How to stop pizza going soggy

Sogginess is water arriving at the base faster than heat can drive it away. Fix the water first — it is almost always cheaper and more effective than fixing the heat.

What you are aiming for

A base that is dry and set all the way to the centre, with no wet patch under the sauce and no water pooling on the surface.

Why it happens

Every wet component on a pizza releases water during the bake, and gravity takes most of it downward into the dough. If the base is not receiving enough heat to evaporate that water as fast as it arrives, the dough stays hydrated and never sets. The centre goes first, because it is furthest from the rim's exposed edges and carries the deepest topping load.

What actually moves it

Levers are grouped by where in the process they sit, and within each group the strongest come first. Anything marked commonly overrated is advice you will see elsewhere that does less than it is credited with — and says why.

Equipment

A preheated stone, steel, or heavy pan
Primary lever
Direct conduction into the base is the only mechanism that evaporates water from the underside quickly. Baking on a bare shelf gives the water nowhere to go.

Bake

Baking lower in the oven, or on a hotter surface
Supporting
More bottom heat evaporates more water. This helps, but it treats the symptom while the water source remains.
Par-baking the base before topping
Supporting
Sets the base's structure before any water reaches it. Very effective for heavily-topped and pan styles, and it costs you some of the crumb quality of a single-bake pizza.
Cooking the pizza for longer
Commonly overrated
Extra time lets more water leave, but it also lets the toppings release more.
Why it is overstated: It is the instinctive response and it frequently makes things worse — a longer bake gives wet toppings more time to soak the base while drying and toughening the rim. If the centre is wet at the point the pizza is otherwise done, more time is the wrong lever.

Sauce

Draining the sauce and using less of it
Primary lever
A thin, watery tinned-tomato sauce can be well over 90% water. Straining it, or using a thicker sauce, removes more moisture from the pizza than any equipment change adds heat.

Cheese

Low-moisture rather than fresh mozzarella for longer bakes
Significant
Fresh mozzarella carries a great deal of water and is designed for a 90-second bake that finishes before it all escapes. Over 7 minutes it floods the pizza.

Toppings

Pre-cooking high-water vegetables
Primary lever
Mushrooms, courgette, aubergine, onion, and fresh tomato all release large amounts of water during the bake. Cooking that water off beforehand removes the problem at source.
Fewer toppings overall
Significant
Topping load and water load are the same thing in practice. A heavily loaded pizza is also an insulated one, so the base receives less heat while receiving more water.

Fix it on this pizza

Strain the sauce through a sieve and spread it thinner, leaving a clear border.
Removes the largest single water contribution before it reaches the dough.
Pat fresh mozzarella dry and tear it rather than slicing it.
Cuts the free water that would otherwise pool on the surface.
Take off half the vegetable toppings.
Reduces both the water load and the insulation over the base.

Change it for good

Adopt a routine of pre-cooking every high-water vegetable before it goes on a pizza.
Permanently removes the commonest cause of a wet centre, and improves those toppings' flavour at the same time.
Fit a steel or stone and preheat it properly.
Gives the base enough heat to evaporate what water does arrive.
Switch to a par-bake workflow for pan and heavily-topped styles.
Sets the base structure before the toppings can wet it.

What it costs you

Every step that removes water also removes flavour and succulence. Strained sauce is less fresh-tasting, pre-cooked mushrooms are less juicy, low-moisture mozzarella is less delicate than fresh, and a par-baked base has a drier, denser crumb. A completely dry pizza is not the goal — a Margherita with fresh mozzarella is meant to be a little wet in the centre.

How far you can realistically get

A thin base under a heavy, wet topping load will never be fully dry in a domestic oven, however hot the surface. At some point the honest answer is a different pizza: a pan style, which is built to carry a heavy load, or fewer toppings.

Evidence

Strongly supported

How to make pizza crust crispy (and why yours isn't browning) — King Arthur Baking Company
The Pizza Lab (column) — Serious Eats
Modernist Pizza — The Cooking Lab