something coming soon.
When I can figure out how to get a list of the other posts in this category here, it will be. For now, just some pictures. =)
flickr stream.
For the love of the Pie
A couple weeks ago I took the plunge and bought a pizza stone, a peel, and the excellent book American Pie by Peter Reinhart. I’d been increasingly frustrated with the quality of the pizza at my local joint, and wanted to see if I could do pizza justice in my home oven. I was worried after watching one of those Food Network shows on pizza where they showed the coal oven at Lombardi’s in New York. That thing cooks at 900 degrees. My oven hits 550.
So I started with the New York-Style Pizza Dough. As he says in the book, “Here is the dough for the pizza with a medium-thick crust that you find in NYC, any college town, or anywhere else pizza is sold by the slice.” It’s a pretty easy dough, with a little olive oil and sugar ( besides the flour, yeast and salt. ) I’ve been using Bob’s Red Mill Organic Unbleached White Flour. It has the high-gluten, high-protein that’s all the rage for bread making.
I realized when making various batches of this dough, that Extra Virgin Olive Oil was too much. It ended up overpowering the flavor developed by the yeast, and left the dough tasting confused. I also have developed a preference for Natural Cane Sugar over Brown Sugar. I haven’t tried refined or honey yet.
The dough rises nicely, freezes well, and creates this luscious, puffy golden colored crust. If you have been watching the my flickr stream you’ve seen a couple shots of my pies, including The Primus, whose topping list was concocted with the help of My Brutha From Anotha Mutha, Jamie. It was a heavenly combination of spanish dried pork loin, salami, red onions, mozza, tomato sauce, and dabs of ricotta.
Anyway, after the initial investment of about $50 for the peel, stone and book, pizza is one of the cheaper meals I know of. About a dollar of organic flour, some oil, a couple bucks for sauces ( another topic in and of itself ), and a couple bucks for cheese. It can be a little intimidating, but if you love pizza I think you owe it to yourself to try this out. As our patron saint of exclamations, Giada would say, “So Good.”
posted to In the Kitchen, at 07:50 AM. permalink
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