Written by Dan Hall, aka mozza_fella
When Ooni first told me about Ooni Volt 2's ‘Pizza Intelligence’, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but what I found is that it’s made my cooking more consistent, enjoyable and surprisingly it’s pretty effortless. Pizza Intelligence™ takes away the guesswork from managing temperatures and timing and lets you focus on the fun bit - making and eating delicious pizza!
What exactly is Pizza Intelligence™?
Pizza Intelligence™ is a technology used in Ooni Volt 2. In a nutshell, it's a set of smart cooking modes designed to control how the pizza oven heats up and holds temperature. Each preset has been tuned for a specific pizza style, so all you need to do is press the button, wait for the beep, and bake. Pizza Intelligence™ will manage the heat up, the temperature during the bake, and will help keep the temperatures stable so you can cook multiple pizzas consistently.
Neapolitan Mode
Temp range 430c - 450c
Neapolitan pizza is about fast bakes at high temperature, cooking in 60-90 seconds. When I tested Neapolitan mode, the oven heated up rapidly and was ready to cook in about twenty minutes. The bake itself was at the perfect level of heat, I didn’t have to adjust anything, I got a beautiful puffy crust, some nice char, and the bottom was perfectly cooked.
The best thing was that I was able to make pizza after pizza without adjusting the temperature between bakes - Pizza Intelligence™ looked after it all.
Pan Pizza Mode
Temp range 245c - 260c
This mode uses a more gentle heat, which suits thicker doughs that need a longer bake, such as Detroit, Sicilian, Focaccia style etc. I was able to use this this mode to both blind bake and second bake some Detroit style pizzas. The dough rose perfectly and the cheese formed a delicious Frico around the pan
Thin and Crispy Mode
Temp range 285c - 315c
This mode was one of my favourites to play with. It keeps the oven in a mid - high heat range that’s ideal for various thin crust styles from pizza romana, to New York style. I managed to get some delicious bakes with zero flop.
The heat distribution was very even so I only gave the pizza a single rotation which allowed me to check how the base was cooking. The top heat is slightly more gentle than the Neapolitan mode to prevent the toppings from overcooking while the base crisps up.
Dough Proofing Mode
This setting is not for baking pizza but it’s really handy to help speed up your fermentation and rise, which is incredibly useful this time of year when everything is a little colder. Gluten also firms up more in cold weather so the gentle heat can make it easier to shape your dough.
Custom Presets
I love the predefined modes but what's also really handy is the ability to set custom presets. For example - if I want to play around with my dough and make something like a 100% Biga with 75% hydration, I may want to cook it at a little lower for a little longer. I can save this setting and make it repeatable at the press of a button. It lets you really customise the cooking experience to your needs and it’s such a game changer.
Final Thoughts
Pizza Intelligence™ makes cooking feel easy. The predefined ranges make it easy for both beginners and seasoned pizza chefs to cook great pizza, and the custom presets allow for a greater degree of tinkering that will satisfy the more advanced user. All in all it lets you have more time to focus on the dough, stretching it, topping it and eating a delicious pizza with a really hassle free baking experience.
