Ken Forkish opens the recipe chapter of The Elements of Pizza with a list of good things to do to a pizza “immediately after it comes out of the oven.” Most of this page follows that list.
Olive oil
Forkish’s reasoning is simple: saving the drizzle of olive oil until the pizza has finished baking “preserves the aromatics” of a good extra-virgin oil. He drizzles an aromatic oil over a margherita or marinara right out of the oven. On his skillet pizza it’s “a generous dousing.”
Oil also goes on before the bake in places. In Naples, Forkish notes, olive oil isn’t stirred into the sauce; it’s drizzled over the pizza after the sauce and cheese, before baking. The EU specification for Pizza Napoletana uses 4 to 5 g of oil (about a teaspoon) on each pizza. So there are two jobs: oil before the bake for richness, oil after for aroma. The chemistry of what heat does to olive oil is in when to add olive oil to pizza.
Which oil. Use one you’d enjoy on bread, because you’ll taste it directly. UC Davis advises looking for a harvest date rather than a best-by date, and warns that olive oil left in the light or near heat loses freshness more quickly. Its buying guide favors dark glass or metal tins, which protect the oil from light. Keep the bottle somewhere cool and dark, not beside the stove. Good packaging protects an oil; it doesn’t prove the oil is good.
How much. About a teaspoon (4 to 5 g) over a 12-inch pizza, in a thin stream. You can pass the bottle at the table.
Flaky salt
A pinch of flaky salt adds crunch and a burst of salt on some bites, but it’s a garnish, not a requirement. Forkish says he’s very fond of the big flakes from Jacobsen Salt Co., and Modernist Pizza explains why a little goes a long way: gram for gram, a flat flake exposes more surface to your tongue than a cube of table salt, so it tastes saltier. Maldon’s crystals form as miniature pyramids.
Taste a slice before you reach for it. A pizza with cured meat, pecorino or a salty sauce rarely needs more. Flaky salt helps most on plain or lightly salted pies: a marinara, a white pizza, or fresh mozzarella with nothing salty on top.
Use a light pinch held a few inches above the pizza so the flakes scatter, and add it last.
Hard cheese
Forkish notes that many pizzas like a dose of grated hard cheese right out of the oven: Parmigiano-Reggiano, Grana Padano, Pecorino Romano or caciocavallo. His Pomodoro Royale is baked with only tomato sauce and basil, then dressed with olive oil and 20 to 30 g of grated cheese once it’s out.
Cured meats, greens and other finishes
| Finish | How to add it | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Prosciutto, coppa, speck, bresaola | Slice very thin and drape over the pizza right out of the oven, so it “just melts into the pie” | Forkish |
| Anchovies | After baking, not before | Forkish |
| Arugula | Toss lightly in olive oil and sea salt, then pile on | Forkish (a universal topping at Ken’s Artisan Pizza) |
| Citrus zest | Lemon, orange or tangerine zest on a white pie | Forkish |
| Ricotta | Dollops or piped cold ricotta after baking | Modernist Pizza, on Paulie Gee’s |
| Hot honey | A thin drizzle after baking | Hot honey pizza |
| Chile flakes | At the table, so everyone chooses their own heat | Forkish |
Basil: before, during or after
There’s no single rule. The EU specification for Pizza Napoletana puts fresh basil leaves on before the bake, which works in a 60 to 90 second wood-fired bake. A home-oven bake takes several minutes, long enough to wilt and darken the leaves.
Forkish uses all three approaches in The Elements of Pizza. His Pomodoro Royale bakes basil on from the start. His margherita gets its basil with the mozzarella for the last 1 to 2 minutes. On other pizzas he snips basil over the finished pizza with scissors. For a bright green leaf from a home oven, add it in the last minute or after the bake. Dried oregano is different: Neapolitan practice sprinkles it over the sauce before baking. More on herbs is in herbs on pizza.
The order
- Move the pizza to a board as soon as it’s out of the oven.
- Slice it. Slicing before adding finishing ingredients is one of Tony Gemignani’s Ten Commandments in The Pizza Bible; he told Arthur Bovino it makes a better-looking, less messy pizza. With a heavy finish such as arugula and prosciutto, it can be easier to top each slice after cutting.
- Oil, in a thin stream.
- Hard cheese.
- Meats, greens, ricotta, zest or honey.
- Taste, then salt only if it needs it.
The whole sequence takes well under a minute, and the pizza is still hot enough to soften the cheese and melt the meat.
Roman pizza: where finishing is the style
Rome takes post-bake toppings further than anywhere. Modernist Pizza describes how Gabriele Bonci of Pizzarium bakes al taglio bases ahead with only oil or a thin smear of tomato, cools them, and adds the toppings afterward. Fresh toppings like arugula are lifted off before a slice is reheated and put back once it’s warm. Antico Forno Roscioli’s pizza bianca is dressed with olive oil and salt after baking.
Forkish describes Roman al taglio as coated with brushstrokes of olive oil after baking, and finishes his own pizza rossa the same way: a thin brushing of oil the moment it comes out. The full style is in Roman pizza al taglio.
Less is more
The point of finishing is a few precise additions: a teaspoon of oil, a little cheese, a few slices of meat or a handful of greens. Pile on everything at once and the pizza turns into a salad on bread.
Sources
- Ken Forkish, The Elements of Pizza (2016): chapter 7, the introduction to the pizza recipes (finishing after the oven), Pizza Marinara, Pizza Margherita, Pomodoro Royale, Vodka Sauce and Sausage Pizza, Pizza Bianca and Pizza Rossa, and The Pie Hole Skillet Pizza; chapter 4, “Tomato Sauce” (oil and oregano in Naples); chapter 2, Roman al taglio.
- Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya, Modernist Pizza (2021), volume 1: pages 110–111 (Bonci and Pizzarium), page 172 (Antico Forno Roscioli), pages 224 and 244 (ricotta after baking at Paulie Gee’s), page 313 (salt crystal shape and perceived saltiness).
- European Commission, Regulation (EU) No 97/2010, Annex II: the Pizza Napoletana specification, including basil and 4 to 5 g of olive oil added before baking and a 60 to 90 second bake.
- Tony Gemignani, The Pizza Bible (2014): the Ten Commandments of pizza, on slicing before finishing, as explained by Gemignani in Arthur Bovino’s “The 10 Commandments of Pizza,” The Pizza Cowboy. Checked October 14, 2026.
- UC Davis: “How to Choose the Best Olive Oil” (2016) and “6 Tips for Buying Fresh, Pure Olive and Avocado Oil” (2026): harvest dates, light and heat, and light-protective packaging. Checked October 14, 2026.