re: Learn me about homemade pizza

A homemade dough is not a must, but you've got to have access to good store made dough.

Whole foods sells their dough and is my favorite by far. Trader Joe's dough is edible and is my fall back. I've heard Aldi's dough is great, but I'll never know because I hate Aldi. I've had Publix dough and several others, and I'm not a fan.

You can make your own sauce but it's also not a must. Classico in the jar isn't great, try out different brands. Trader Joe's sauce is just meh, IMO. I'd offer up brands I like but honestly I don't know what they are I just know what the can looks like, and if you don't shop at a publix I doubt we'll have the same brands at our disposal anyway. If you are going to make your own, I'd start with a can of Contadina crushed tomatoes and doctor that up to start. That's the highest quality, mass available tomato to start from.

Couple of other tips:
1. Use whole milk mozz. Most of the pre-shredded stuff is part skim. That's not what you want, and you should be shredding your cheese yourself anyway. Get a brick of whole milk mozz (not the fresh mozz, unless you are making neoplitan style of course)

2. If you want to invest in something to help you cook your pizza better, but don't want to invest in a whole pizza oven, start with a baking steel.

LINK

This will cook the crust hot and fast which is what you need in your home oven. I cook the pizza at about 500 degrees for about 5 min, then turn on the broiler to get the top nice and crisp. Works great. I have too many cooking gadgets to justify a dedicated pizza oven, but if you can swing one of those obviously that will improve your pies even more.