When it comes to strong preferences, you can count on me. I prefer not to call them addictions, because, well, who likes to say out loud that they might be addicted to anything? Besides, it's not like I should be checking into rehab or anything...unless you know about a facility for the recovery from an addiction to--pizza.I love pizza. I love it. If there's pizza on the menu, that's what I'm getting. In my defense, it's really quite nutritious, right? Grain, veggies, dairy. Lots of dairy. A couple of years ago, Tom and I designated Sunday evenings as "pizza night". Now that I actually write it out, I guess it seems a little goofy for sixty-somethings to have a specific meal weekly meal devoted to pizza--or anything, for that matter. Sounds like a church youth-group come-on. But there it is.
Just as it is pertaining to my little problem with ice cream (sweet stuff in general, truth be told), I really do appreciate quality. Yes, the fine, painstakingly hand-made chocolates at Dorado are truly divine (AND gorgeous!) and, given one, would eat it very slowly and enjoy the ride, but I'm also very happy with a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup (FYI).
It's the same with pizza. Lefty's and Hot Italian serve amazing pizzas. But, have you tried DiGiorno's? DiGiorno's is our go-to safety-net meal. Big, chewy, tasty, lots of cheese--and done in 20 minutes. We've tried most of the other brands generally found in a supermarket frozen-food case. Take it from us.
Mostly, though, I make our Sunday pizza from scratch, including the dough. It usually takes about 2 to 2 1/2 hours from yeast in the water to lovely, hot fresh pizza.
The dough is key, obviously. It is a subject about which there are myriad, and strongly-held opinions. There are those, for example, who would never use the kneaded dough until at least the next day and up to five days later (development of fermentation). For some, the ingredients, including the correct form of the yeast, are very carefully measured (and bread flour--hard winter red--is preferred, not "all-purpose").
But everyone agrees that it's mostly about the kneading. I just throw the ingredients together (including, normally, about half whole wheat and half ordinary all purpose), but I knead it for at least ten minutes. Some say it should be much longer (to achieve a nice stretchy "baker's window"). But I compromise. I also sometimes knead in garlic and herbs, which isn't exactly standard. And, no, I can't throw it around, like they do in restaurants. I understand why they do it--the centrifugal force makes a nice fat edge--but I can stretch it and get a similar result.As for toppings, for me it's all about the cheese. Usually, it's whole-milk mozz (for its fabulous melting qualities) plus one or two other cheeses, including Jack, gorgonzola, parmigiano, romano, chevre, or whatever. Most of the time I don't use pizza sauce, just olive oil, with seasonings (hot pepper flakes, garlic, basil, oregano, salt, pepper), but pesto is probably my fave. I do make tomato sauce from time to time.
We also like mushrooms, olives, artichoke hearts, carmelized onions, fresh or sun-dried tomatoes, etc. NO green peppers. Ever. Dylan loves raw eggs cracked over the top during baking. My favorite restaurant pizza? Probably pear/gorgonzola at Lefty's or California Pizza Kitchen. I've made it at home, but I usually don't have the ingredients lying around--plus I'm a little lazy.
Alton Brown advocates a large, unglazed tile that sits permanently on the bottom surface of the oven to get the best results from home-baking. I haven't gotten one, yet, but I do use a pizza stone on the bottom rack with the temp cranked up to 450 or 500 and get pretty good results. I don't have a peel (big paddle), yet, and will probably make one one of these days. That way the stone could be hot before the pizza even hits it.
I haven't mentioned Tom's pizza preferences and that's because he's pretty happy with whatever comes out of the oven, thankfully. He probably has a more generally accommodating attitude about food, in general, which has (heh heh) played right into my hands, all these years. So far, he's perfectly content to humor my foodie tendencies--some of them perhaps a bit more extreme than consuming pizza at least once a week (a topic for another time). At least he hasn't yet suggested professional help...
