[Videography & Editing: Jessica Leibowitz; Music: DanoSongs.com; Sound PA: Sarah Buchanan; Post Production PA: Niki Achitoff-Gray]

Any New Yorker who eats bread has most likely tried some of the magical edible stuff that Jim Lahey produces at Sullivan Street Bakery or at Co., his newer (awesome) pizza venture (to which we've given plenty of thought).

Over the last few weeks, through meticulous scientific investigation, I think I've finally discovered the true secret to getting bread as good as Lahey's on a completely, 100% consistent basis. Step one: get Jim Lahey to make it.

Ok, ok. So I admit, it's not a particularly practical method, and my sample pool here was one. That said, when Mark Bittman and Jim Lahey dropped the No Knead Bread recipe on the world back in 2006, with a single short youtube video, they did more to improve home baking than perhaps any other single event in history. I know that I've personally never looked back. (See my own explanation of the science here).

Lahey's first book, My Bread, was all about the no knead method. The way you do it? Just mix flour, salt, and yeast, add water, stir it all together, then let it sit in a covered bowl for 8 or 9 hours. Over the course of this long fermentation, enzymes break down large flour proteins into smaller segments that can then quite easily be cross-linked into stretchy sheets of gluten. You wind up with a dough that stretches as if it had been perfectly kneaded, without any of the oxidation that occurs with actual kneading.

The result? Perfectly textured bread with next to no work.

Today Lahey releases his new book My Pizza ($27.95), which promises to do for pizza what My Bread did for bread. It's largely based on his no-knead dough, with dozens of recipes for topping combinations that are tomato-based, white sauce based, and completely sauceless. You'll find most of the pies from Co. within its pages.

If there's one thing any home pizza maker can tell you, it's that its nearly impossible to get the same bubbly, crisp, charring that you get from a real-deal wood fired Neapolitan pizza oven. Check out the video above as Jim Lahey shows us that not only is it possible, it's actually pretty damn easy to do. Then follow his no knead pizza dough recipe and start whipping incredible pies out of your own oven.

Get The Recipe!

Jim Lahey's No Knead Pizza Dough »

Jim Lahey's No Knead Broccoli Rabe, Garlic, Ginger, and Thai Chili Pizza »

More Pizza Videos:

Ask Nancy Silverton, Part I »

Ask Paulie, Week 1 »

Ask Paulie, Week 2 »

Ask Paulie, Week 3 »

Ask Paulie, Week 4 »

Recipes!

• Jim Lahey's No Knead Pizza with Broccoli Rabe, Garlic, Ginger, and Thai Chilis
• Jim Lahey's No Knead Pizza Dough

[Photographs and video: Jessica Leibowitz]

Last time we met with Pizza a Casa owner Mark Bello, he showed us his DJ skillz for stretching out dough. Here, he shares a quick trick for unsticking pizza that won't budge from the peel. Semolina to the rescue! As Adam mentioned a few months back, a spice shaker will help with quick, even distribution.

When using a peel to place your pizza in the oven, you want to make sure it shimmies freely on the surface so it'll slide off. The best way to make sure it won't stick is to give the peel a shake periodically as you build your pie—and to work quickly. But if at some point it won't budge, just gently lift the dough and apply some semolina (or other bench flour) to the peel at the problem spot.

Pizza a Casa

371 Grand Street, New York NY 10002 (near Essex; map)
212-228-5483; pizzaschool.com

[Videography and editing: Jessica Leibowitz]

The Motorinos

319 Graham Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11211 (at Devoe; map); 718-599-8899; motorinopizza.com

349 East 12th Street, New York NY 10003 (near First Ave.; map); 212-777-2644

That we at Slice love pizza is a given. So you know we love the various heart-shaped pizzas that appear this time of year. Our favorite cardioid pie is the one at NYC's Motorino, where it's become a Valentine's Day tradition. We asked chef-owner Mathieu Palombino to show us how it's done.

Turns out it's quite simple — a push here, a pull there. Into the oven, and that's amore! If you end up making one at home and are using a baking stone, be sure to transfer it to the stone lobe-end first, with the pointy end toward you.

If you're going to be in NYC with your sweetheart on Valentine's Day (it's on a Monday this year) and want to eat heart-shaped pizza at Motorino, both locations are taking reservations. Girl Slice and I went last year. It's fun; Motorino essentially makes whatever pizza you want into a heart.

See also: Papa John's Heart-Shaped Valentine's Day Pizzas »

New York City's Pizza a Casa bills itself as a "pizza self-sufficiency center." Part pizzamaking-supply store and part pizzamaking school, the little shop is owned by Mark Bello, who shows us his dough-stretching technique in the video above. Bello calls it "The DJ," and we think you'll see why — his quick and sure hand motions look like a turntablist scratching a record. ... Last night a DJ saved my slice?

Enjoy the video, which was shot and edited by Serious Eats videographer extraordinaire Jessica Leibowitz, who has some behind-the-scenes on her blog.

More? You Want More?

More Pieman's Craft
">Stretching Pizza Dough with Motorino's Mathieu Palombino »
Making the Rooftop Red with Paulie Gee »
Pulino's Breakfast Pizza with Nate Appleman »
Paulie Gee's 'Egyptian Move' Pizza-Dough-Stretching Technique »
Making Neapolitan Pizza Dough with Kesté's Roberto Caporuscio »

More Pizza a Casa
Slice Takes at Class a Pizza a Casa Pizza School »
Meet & Eat: Mark Bello »
Top This: Mark Bello's Pizza (a Casa) Sausage »

Pizza a Casa

371 Grand Street, New York NY 10002 (near Essex; map)
212-228-5483; pizzaschool.com

In this episode of The Pieman's Craft, we visit Roberto Caporuscio of Kesté Pizzeria & Vino in New York City as he makes a batch of dough for the restaurant's celebrated Neapolitan pizza. Caporuscio takes us from flour-water-salt to dough* to finished pizza.

In the video, you'll see three trays of dough. The orbs of dough you'll see in the right-hand tray are newly balled, at the 24-hour mark; those in the middle tray have risen for 4 hours after balling (28 hours after mixing); and those in the left-hand tray are approaching the 40-hour mark and, says Caporuscio, need to be used soon or they'll be unworkable.

Enjoy the video, which was shot and edited by Serious Eats video intern extraordinaire Jessica Leibowitz.

* An overnight room-temperature rise, for those of you who ask.

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Paulie simply opens up the dough a bit and lets it hang off the side of the make table, outsourcing some of the stretching to good ol' gravity. Peep the vid above for the skinny.

For this installment of the Pieman's Craft, we talked to Nate Appleman of Pulino's Bar & Pizzeria in New York City to see how he makes the Salsiccia, one of the signature breakfast pizzas there. An indulgent pie perfect for sharing in the morning or at brunch, it's topped with mozzarella and grana padano cheeses, bacon, sausage uncannily reminiscent of the Jimmy Dean variety, and a couple of eggs.

See also: Pulino's, the Nation's First Breakfast Pizzeria »

When we debuted our Pieman's Craft series recently, there was some chatter in the comments about roping Paulie Gee into this. We visited the Brooklyn pizzaiolo with camera in tow to see him do his thing.

Here he builds and bakes his Rooftop Red pizza. It's a pie with tomato sauce, marinated baby kale (from Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, hence the name), extra virgin olive oil, shaved Parmigianno-Reggiano cheese, and a post-bake application of house-made aleppo chile oil.

The takeaway? The marinated baby kale. It is a magnificent topping and is easy to use. Simply wash and then marinate some kale in olive oil and sea salt for at least three hours prior to topping. The result is a crisp and chewy bed of dark green roughage that echoes the crust's own texture and smokiness.

Paulie Gee's

60 Greenpoint Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11222 (Greenpoint, near West Street; map)
347-987-3747; pauliegee.com

If you haven't seen it yet, you might be interested in The Pieman's Craft: Stretching Dough with Mathieu Palombino

We're starting a new series here on Slice called The Pieman's Craft. In it, we'll talk to various slice slingers and see if we can glean techniques and secrets from them. Today we start off with a basic dough-stretching technique used by Motorino's Mathieu Palombino. —The Mgmt.

[Photograph: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]

The pizzas at both the Brooklyn and Manhattan locations of Motorino are known for their puffy outer edge (what the Italians call the cornicione). We wondered how Motorino owner and head pieman Mathieu Palombino achieved this effect. So we visited with videocam in hand and captured it here, after the jump.

Here in this video, Mr. Palombino shows us how to stretch the dough in a series of about four distinct movements — the two steps of "opening" the dough, a sort of stretch-flip-and-rotate movement, and then the final gravity-assisted stretch.

The secret in all these steps is to flatten and then stretch the dough without really pressing down on the outer lip. Notice through all the manipulation here that Mr. Palombino is careful not to work the edges too hard.

In the second half of the video, Motorino Brooklyn's fastest stretcher, Sergio Pardo, shows just how quickly these motions can come together in dispatching a round. Enjoy!

If you have a topic you'd like covered in upcoming Pieman's Craft installments, email us: pizza@seriouseats.com