Pizza Night: Deliciously Doable Recipes for Pizza and Salad by Alexandra Stafford

[blue_dolphin]

I’ve cooked quite a bit from Pizza Night: Deliciously Doable Recipes for Pizza and Salad (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) by Alexandra Stafford and thought I’d give it a bit of a review here. 
The book contains recipes for 52 pizzas and 52 salads, so you can conceivably have a pizza night each week of the year with no repeats.  The recipes are arranged seasonally to take advantage of fresh produce. 
I think this would be an excellent book for anyone wanting to make pizza at home but not ready for a Modernist Pizza-level investment.  I also like Marc Vetri's Mastering Pizza. He spends a lot more time on flour types, dough structure, chemistry annd niche Italian pizza styles. And Ken Forkish's YouTube vids that go with his Elements of Pizza are priceless but I think Pizza Night might be a more approachable option. Plus, the salads are great and often encouraged me to have a big salad and small slice of pizza instead of a pizza pig out 🙃

I started a “Cooking from Pizza Nights” topic over in the Cooking forum to share actual cooking but here's a bit more about the book. 

There are three basic dough recipes with variations for using a sourdough starter and instructions for both regular and dedicated pizza ovens. Most dough recipes make enough for several pizzas with instructions for freezing and thawing tucked (buried?) in the back of the book. All are no-knead and there are step-by-step photos for shaping each type.

The Neopolitan-ish dough has the classic thin crust with a puffy rim. 
The thin-crust dough is rolled out quite thin, resulting in an almost cracker-thin crust. 
The pan pizza dough is for the thick, airy pizzas: Sicilian, Grandma, Detroit and cast iron skillet style pizzas. 
There's also a gluten-free dough that uses Antimo Caputo Fioreglut Gluten-free Pizza Flour which is FDA-approved for those with celiac disease but not safe for those with a wheat allergy. 
When it comes to salads, there are a few dressing recipes up front that are used in multiple salads.  The lemon vinaigrette and apple cider vinaigrette are quite nice and versatile. Some salads follow a pattern: there's a wedge, a chopped salad and a Caesar variation in each season, dressed with Italian vinaigrette, blue cheese, and Caesar dressings respectively. Others are one-off combos. 
 

Not sure if this will be readable (maybe click to enlarge)  but it should give an idea of the recipes included.  I highlighted the listing to mark the different dough types. There’s certainly no requirement to stick with them but I find it handy when I’m skimming for ideas. 

 

Anyone else have this book? 
 

 

Edited July 3 by blue_dolphin
To add link (log)

[Smithy]

36 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

Anyone else have this book? 

 

Not yet... but it looks very tempting! Thanks for the review, and I look forward to what you produce from it!

[Maison Rustique]

I don't want another cookbook. Can I just come taste-test what you make??? Your pix in the other thread are to die for!!

[blue_dolphin]

3 hours ago, Maison Rustique said:

I don't want another cookbook. Can I just come taste-test what you make??? Your pix in the other thread are to die for!!

Sure, c'mon over!

[Smithy]

OK, I caved. The Kindle version is just short of 6 bucks, and I can carry it with me and dream when I'm not in a position to cook. The idea of having doughs tucked away in the fridge or freezer for pizza on a whim is powerful...and as @Maison Rustique notes, what you're doing with the recipes is truly inspiring!

[blue_dolphin]

2 minutes ago, Smithy said:

OK, I caved.

Good to know I still have my cookbook enabling mojo 🤣