Ballarini

Ballarini has been making cookware in Rivarolo Mantovano since 1889 and today belongs to the Zwilling group, which gave it international reach without taking it out of Italy: its professional lines are still Made in Italy. In the pizza world its name carries weight for one very specific reason: the rectangular iron-sheet trays used to bake Roman pizza al taglio.

What matters here is that family of bare sheet, with no non-stick and no enamel. It is a material that demands a ritual — season it before first use, dry it over the fire, never wash it with soap — and in exchange it has no temperature ceiling to respect and no coating to degrade at 270 °C. In a kamado, where the dome radiates and spikes are the rule rather than the exception, that absence of a coating is exactly the virtue you want. Ballarini's drawback is not about the brand but about size: the bakery format it respects is the same one that will not fit an 18" kamado.