What Pizza did you make or eat today?

[Bob Z]

While this is a what did I cook today, it might be closer to what did I bake today, and maybe a what pizza did i make today topic so here goes

I grew up near Phila and lived in NY for a few years and have always loved pizza. Especially thin crust NY style pizza. Thru the years have dabbled in homemade pizza and ended up buying the Pizza bible on amazon this month. Yes it made a difference and taught me a few things and I ended up making the best pizza last two times I have ever made.

Mainly due to the dough since you could stretch out or toss like you see on tv. These were cooked on a baking steel at 500 for about 8 minutes. Used S&W Redicuts with my boat motor and spices for the sauce, whole milk mozzarella and pepperoni on one and canned mushrooms/fresh onions on the last. Sauce is easy no cook, plastic bottle in middle unlabeled is oregano, necessary for ny style pizza. Vinegar gives it a bit of tart. Not shown was sugar. The dough is 48 hours old and fermented in the fridge, and let come to room temp before forming. I use parchment paper to make the pizza on and cook it on that also avoids the pizza stuck to the peel issue.

Why canned mushrooms instead of fresh? Lol fresh slices turn into little black shreds. Pizza back east uses canned ones that than handle the heat and look like a shroom when ur done baking it.


rolled out and sauced

All done after about 8 minutes on bottom rack, pepperoni sunk in a bit but...

Close up to make you drool!

Next up:Shroom and onion for me

Close up:

[XexoX]

Looks good Mr. Z. Is the sauce recipe in the book as well? Also, author of the book? Thanks!

[gladius]

Looks good!

...but where's the knife?

[Bob Z]

Pizza Bible by Tony Gemignani https://www.amazon.com/Pizza-Bible-Neap ... 1607746050

Dont make the mistake I made the first time to save a few bucks and get the kindle version. Get the book.
The Sauce comes from cooks country. Ill try to look it up. but basically you get a can of fine diced tomatoes and then grind up with an immersion blender and add spices etc to it
There are lots of sauce recipes online for you to pick what you might like best. My wife likes em sweet, while I like a tart tomato one (which the vinegar helps with).

But while i made the quick cheap sauce, the best sauces will come from canned san maranzo tomatoes.

Looks good!

...but where's the knife?

Touche! I used a Gihei 150 tall petty to slice the onions!
https://www.chefknivestogo.com/gibl2pe15.html

[Kalaeb]

Those look great, have me aching to build a pizza oven.

[Bob Z]

Those look great, have me aching to build a pizza oven.

As a realtor I have been to a few peoples homes that had those...One was an impressive hearth imported from italy on a 90 acre spread, and the other a home made one by a school teacher with mats from Home depot. The teacher used his alot he said.
I have always dreamed of having one, but the reality is, lots of work to make, then what an hour or more to get ready...almost more work than you normally want to do, unless you have lots of get togethers or a following that can help out.

[XexoX]

Or you could just get a KettlePizza kit for your Weber charcoal grill. As seen on Serious Eats here.

[Bob Z]

I looked over that kind of stuff several times, and if you read the descriptions, its for neapolitan style pizza, which cooks at 900 for a only a few minutes, not new york style pizza which is a bit thicker and probably more toppings. But if you are a pizza freak sure would be fun to try. Sometimes I just have to admit they can make stuff better at the restaurant than I can ever make at home due to commercial equipment etc.

[XexoX]

Thanks Mr. Z! Shows you how much I know about pizza. Of course, I doubt the best around here can compare to what is available on the East Coast, Chicago, or Detroit. Well, it can compare, just not favourably.

Sigh, there isn't even good Chinese food around here. The only good place closed years ago. I've never found out why. My friends and I were usually the only non-Asians in the place, and we'd have to point at the menu, cause rarely did the wait staff speak English.

[Kalaeb]

Those look great, have me aching to build a pizza oven.

As a realtor I have been to a few peoples homes that had those...One was an impressive hearth imported from italy on a 90 acre spread, and the other a home made one by a school teacher with mats from Home depot. The teacher used his alot he said.
I have always dreamed of having one, but the reality is, lots of work to make, then what an hour or more to get ready...almost more work than you normally want to do, unless you have lots of get togethers or a following that can help out.

No doubt. I have a hard time trying to figure out if the juice is worth the squeeze. May opt for just an Ooni and see how it goes. An outdoor kitchen it part of the 5 year plan so I have some time to contemplate.

[XexoX]

...An outdoor kitchen it part of the 5 year plan so I have some time to contemplate.

As Uncle Roger says, when your hosts go to the outdoor kitchen to prepare you food, you know they like you. You get the good stuff from the outdoor kitchen.

[Mike9]

That reminds me I haven't made pizza in a while. I make a hybrid Detroit style pie in a blue steel pan, but as a purist I like my sauce on the dough and not on top. Usually pepperoni, mushroom and peppers, OR anchovy, roast red pepper and shaved onion. Shaved fresh garlic (home grown) on both. Sauce is quite simple - canned tomatoes, garlic, oregano, salt, peperoncino and honey. Mix ahead of time and let it work. I like freshly grated full fat Mozz, mixed with a little Jack. @500F it makes a great pie. In Detroit fashion I spread my cheese right to the edge of the pan so the butter fat fries the crust at the edge and below. It's simply a different kind of pie than NY style, but shares similarities. I like a thin well aerated crust.

[jacko9]

I made one in my Field #12 cast iron skillet. I use Safeway Traditional Pizza Dough which I purchased before the defrosted it and kept it in the freezer until I was ready to make my pie. I cook the crust slightly on the stovetop in olive oil before baking. I use our homemade sauce but if we're low on our stock, I substitute Classico sauce, then add thinly sliced garlic and red onion, some red pepper flakes, Italian seasoning, whole milk mozzarella cheese I buy in in a block and cut it into 1/2" cubes, add a little pepperoni and Italian sausage and bake at 475 degrees. I pull it out of the oven and add sliced fresh basil while it's cooling.

[Bob Z]

After binge watching some ATK/Cooks Country shows I decided to make their version of Pizza Al Taglio, which seems to be the Italian version of grandma pizza with arugula on top instead of sauce etc. Of course I couldn't do arugula as it didnt seem like it would keep for some next day left overs. This is basically a very wet dough pizza baked in a pan with oil to brown the bottom, and very similar to focaccia. Pretty easy and yummy to make if you never tried one. I did spend a good amount of time trying to find an iron pan like they use for detroit style but nobody seems to be making iron pans anymore.


Starts off with no cook boat motor sauce.


Since this was a 25 minute bake, I par baked with sauce for about 15 minutes, took it out and added the cheese and pepperoni. I didnt think the cheese could stand being baked for 25 minutes (and I was right)


After about 25 minutes...I might have went a minute or two over


Bottom of the crust looks like this. Was pretty good and I'll make it again.

[ronnie_suburban]

That's a thing of beauty, Bob!

[Jeff B]

After binge watching some ATK/Cooks Country shows I decided to make their version of Pizza Al Taglio


After about 25 minutes...I might have went a minute or two over

Do you deliver....

[Bob Z]

More Pizza bible pizza. Wife went to Wally world on Sunday morning and they didn't have reg sized pepperoni in stock so she got mini's. Don't do it! As you can see in the baked photo, the pepperoni disappears.

This dough proofed in the fridge for 3 days before using it today, was so easy to shape.

One of the secrets in this book is using two stones! Start on one then switch to the second one to finish off the crust. Simple idea but yet I never thought of it before. In my case I use a steel on the lowest rack and a stone on 2nd from the top rack. Start on the steel and switch to the stone after about 4 minutes for about 2 more. The bottom of the oven has the heat rising up and works best on the crust, while on the top rack it cooks the top faster.

[Bensbites]

Anyone else thinking about an ooni?? I have been eyeing them for a while and don’t know if I will use it enough to justify the cost.

[Bob Z]

Anyone else thinking about an ooni?? I have been eyeing them for a while and don’t know if I will use it enough to justify the cost.

Now is the time to get one and test it out. If all else fails you could prolly list it in the classifieds!

[stevem627]

My son has an Ooni and it’s great.

We bought a Bakerstone oven that goes onto a grill. It gets over 700 degrees and makes very good pizza.