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| Alla Norma, Americano, Pistachio, Cappriciosa |
My half-breed Italian kiddos love pizza. No, they don't love pizza from the place down the street. Pizza in Italy is a completely different animal than what we Americans have perfected into the fattening, filler-laden product that is served at every youth gathering in the country.
Pizza in Italy is typically served in individual servings, a pizza about 15" in diameter with only about 1/4 pound of bread dough and 1/2 cup cheese in the entire work of beautiful bubbly art. Ingredients are placed sparingly because you're actually expected to savor the dough, the sauce, the cheese separately from that occasional burst of flavor from the well placed artichoke heart, or bit of sausage, or (gasp!) bit of boiled egg.
I have to say, Italians are trying to learn from the Americans though. As of late, the 'Pizza Americana' is gaining popularity rapidly in Sicily. What are the toppings? Why, french fries and sliced hot dogs, of course! Having a gathering? You'll probably order a pizza by the meter (yes, a one meter long pizza), and have one with pistachio and cream, one with sliced eggplant and ricotta salata, and one for the kiddos with, yes, french fries. Who says Italy isn't open to progress? They're very creative with their pizza toppings. If you can put it on pasta, you can put it on pizza. I've had smoked salmon and cream, white truffle, clams and octopus, and many more. They were all fabulous. Why? Fresh and wholesome ingredients.
Italians are so serious about their food that they actually have a certification program for some cooks to make certain food products...like parmigiano, prosciutto, certain wines, and pizza. If you have a pizzaiolo (pizza maker) who is certified to make a DOC pizza, you have something special. I've eaten only one DOC pizza. Ok ok ok I ate two that day...
On the island of Capri, after exiting the hydrofoil to get there, climbing the winding stone streets, snaking through the maze of tiny alleyways, I saw a sign: Pizza. The Sicilian and I followed the arrows and stumbled upon a tiny pizzeria that apparently is a favorite of Mariah Carey (pictures of her and the owner wallpapered the foyer). She must like pizza.
It was early, only about 7pm, and we were alone in the restaurant. The menu was quite extensive and impressive, with varieties of seafood that made our mouths water, but what caught our eye was the pizza section: Pizza Margherita DOC.
Capri is near Naples, which is known as pizza mecca. They're serious about pizza. They have more DOC pizzaioli than anywhere else. That's where the signature pizza was created, for Queen Margherita, with the colors of the Italian flag: Red sauce, White mozzarella, Green fresh basil. We were in the right place.
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| Egg, Peppers, Onions, Pepperoni, Olives |
We asked the waiter if the oven was ready yet for pizza, and it was. No hesitation. Please bring us a margherita DOC. It was at our table in 3 minutes. Pizza ovens are extremely hot, the four simple ingredients are ready and waiting, and cook time is usually around 1 minute. It did take time to walk back to the kitchen to tell the pizzaiolo... The feather-light dough melts in your mouth, the cheese is never stringy or chewy, the sauce is never acidic. Perfection. We inhaled it and ordered another.
DOC pizza requires fresh mozzarella from water buffalo's milk, but not too fresh. Has to be so many hours old, and have been in a strainer at a certain temperature for so many hours, yadayadayada... Same thing for the tomato sauce. San Marzano tomatoes, certain ripeness, certain treatment, etc. Do you think the dough is going to be different? It isn't. Has to be a certain type of flour, etc.
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My pizza isn't DOC. I don't have a water buffalo. But wow is it good. We had a pizza party recently with family, Italian style. One pizza per person, ate on paper bags, cold beer and hot bubbly pizza. So good.
Here's my crust recipe:
This made 10 pizzas. You can halve it of course, or refrigerate it for the next day.
In a Kitchen Aid mixer dissolve 2 tsp yeast into a liter of warm water. Btw just use the ratio thing you learned in 7th grade math to reduce it. Today I made 6 crusts using 1 tsp yeast in 1/3 c water, half a liter water, a tsp salt and two tbsp olive oil. It took probably 2 pounds of flour. Anyway back to the recipe. Add a few cups of bread flour and start stirring with the dough hook. Add a tbsp salt and 3 tbsp olive oil. Keep mixing.
Keep adding flour until it absorbs all the water and starts to pull away from the sides. Scrape down if you need to, but turn up the speed to medium or med-hi and let it knead the dough for 10 min, sprinkling with flour when it starts to stick to the sides.
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After kneading, remove dough to a floured counter. It should feel soft and smooth. Turn it over, fold a couple of times and press down. Then, and yes I do mean this, pick up the dough about the height of your face and SLAM it on the counter. Make a big noise. I like this part. Turn it over and do it again. Do it about four times. Now, cover with a cloth and let it rest for 30 minutes. After all, you just slammed it four times on the counter, poor dough.
Now your beautiful dough is all smooth and nice and you just want to pet it, but we have to make it into little baby dough balls. Gently pat the dough ball into a fat squarish shape. With a pastry scraper, cut the dough into three or four logs. We are not trying to work the dough at this point. Be nice to it.
Pick up the end of one of the logs, and cut off a large fist sized piece. It should weigh about 1/2 lb, or 225-250 grams when you're done. If it doesn't, do a bigger one the next time. It's not like pie crust or cookie dough...you can't just add a bit and mash it in. Try to get the right size next time. No worries.
Take the small piece of dough and using both hands tuck in all the edges all the way around, all at once. It's almost like turning a sock inside out. It'll form a nice ball, smooth on top and with creases in the bottom. Now let's get rid of the creases. Lay the ball on the counter, creases on one side, and holding your hand like a knife, catch the edge of the dough and slide your opened hand forward, mashing the creases, rolling the dough as you do it. Almost looks like you're making a cone with it. You'll see though, that suddenly the creases are gone and you just have a point. Poke the point in and you have a smooth ball of dough. Takes a bit of practice but after the second or third you will do it.
Place all the balls of dough in a plastic tray and close up. They need to be sealed up. Yes they will rise so they need a little room. Set aside in a warmish place (an oven with the light on) for 4-6 hours.
Now it's pizza time! You'll need:
strained tomato sauce (or puree)
oregano
basil
salt
garlic powder
parmesan
mozzarella
toppings (thin sliced onion, mushroom, peppers, boiled egg, grilled eggplant, tuna, smoked salmon,...)
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| Zucchini, Tomato, Onion and Parmesan |
You'll probably have to use your scraper to cut one of the dough balls out of the tray, so do that and place on a floured counter. By the way, crank your oven to max. I put it on 500. If you have a pizza stone, set it in there, ready to go.
Press out your dough into a circle. Don't roll it. Flip it over, press again, and then pick it up and stretch the edge like you see all good pizza makers doing... make it as large as your pizza stone, but don't make holes. Flour something flat, like a Silpat sheet, or a thin cookie sheet, and lay your dough on it. Pour on some sauce, then salt, pepper, garlic powder, oregano, basil, parmesan, and then mozzarella. Not too much. Now toppings, but sparingly. Lastly, salt, parmesan and a bit more cheese.
Using a little jerk motion, slide the pizza off the silpat onto the pizza stone and bake 9-10 minutes. When it's done I use tongs to pull it off the stone onto a plate, pizza pan, or paper bag. SO good.
Make calzones with this, mini pizzas, mini calzones, pizza rolls, you name it. Worth the wait when you see that light bubbly crust. Buon Appetito!
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You'll need
