day of the year for pizzerias? On this one-day alone, Domino's sells 11 million pizzas on Super Bowl Sunday. Think about the thousands of smaller chain pizzerias getting orders all game-day.

This year, Food Network has timed their Chopped season premiere "Pizza Perfect" to coincide with Game Day. World Champion Pizza Chef and new 2014 Judge on Chopped, Bruno DiFabio will lead the episode as a guest judge as cheftestants vie for the title of best pizza-centric meal. Declared the world pizza champion last year after winning the Grand Prize at Mondial de la Pizza, master pizzaiolo Bruno DiFabio has won six world championships, owns of several artisan pizzerias throughout the country and co-founded the International School of Pizza.

Homemade pizza has a taste like no other – at its best it can outdo (or at least equal) those from your local pizzeria. It's also healthier, cheaper, easier than you can imagine and the only limit when it comes to toppings is your imagination. Ideally, we would all own wood-fired ovens that are able to reach those incredibly high temperatures and cook your pizza quickly, but even with a regular conventional oven you can still make pizzas you'll be proud to show off.

Who better to offer up tips the perfect homemade pizza you can serve your guests this Sunday than Bruno DiFabio? From an award-winning 'Pulled Pork' pizza through to a thin-crust, vegetarian, gluten-free, wheat-free pizza that somehow tastes likes chicken, there's a pizza recipe for everyone on your guest list.

DiFabio's pizza of choice for his own Super Bowl party? "I like to serve the Buffalo Chicken Pizza for Super Bowl parties.  The reason obviously is because more Buffalo Wings are consumed on this day then any other day of the year, and it is also one of the busiest pizza days of the year as well," Bruno explains. So I liken this recipe to somewhat of a deconstructed Buffalo Wing technique.  It is artisanal because of the scratch sauces, and the brine that the chicken goes in really helps to build flavor.  It is also filling and delicious, fun to talk about and to make."

Bruno DiFabio's 5 tips for making the best at-home pizza:

1. Always bring dough and other ingredients up to room temperature. This helps even cooking and proper final oven spring.

2. Aged dough tastes better then fresh dough.  Use pizza dough that has little black spots on it.  This is oxidation which signals dough is at its optimal use for flavor.

3. Cook at 500 degrees (not broil) on lowest wrack.  Using the lowest wrack is best for more even baking.

4. If using a pizza stone in a pre-heated oven; wipe surface of the hot stone with a dampened kitchen towel to offset the surface temp of the stone.  This will prevent scorching.

5. After stretching dough to proper size allow the dough to rest an additional 20 minutes.  This will allow your pizza to be lighter and more airy.