While the dough is rising, heat your oven: build a fire in the center of the oven floor using several sticks and let it burn; when the oven ceiling reaches a temperature of about 900 F (450 C) the soot will vaporize and a white patch will appear, which will expand, migrating down towards the floor as the oven continues to heat. When all the soot is burned off the oven is hot.

How long does this take? It depends upon the materials used to build the oven and its shape. Rectangular barrel-vault-roofed bread ovens and brick pizza ovens can require as much as 3 hours. A pizza oven built with modern refractory materials will require about 90 minutes to come to temperature

Once the oven is hot, use a long metal-handled scraper to push the coals to one side of the oven, and brush the ash from the floor with a metal-bristled brush, again attached to a long handle. Some people also swab the floor of the oven with a damp rag, but this removes heat.

To maintain the oven temperature, add a stick (well seasoned hardwood, 3 inches in diameter and 18 long (10 by 45 cm)) to the fire every ten minutes or so. Some pizzaioli also put a small andiron where they keep the coals, to keep one end of the stick raised so it will burn better.

In terms of measuring the temperature, you can buy an infrared thermometer, though the hand is sufficient: put it into the oven, a few inches above the oven floor, and if you can hold it there for more than 2 seconds (one-onethousand, two-onethousand), add another stick to the fire.

And now, cook your pizza!