Short answer: build it on a thin, floured peel rather than on the worktop, then slide it off in one go. I’d use an aluminium peel like the Chef Pomodoro Aluminum Pizza Peel rather than a wooden one. It’s the step that turns homemade pizza from a torn, cheese-everywhere mess into something that actually lands on the stone in one piece.

See the Chef Pomodoro Aluminum Pizza Peel on Amazon

The method

Dust the peel with flour or, better, semolina, which acts like tiny ball bearings. Stretch the dough and lay it on the peel, then give it a shake before you add anything. If it slides about freely, good. If one edge clings, lift it and throw a pinch more flour underneath.

Now top it, and do it quickly. A wet pizza sitting on a peel for five minutes will glue itself down whatever the peel is made of. Go easy on sauce near the edges too, since that’s where it soaks through first.

At the oven, put the tip of the peel at the back of the stone, tilt it slightly and pull it back towards you in one smooth motion. Don’t try to tip the pizza off like a tray. It feels odd the first time, and by the third pizza you won’t think about it.

Why that particular peel

Wood is nice to build on, but a wooden peel is thick, which makes it clumsy for turning or retrieving a pizza that’s already cooking. Aluminium is thin. This one has what the listing calls an ultra-thin edge, so it slides under a hot crust instead of shoving it across the stone. The maker also says aluminium releases pizza more easily than wood once it’s floured, and it won’t warp or crack after washing. It’s rust resistant as well.

The blade is 12 by 14 inches, plenty for a home-oven pizza, and the whole peel is 24 inches long so your hand stays away from the heat. The pine handle stays cool and, the part I like most, folds flat. Full-length peels are a pain to store. This one goes in a drawer or on a hook.

It works with a stone or steel in a normal oven, and the listing names outdoor ovens like Ooni and grills like the Big Green Egg as well. It’s handy for sliding loaves and focaccia in and out too.

If you bake pizza on a tray from cold, skip it. If you’ve got a stone and keep fighting it, this is what you’re missing.