Man, homemade pizza became a big rabbit hole for me that I did not see coming. I get a little geeked out with it. Depending on the style of pizza I'm in the mood for, these things are all subject to change (and do); oven, stone, flour, cheese, sauce, dough. Neapolitan pizza cooked at 950 degrees is entirely different than a NY style cooked at 550-650. And if you tried to use the dough from each interchangeably, you'd be real disappointed. In pizzamaking, recipes are only half of it, if that. Proper technique and experience are more important. Properly fermented dough is real important. Any recipe that calls for a packet of yeast, might as well ignore that one right off the bat.
What kind of pizza are you after? What oven did you get?
Sauce: Usually make my own. For Neapolitan I use GOOD crushed tomatoes like 7/11 or Sclafani right out of the can, with .5% salt by weight added. That's it...... For NY/Chicago/other I will use the same crushed tomatoes but stick blend in some salt, pepper, OP, GP, oregano, basil and a bit of EVOO. For "store bought" in a pinch, I always keep a few cans of Don Pepino on hand. Buy it by the case off Amazon dirt cheap.
Cheese: I try to keep a supply of Grande East Coast Blend repackaged into smaller quantities in the freezer. Use this for everything but Neapolitan. I can only get this through a bar/restaurant if they are willing to sell to me. It's wholesale only, unless you live in a place like NYC or some other fancy [bleep]. Otherwise, buy the best blocks of Low Moisture WHOLE Milk you can find locally, and shred them yourself. Far superior to pre-shredded cheese. Most shredded cheese has anti-caking [bleep] in it which affects the quality of the melt.....For Neapolitan I use Belgioioso fresh Mozzaralla that I push through a potato grater to "cut it up".
Grew up in Long Island NY - home of the best pizza in the world.
Live in Maine now. Have tried to make home made pizza for years (decades?) that tasted like "the real deal.". No luck.
Yes, whole milk mozzarella is important, but still, it just didn't have the "snappy zingy biting sharpness" to it.
Came across a secret ingredient that made it work.
Add some apple cider vinegar to the sauce (1 teaspoon to tablespoon to a batch of sauce- depending how much bite you like ). A bit of sugar helps too. It was a home run for taste. Also, run as high a temp as possible.in the oven to get get good air voids in the crust. Too low a temp, and the crust is too dense, with very small air voids. No good. Thoroughly heat up the pizza stone before using ( got to have one).
Pizza sauce is not, and should not taste like spaghetti sauce.
Oven temps desired? 650-800++ degrees F. I guess some wood fired ovens get to around 1000 degrees F . I have to limp along with a temp of 500 +/- degrees for our kitchen oven.