This post is dedicated to the woman who helped to make it possible, Great-Grammy-King.
This past Christmas I was the honored recipient of a new pizza cookbook, "The Pizza Bible", owing to my love of all things pizza. A tremendous gift indeed and one that has anchored itself to countless hours of my time. I've read, digested, read again, I dare say I've even perused a bit, and finally I am ready to embark upon the task at hand. Let's make a pizza!
And not just any pizza, a pizza truly made from scratch. Dough, sausage, sauce. All except the cheese, that would be a bit much. Buying a cow, etc... But I digress.
The dough recipe I have selected is one that utilizes a starter. A concoction of yeast and flour, meant to pre-ferment or kick-start the rise of the dough.
Three days prior to pizza time we make the starter. It sit's on the counter for a day, rising, growing. building, expanding.
It's then mixed with more yeast and flour, etc.. and then portioned out into balls (what???) and then it rises for two more days in the fridge. And you are correct, I am remiss in capturing that part of this process pictorially. But alas, we must move on.
Fennel sausage. Fresh ground pork (from The Heart and Trotter, the awesome new butcher shop just a bit down El Cajon Blvd. Please, please, check them out: http://www.theheartandtrotter.com
OK, ground pork, fennel, anise, salt, pepper, mix, taste, add, taste, done, fridge, perfect.
Please don't be alarmed by the tasting. Certainly I did not eat the rawness of it all, but I totally would if I wanted too, FYI. I simply pinched off a piece and fried it in a pan.
The sauce is simply awesome tomatoes, a pinch of salt, a dash of olive oil.
The dusting for the peel is a mixture of semolina flour and white flour.
Voila!
Yeah, I know, looks super professional.
I'm sure all of Felton Heights is smelling this.
We let it cool a bit on a rack so that the steam escaping from the bottom doesn't make the crust soggy, but we only wait a few minutes.
Cut and eat.
Nailed it pretty much. Nice crust lip. Very light and airy, nice pull to it and has some chew as well. The sausage flavor is super amazing. This first pie is only sausage and we are digging it hard. The sauce is only slightly coming through, which is what I want. The cheese is stringy and delicious, but the entirety of the flavor is the sausage and crust. Crisp and yeasty, fennel and porky. I'm a very happy boy right now.
The next pie, as the dough recipe makes two balls, is sausage, pepperoni, mushroom, red onion.
Another big hit. Great combination of flavors, crust is the same = awesome.
If you have any interest at all in making a pizza at home, you need this book. It has all of the recipes you could ever want, and the portions are right, designed for a single meal, one or two pies at a time, but easy to upscale if needed.
A great book.
A great gift.
A Great-Grammy.
A great pizza.
A great night.
DVA
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