Pizza, Hell Yeah!

Recently, had the honor of joining some of Richmond’s A-List food bloggers and their families (Caramelized OpiNIONS, House of Marinara, Whine Me Dine Me…also see Eating Richmond) for a festive night of vale tudo pizza making. Amongst these kitchen Pizzaiolos, I personally felt like a left-handed situational hitting minor leaguer called up by the Yankees Phillies Yankees to play in the World Series. The food toys were on full display: TWO mature pizza stones stacked up in an inferno oven to keep even convection/conduction; a pizza peeler that defied physics (sticky dough ain’t nothing); and the ingredients, oh, the INGREDIENTS…

To the mild annoyance of the host, EVERYONE bought their own olive oil. Made me chuckle. Olive oil is such a personal thing. I totally got it. But that was just the tip of the iceberg…Marinara brought monster shrimp from Yellow Umbrella, cured meat via Belmont Butchery, and a marinated whole garlic invention. SheDrivesaJimmy hooked us up with fresh Mozzarella from a Mennonite farm in rural Virginia, the herbs, and an Irish sipping whiskey (The Knot) that was mysteriously empty by the end. My contribution was imported Italian Water Buffalo mozzarella (via Whole Foods, not a Mennonite Farm) and a homemade San Marzano tomato sauce (see later). Our host provided not only the hospitality and pizza technology but ultra fresh greens courtesy of Victory Farms CSA and his personal garden (Backyard to Table!). He also supplied the majority of the crust dough (using his favorite go-to recipe).  We literally had 40 types of cheeses as part of our recipe arsenal. Just an awesome sight to behold.

Suffice to say, the pizza was great. I’ll let the professional bloggers expound on the details.

What I Learned: Pizza Technique

I want to spend a sec on what I learned about home kitchen pizza making.

First, here was my source material coming in (This is RGL, you know you’re getting links).  For my entry pizza, I wanted a simple classic Neopolitan style:

• Jeff Varasano’s Famous New York Pizza Recipe This guy is obsessed. The bible.
• Bon Appetit: How to Make a Great Pizza Even Better
• Serious Eats: Learning How to Make Neapolitan Pizza from Keste’s Roberto Caporuscio
• NY Times: A Plain Pizza Pie

Sauce

• I went with 1 can of Cento Organic San Marzano Peeled/Plum (on sale for $3 @ Whole Foods)
• 2 cloves of garlic, diced
• Seasonello Spices by feel (essentially, Sicilian Sea Salt, Rosemary, Garlic, Sage, and Pepper. Bought at 8 1/2)
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil (I use Frantoia via Amazon. Haven’t seen it sold in Richmond. Discovered this green goodness at a modest restaurant (Trattoria Reggiano) inside the Venetian hotel Vegas. It was love at first taste. I have subsequently learned that this is Mario Batali’s favorite as well, so I’m in good company)
• I have one of those “as seen on tv” Magic Bullets. I primarily mashed the tomatoes, but hit the bullet for a couple of seconds to get the garlic, oil, and spices integrated.  Loved seeing the tiny garlic particles inside the red.
• Hindsight
  • I actually tried deseeding but that’s too much work. Won’t do it again.
  • Try to dewater as much as possible the tomatoes till you have a chunky flat solid.  Between the cheese and sauce, too much moisture on a pizza is the enemy. I attempted the tomato rinsing technique described in Varsano’s treatise.  Quite frankly, I don’t mind a tinge of tart/bitterness.  Might add a dash of sugar next time for balance.
  • They say you can never have enough salt, but I think I went a little overboard with an additional sprinkling when the sauce was spread on the crust.

Dough

• There was no freakin way I was doing homemade dough.  I don’t have the tools, and even if I had the tools, it would end up a big sticky mess.  Actually opted to go with fresh dough by Trader Joe’s.
• As stated, our host supplied most of the dough using the following recipe. (He recently emailed me his notes regarding ideas for future doughmaking: “And, if I were to do something different with it: bigger dough balls  for more chewy crust around the edges (italian: cornicone?).”)
• Before baking, we spread olive oil along the edges.  Good idea.
• Hindsight
  • Apparently, some local pizzerias will let you buy their prepared dough (nice tip, Marinara). Usually, a couple of bucks. I will see if my favorite local places have this policy.
  • Varasano spends pages and pages on dough technique, so if I ever feel bold, I would go back to his writings.

Cheese

• Drying/getting rid of the moisture in the Cheese is essential. Use the paper towel technique and start drying hours before. Don’t feel bashful about squeezing the water out.
• Hindsight
  • The buffalo mozarrella was ok but nothing spectacular. As some Internet commentators have noted, if they are shipping fresh cheese all the way from the old country, it’s just won’t be the same. Next time, I might go with Tom Leonard’s house cheese.  Whole Foods also had some interesting domestic brands.
  • Instead of slicing, I think I’ll go with the one centimeter cube/chunk technique in the future.

Cooking

• The (pre-heated) stone is magical. It really gets the pizza crispy for true restaurant replication.
• According to the maestros, you need to make sure that the stone is pre-heated for at least an hour.  The oven must be at maximum temperature the whole time (500 degrees).  That’s the one edge commercial pizza will always have over the home, much higher Fahrenheits (especially coal and wood).
• I like the technique of cooking the dough and sauce first then adding cheese for the final minutes. This’ll take some additional experimentation to get the timing right.

Overall, I was very happy with my first foray into advanced home pizza making.  Again, want to thank our host and fellow cooks for guiding me through the whole process but more importantly, the good company!