In a perfect world, I would have one of those brick oven jobs in my back yard. A giant, wood-burning behemoth that puts out about twelve hundred degrees of blistering, pizza making juju. I love planning out pizza in advance if I can. For me that means putting together the dough about thirty hours in advance, holding it in the fridge overnight so it develops that nutty, complex taste, and making the sauce in advance.

I can take the sauce any number of ways. In season, I like going to the farmers market and picking up some tomatoes. If they are ripe, no sugar needed, just a little olive oil, garlic, basil and salt. Out of season, canned Tuttorosso is great also.

I like salami and love peperoni, but anything other than pineapple and chicken are pretty cool with me. Fresh mozzarella is way better than the packaged stuff, and either is better than that canned “parmesan.”

There’s a great forum for pizza fanatics at pizzamaking.com, and a cool page at Serious Eats called Slice. In a pinch, though, some canned sauce on a Boboli or even a frozen Totino’s is comfort food. I’ll even take pizza rolls!

Mostly though, like Mel Brooks says, “Pizza is like sex. Even when it’s bad, it is still pretty good.”