Posts Tagged ‘pizza’

To me, the order of importance for a pizza goes crust, sauce, toppings/cheese.  I’m one of those people who doesn’t want a pizza drowning in cheese, but rather nice and saucy.  So for me, the sauce means a lot.  I’m also not a huge fan of tons of toppings.  A perfect margherita pizza is heaven to me, and it’s even better if you use your own vegetables and herbs from your garden (which I can do half of right now since my tomatoes have yet to ripen).

I once again go to Lidia Bastianich’s recipe from Lidia’s Italian-American cookbook for her Neapolitan pizza sauce.  It’s so simple it’s ridiculous, and it’s also incredibly tasty and season-friendly since it uses canned tomatoes and dried herbs.  Like everything in most Italian cooking, it’s about really simple food with quality ingredients, so now is the time to buy those expensive organic tomatoes, the quality dried herbs, etc, if you don’t already.  It’ll be worth it, trust me.

For toppings, I go with straight up fresh mozzarella I shred and a few basil leaves.  I love red onions like crazy so I throw a few shaved slices on half.  Toss on a drizzle of really good extra virgin olive oil and you’re set.  I don’t like a salad or meat tray on my pizza, I just want to taste the crust, sauce and cheese because I put so much effort into making them I damn well better taste them!

That said, let’s go!

Everyone has comfort foods.  My list is long – crazy long.   Mac n cheese, Reuben sandwiches, chocolate milkshakes… it goes on and on.  Hovering in the top however, will always be pizza.  Whether it’s fond memories of my mom and I picking up our usual order from the slummy, but amazing Original Pizza at our local mall or making Totinos frozen shamepies (as I affectionately call them) in college, I have nothing but fond memories of pizza.  During my time studying abroad in Russia, one of my strongest memories is the day I broke down and went to Sbarro to nurse my homesickness with two slices of cheese NY-style pizza on Nevsky Prospect.

I still love frozen pizza and happily eat it probably once a week for dinner (my fav being the Kashi roasted veggie pizza nowadays), but nothing, and I mean nothing, compares to homemade pizza.  The best part about it is how few ingredients you really need, it’s just the time and elbow grease that makes it work, and oh boy is it worth the effort.

I use Lidia Bastianich’s recipe from Lidia’s Italian-American cookbook, one of my favorite Italian resources next to The Silver Spoon.  I also use a variation on her sauce recipe from the same book, and both are total winners.  The big “ugh” a lot of people will give this recipe is you have to let the dough raise overnight or up to 24 hours.  I actually like this because I can prepare it the night before, and my dough is ready and waiting for me when I get home from work the next day.

So let’s get started..

Dough mis en place.

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