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The Blackstone Leggero pizza oven is one of the easiest pizza ovens to use, and it turns out some of the most evenly cooked pizzas. We were sent a unit to test, and found the smallest of the three pizza ovens in Blackstone’s line-up is perfect for beginners and pros will enjoy its ease.
Features and Specs
- Retail price of $399.99 (check price) – Blackstone often runs sales
- Electric, rotating, 13″ pizza stone, so no turning by hand is a thing of the past
- Built-in thermometer to tell you when it’s heated-up
- Can run off a 1 lb propane tank, or a 20 lb tank with a separate adapter
- Max temperature of 800 degrees F
Using the Blackstone Leggero
The Blackstone Leggero require almost no skills with a pizza peel to make perfect pizzas. You begin by start the pizza oven burner by turning the gas on and using the electronic ignitor. Turn the heat all the way up and wait for it to reach its maximum temperature.
While you’re waiting, make your pizza the way that you like it. Personally, I just make my pizza on the peel, which takes away any trouble from moving it there. You just have to move kind of quickly, otherwise the dough will start to stick to the peel. Make sure to put a dusting of pizza dough flour on your peel before the dough, so that you can easily launch the pizza into the oven.
Tip: Right before your going to put the pizza into the oven, give it a little shake on the peel to make sure it can easily move without sticking. If it can’t and you go to load it in the oven, it will crumple-up and you have a weird shaped pizza, frustration, and possibly a mess on your hands. If the pizza is sticking to the peel, I’ve found the best way to remedy the problem is to pick up a section at a time of the pizza, through some flour underneath, and repeat until the pizza can move on the peel.
Now you’re standing in front of the hot oven, with the pizza moving freely on the peel. Before I load a pizza into the oven, I usually turn the temperature of the oven to low. This makes it so the ingredients don’t burn before your crust is nicely cooked.
Put the pizza into the oven by launching it into the oven with a quick move of your arm. If it ends up off-center of the pizza stone, just move it a little with the peel. If your dough is extra sticky, you might have to wait a few seconds for the pizza to start to firm up, so you can easily move it.
Once the pizza is centered on the stone, press the button so it rotates, and close the oven door. At this point, just watch and wait. Once the crust starts to get a nice leopard pattern and the toppings are cooked, it’s time for it to come out of the oven. Turn off the rotating stone, open the door, then fetch your pizza with the peel. If you plan on cooking another pizza, turn the oven back to high to heat the stone back up to a good temperature.
Tip: The temperature knob on the oven is backwards from other ovens and grills. On many outdoor cooking products, when you turn on the gas it’s on high, and then you rotate it more to low. On the Leggero, it starts on low and rotates to high.
Pros
Even Cooking
The Blackstone Leggero makes some of the most evenly cooked pizzas of any oven we’ve tested. The burner is U-shape, so it wraps around the pizza to cook it. If that wasn’t enough, the rotating stone makes doubly sure that you’ll end up with an evenly cooked pizza.
Easy to Use
If you’re to cooking pizzas in a pizza oven, this is the oven to get. Unlike other ovens where you need skills with a pizza peel to rotate your pizza through the cook, this is just set it and forget it. Plus, the max temperature of the oven is lower than others, so it helps keep you out of trouble from burning your pizza. Other ovens get hotter than ideal for cooking pizza, and there’s a much smaller margin of error between great pizza and charcoal pizza.
Electronic Ignition
This may seem like a minor thing, but for me, it’s a big selling point. Other ovens in this price range use a piezoelectric ignition, which is the kind you turn, it makes a click noise and produces a small spark to start the burner. I’ve been outside when it’s cold and windy, trying to get a pizza oven to start with a hungry family telling me to order pizza. It’s bad place to be. With an electronic ignition, like on the Blackstone Leggero, there’s none of that because it will keep sparking as long as you press a button.
Cons
Difficult to Assemble
The word “difficult” is a little strong, but I mean it compared to other pizza ovens. Many other competitors to this oven you just take them out of the box and they’re ready to go. This one has some assembly to it that will probably take 30 minutes.
Lower Powered
While being a lower powered pizza oven makes this one of the easiest to use, it also makes it take longer to heat up and cook pizza. I suspect they made this a lower powered oven because it’s marketed as being portable and runs off one pound propane tanks. Either way, compared to other ovens, once you get the hang of cooking, you do miss having a little more power.
Runs Off Small Propane Tanks
As mentioned previously, this oven runs off one pound tanks. I would guess that many people will use this oven at home. In which case it would be nice if you didn’t have to buy a regulator separately to run off larger tanks.
Conclusion
If you’re new to using pizza ovens and want one that’s easy to use, get this oven. I’ve tested the most popular pizza ovens in the category, and this is by far the easiest oven. On top of being easy to use, it cooks some of the most even pizzas I’ve ever made. If you’re already a pro at cooking pizza, or you want some more power, this oven should still be in the conversation, but it’s worth looking around.