If you’re looking to improve your pizza-making skills, then you might want to take a page from popular talk show host Jimmy Kimmel. Kimmel recently made an appearance on First We Feast’s show Hot Ones and decided to share one trick he learned from professional chef Chris Bianco (owner of Pizzeria Bianco) that will take your homemade pizza to the next level.
In between munching on progressively hotter chicken wings, Kimmel revealed that the secret to a great pizza is to be “sparing with ingredients.” According to him, putting too much cheese or too much sauce on your pizza prevents the dough from cooking properly and leaves you with a less satisfying experience.
While it’s tempting to put extra of everything on pizza, Kimmel has a point here. When you overload your pizza, it needs more time to cook, and even then, it may be undercooked in the middle. Also, you risk burning your crust or having your pizza slices fall apart under the weight of toppings.
Kimmel also talked about some of his other cooking practices, including the perfect recipe for marinara sauce. You crush some garlic cloves in a pot and heat them on olive oil until golden brown. Then you remove the garlic and add Bianco DiNapoli canned tomatoes and salt. After bringing the tomatoes to a boil, you set them to simmer and throw in several basil leaves. Wait half an hour and “you got a great meal,” according to Kimmel.
You can check out the full episode of Hot Ones featuring Jimmy Kimmel below.
