I grew up in Queens NY, and moved to Ct. in1978. It got into making my own pie in ~ 1985. Here's what I came up with after years of my kids not eating the cheese, lousy sauce and never hitting the home run:
I use San Marzano tomatoes (Sclafani), with a bit of olive oil, oregano, black pepper, and crushed garlic and salt. I don't cook it. Ladle it on the dough so you can see the dough through it. (1 laddle full for a 15 in pie). Then I take a small amount of a 3 cheese blend romano, asiago, and parm, (but don't over do it), and lightly cover the sauce. Then I use Cutrufello whole milk mozz, again just enought to cover. Finally I grate 1/2 slice of Boar's Head provolone. (This is the only brand to use). I then shake it off the peel into the oven which contains 9-6x6 unglazed quarry tiles which have been heating up at 550 for 1 hour. I found these much better than a pizza stone. The crust is perfect. Now here's the trick, I set the pie on the bottom rack for ~ 6 minutes and then set the stove to broil and move the pie to the top rack for say 45 seconds or so. You have to keep rotating the pie (as the hottest part is in the back). What you wind up with is a pie with the nice soft center yet a semi hard to hard crust. Oh Yeah, as far as the dough goes, I cheat and use Wenner. You can toss it by hand easily and it has good stretch qualities (at slightly cooler than room temp). Remember the key is not to over cheese the thing. Too much of the 3 cheese or the prov will hide the mozz. Give it a whirl...
