Ninja has just launched its first dedicated pizza oven in the US – and it’ll be arriving in the UK soon.
Pizza ovens took off in a big way during the pandemic. People looking to up their outdoor hosting game invested heavily in pizza ovens from big names like Ooni and Gozney.
Don’t get me wrong: these are great appliances. We tested and liked the Ooni Fyra, the Ooni Karu and the Gozney Roccbox.
But even the best pizza ovens tend either to be bulky and fussy to use, requiring wood, coal or pellets for heat, or extremely expensive, with prices reaching up to £799 for the brilliant indoor model, the Ooni Volt 12.
There’s also a bit of a learning curve where pizza-making is concerned and it’s hard to get a perfect pizza every time.
But Ninja is now doing for pizza ovens what it did for air fryers and ice-cream makers: making an affordable, reliable and easy-to-use appliance. The Ninja Artisan 5-in-1 Portable Electric Pizza & Outdoor Oven is now available from Ninja Kitchen in the US for $279.99, and it’ll soon be available in the UK for £299.99.
Ninja
The Artisan is a traditional-looking pizza oven with a pull-down door complete with glass viewing window. This is an important feature on a pizza oven, where seconds can make the difference between brilliant and burnt. It has a digital display and controls. Inside, there’s space for a 12-in pizza, or a 12-in baking pan. It’s weatherproof as well, although Ninja advises investing in a cover.
Apart from its price, what sets it apart from rivals is its simplicity. It’s electric, which means there’s no mess or fuss, and it’s portable, so you can use it anywhere you can plug it in. But at 13.7kg/30.2lbs, and with dimensions of 53 x 41 x 31.5cm/20.78 x 16.22 x 12.4in, you won’t exactly be chucking it in a bag or stowing it in an overhead cupboard.
The fact that it’s electric also means that it’s extremely precise, which in turn means consistent results: no charred frisbees, no soggy, undercooked dough.
But with a temperature of up to 370°C/700°F, it can cook a pizza in three minutes flat – and what’s even better, it needs very little time to get back up to temperature. Once it has preheated, you’ll be able to cook three pizzas in 10 minutes.
Ninja
There are presets to cook five different types of pizza: Neapolitan, thin crust, New York, pan and custom. But it’s multifunctional, with four other cooking settings, so you can use it for baking or broiling, proofing dough and keeping food warm.
This isn’t the first Ninja appliance in which you can cook a pizza. (Sadly, it’s not an air fryer. I’ve tried to fit a frozen pizza into the Ninja FlexDrawer and it just can’t be done.)
The Ninja Woodfire Electric Outdoor Oven is an outdoor cooking all-rounder that can be used for pizza cooking, smoking, baking and roasting.
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Like the Artisan, it has a top temperature of 370°C/700°F for pizza cooking and a pizza setting, from which you can choose calzone, thin crust or deep pan. But it lacks the viewing window of the Artisan. You can buy it for £313 from Amazon UK and for $299.99 at the time of writing from Ninja Kitchen in the US.
To browse our top recommendations from Ninja’s air fryers, countertop cookers and outdoor ovens, visit our round-up of the best Ninja air fryers.
