I have finally realized my dream of making the ultimate pizza. The pizza is perfect in every conceivable way.
The Pizza has a cornmeal crust. The crust is crispy on the outside, yet almost flaky on the inside. The oils from the toppings have invaded the crust such that the flaky netheregions of The Pizza are slightly drenched in them, bathing like sexy nymphs in the olive oil and butter. There are also herbs in the crust, fluttering randomly like exotic fish in a sea of wonderful pizzaness.
The Pizza's sauce is made up of fontina cheese, tomato sauce, white wine, and sun dried tomatoes. What a sauce it is! It is a sauce that would make Jesus leap off of the cross and proclaim, "Screw this martyr shit, I'm eating pizza instead!"
The Pizza is topped with black olives, onions, minced garlic, and homegrown red and green peppers. All of these were marinated in a mild vinaigrette solution for about an hour.
The Pizza is then topped with gorgonzola, extra-sharp provolone, grated parmesan, and pepperoni...sweet, sweet pepperoni. Then, there is more Parmesan, and a layer of walnuts.
I wish I could share The Pizza with you. It's like a wonderful drug made of cheese.
amanda [email] said at 12:31 PM 06-25-2003: It's a basic pizza crust recipe, except you take out about 1/3-1/2 a cup of flour and replace it with cornmeal (if you're using about 2 3/4 cups of flour to begin with). It's all about getting the consistancy of the dough right. It has to be just sticky enough, but not too sticky.
The official crust recipe goes:
1 TBSP active dry yeast
3/4 plus 2 TBSP lukewarm water
(dissolve the yeast water and let stand 10 minutes)
2 1/2 cups flour, plus flour for kneading (I just had a really weird moment where I was looking for the 1/2 key, and then realized I was using a computer keyboard, not a typewriter. The fraction keys on typerwriters were awesome.)
1/3 cup fine yellow cornmeal
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. oregano
2 tsp. basil
2 tsp. garlic powder
1 TBSP. olive oil
(Mix these together and pour the yeast/water mixture in. Stir, and knead for about 10 minutes. In the end, the dough should not stick to the a bowl, but should be slightly sticky to the touch. It's sort of like if Silly Putty were dough. Let the dough rise in a bowl under a towel for 1 1/2 hours. Then, preheat an oven to 450 degrees. Shape the dough into a circle or triangle or whatever, and let rise under a towel for about 15 minutes while the oven heats. Put dough in oven for a couple of minutes, then remove and top with stuff. Cook for about 10 minutes.)
amanda [email] said at 12:48 PM 06-25-2003: I sort of winged the sauce, so I'm not sure of the amounts of the ingredients. Also, I made a smaller pizza, so you might want to have more sauce than this. I can guess that it was:
1 tsp. butter melted in a saucepan on medium low heat, 1 tsp. flour added to said butter and stirred for about a minute, 2 TBSP. tomato paste and 1/4 cup white wine added and stirred near smoothness, 2 cups tomato sauce (I used roasted garlic stuff from a bottle because it was late and I was too lazy to make my own.). I added about 1/3 cup of water to thin stuff down so it would blend better. I also put about 4 chopped sundried tomatoes into the sauce at this point. Then I cooked the sauce down for about 10 minutes, and added about 2/3 cup of grated fontina, 1/2 tsp. each of nutmeg and paprika, and cooked this mixture down while stirring often for about 10 minutes.
I'm not sure why I used the butter/flour, other than I was originally intending to add cream and make a pink bechamel sauce, without fontina. I'm sure it helped thicken the sauce, but it's probably not a necessary step.
Woody said at 11:09 AM 06-25-2003: I had the same reaction, but it could be good. My favorite topping right now is potatoes, so I shouldn't talk. If ever in Houston, get a pizza from Star with potatoes...
Ed@Work [ url ] said at 12:16 PM 06-25-2003: Alas, no pizza for me. One of the sacrifices that had to be made in order for me to not explode like the "wafer-thin mint" guy.
I do like walnuts. I do like pizza. I guess I just never considered trying them at the same time. And now it's too late. Story of my life. Haha!
brandon [email] said at 10:39 PM 06-25-2003: hmmm, so if I dressed up like this pizza, and got Brian intoxicated enough, he might ride me the way that...
