I. Sex
"Pizza is like sex," the saying goes. "When it's good, it's very good. And when it's bad, it's still pretty good." To which let's just say a quiet "Amen."
I've written before about my — er — struggle with cheese addiction. And pizza is my near-daily nip.
Hot, melted cheese is pretty much one of the tastiest things that ever met a mouth. And when it melds with a nice, simple red sauce, it gets exponentially better. The salt, the sweet, the heat. Mercy. Put the two atop perfectly crisped yet slightly chewy dough, and a beer to wash it down, well then — simple as it may be — we're not just talking sex, we're talking sex with old school Madonna with a side of Psilocybin.
II. Style
- New York — The standard here on the East Coast (pic at right, below). Fold a slice in half. Take a bite. Repeat.
- Greek — Growing up in Philly, we used to call this a "Boston-style" pie. The crust has some oil to it, so it crisps up in the pan and the edges have a bit of pastry-like flaky crunchiness. The cheese medley is generally a bit more salty (less mozzarella and more parm/romano), and cooked till slightly browned on top.
- Sicilian — Thick crust pizza cooked in rectangular pans.
- California — Uppity pie with non-traditional ingredients like barbecued chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, goat cheese, scallions, arugula, etc. "Not that there's anything wrong with it."
- Brick oven — When done well, my favorite. Tends toward irregular-shaped pies, with thinnish, crispy crust, and an emphasis on the high-heat cooking technique.
- Chicago deep dish — The lasagna of pizzas. When it's good, it's very good; when it's bad, it's more disappointing than the meh "good" of a traditional pie.
- Northern Italian — Very thin crust, so it cooks up quickly and is not as filling as a standard pie. Order one per person, and with no more than one topping.
III. Eyeballing
It can be a delicate thing. The taste from one slice — or even one bite — to another, can be inherently fleeting, as the pizza goes from scalding and soupy to cool and coagulated. One bite perfect, and the next twenty spent trying to recapture that fleeting glory.
I maintain that I can tell what a slice will taste like just by looking at it. Whether a bad cafeteria slice with cardboard crust, cloying sauce, and stratified cheese; a boxed Wolfgang Puck between flights; a perfectly reheated late-night "slab"; a pie made from reserved dough; or grilled sausage nirvana at the bar with a couple of pops.
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At a couple dozen PIZZA PICTURES from the past year. |
IV. The Trick
The keys to making pizza at home:
- If you're making your own dough, use fresh yeast (can be in a packet, just not old), and make sure you're mixing it with water that's hot enough (recipe below).
- Use a pizza stone and a peel.
- Dust the peel with flour and/or corn meal to allow the raw pie dough to slide off it, onto the stone.
- Preheat the oven as hot as it will go (500–550°F).
- Take the batteries out of the smoke detector and banish small children from the kitchen.
- Lay down mozzarella first, then sauce, then grate a hard cheese (e.g., parmigiano) on top.
- Keep "toppings" minimal and construct the pie quickly once you've got the dough on the peel.
V. The Dough
I spent a year or so tinkering with this recipe, trying different ratios of various flours (white, Italian "00", wheat, and rye) to get the right consistency, workability, and taste. You should do the same. Of course, if you want to just try mine, I break up the two cups of flour as follows:
- 1 C "00"
- 3/4 C white
- 1/4 C rye and whole wheat mix
The "00" flour is very fine, and I found it needed a bit more body, so I added some white flour. The rye and whole wheat are in there for taste and tooth.
VI. Rolling
I give you the following piece of celluloid brilliance, via Serious Eats.
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