If you want to experience the laid-back way of life Italians romantically call la dolce vita, you could fly to Naples, rent a centuries-old Mediterranean villa, and spend your days indulging in wood-fired pizzas prepared in the very birthplace of the humble yet iconic pizza pie.
Or you could just snag an invite to one of Katie Quinn’s weekly pizza parties, held on the cozy patio of her Brooklyn apartment.
Before becoming Wirecutter’s audience development manager for social video, Katie lived in Puglia, Italy, while working as a food and travel vlogger and podcaster. She also authored Cheese, Wine, and Bread: Discovering the Magic of Fermentation in England, Italy, and France, a cookbook-slash-memoir that includes recipes and lessons from her travels across Europe.
After returning stateside, perhaps Katie’s hardest adjustment was losing the impromptu social gatherings that became a staple of her time in Italy, where neighbors would fire up their brick ovens and effortlessly turn out picture-perfect pies.
“Pizza was the ultimate excuse to gather, and I missed the camaraderie, the feeling of inclusiveness and being carefree,” Katie recently told me.
Until, that is, she discovered our top-pick pizza oven, the Ooni Koda 16 Gas Powered Pizza Oven, in the summer of 2023 and started hosting her own weekly pizza parties year-round with her New York City friends and neighbors.
Our pick
This conveniently portable outdoor pizza oven lights up with the turn of a dial, and it can bake a staggering amount of pizza on one tank of gas.
“What the Ooni offers is a consistently great bake. It just makes super-solid pizzas all around—so much better than a conventional oven,” Katie said.
She wrote in a love letter to her Ooni Koda, “I do miss the wood-fired brick ovens we used in Puglia for the smoky, earthy elements imbued into the pizza, but what this Ooni oven lacks in rustic romance it makes up for with the ease of use of the gas-powered feature—just turn a nozzle.”
Of course, a great pizza oven is essential for making delicious pizza, but it’s not the only thing you need if you want to churn out enough gorgeous pies to feed (and impress) a small crowd like Katie does.
“All the accessories that we’ve purchased over time certainly add up, and there’s definitely a good amount of planning involved: making the dough ahead of time, having ingredients ready and prepped,” Katie said. “But both of those aspects feel completely worth it for the joy and deliciousness we receive from these pizza gatherings.”
Here’s all the other gear Katie relies on when hosting her pizza parties that streamline her cooking tasks, help maintain a tidy mise en place, and produce the most delectable pizza possible.
