Hot on the heels of my last post in my monthly Bon Appétit series, I’ve got the April issue post for you.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m quite the “list & series” type of person, which really fits my Type A (uptight?) personality. I keep lists for everything. You ought to see my car mileage, maintenance, and oil records.
Before I dig into this post (TWIST!), I thought it would be an appropriate time to pass along some quick pizza news:
- Varasano’s announced that for $12.95 you can try every pizza on the menu. All the pizzas. $12.95. No-brainer.
- There is an awesome video chronicling a day at Una Pizza Napoletana in NYC. They are one of the most heralded pizza places in the country, and though the video is short, it’s insightful and shows the love that goes into making great pizza.
- The Food Network did an experiment to try to find out for sure – does the water used in pizza matter? Some people claim the NYC water is the reason why the pizza is so good up there, but I’m of the opinion that it’s a load of baloney. In my post on Pizzeria Venti, I stated my opinion on this matter, and the Executive Chef of Pizzeria Venti commented on the post with some interesting thoughts on why water from a specific area can be important. Check out the FN video to see the surprising results.
- The first coal pizza oven in Georgia is coming soon, to Max’s, a Concentrics Restaurant. In case you didn’t know, the first pizza joint in the country, Lombardi’s, uses a coal oven, so this is definitely not a new concept, but it’s slightly ground-breaking for our area. As Cliff said, the pizza wars are going to be in full effect.
- Finally – would you pay $100 for this? Bricks seem to do just fine.
Back to the post at hand!
I was stoked to see that the April issue of BA had a section on pizza parties, and they had a few topping/sauce suggestions that seemed worthwhile. Also, I just received a mixer for my birthday, so I’ve been eager to make some dough.
My dough recipe is a dumbed-down version of Jeff Varasano’s – I had a post about it last September. My pictures sucked pretty bad back then, and my dough kinda did too. One problem was that I was using a food processor with a dough blade, and I had to sit there for 5 minutes and pulse the dough/batter mix every few seconds. It’s a real pain in the ass and the dough doesn’t get worked properly. With the mixer, I create the really wet dough (seen below) and can just set the mixer on low for 7-8 minutes before it’s initial rest, followed by the addition of the remainder of the flour.
After the 7-8 minute mix, the dough rests for 20 minutes. Then I start the mixer back up and slowly add the rest of my flour over the course of 6-7 minutes. When it’s barely workable, but still very wet, the dough gets dumped out onto my well-floured counter and worked into two dough balls.
Here’s what it looked like right before I put it in the refrigerator.
Now compare that dough with the picture above, which is from the last time I made pizza. See how much smoother it is when I use the mixer? My new dough was dreamy.
My brother Thomas was helping out and got started with the Arugula-Pistachio Pesto from BA.
Meanwhile I roasted some Roma tomatoes with fresh oregano, salt, and pepper.
Here the pesto is done and looking mighty green.
The other sauce we made from BA was their Roasted-Tomato sauce.
With our sauces ready, we were off and running. I used too much pesto but hey, worse things have happened.
This pizza was topped with the pesto, olive oil, sliced/steamed potatoes, and mozzarella. The dough was thin, crispy, and it even held up pretty well considering the extreme amount of pesto.
Next up – roasted tomato sauce, fresh jalapenos, mozzarella, and smoked Boston butt from Patak.
Weil called this “gumbo pizza”, and I have to agree with him. The sautéed red sauce plus the smoky flavor of the Patak’s meat was definitely reminiscent of gumbo. It was interesting…not my favorite ever, but actually not too bad.
Finally, the next day I created my last pizza. The remainder of the pesto, mozzarella, sliced onions, scallions, and sliced radish from The Local Farmstand. Yay for freshness.
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