The best tasting pizza is cooked in a wood-burning pizza oven built out of brick. It's been that way for years, but we continue to cook our pizza in standard ovens and settle for soggy or burnt pizza.

The ideal Italian pizza, be it Neapolitan or Roman, has a crisp crust flecked with dark spots — marks left by a blazing hot oven. The dough is fluffy, moist and stretchy, and the toppings are piping ...