Pizza Toppings: Simple/Elaborate, Traditional/Unusual

[Chris Hennes]

Inspired by one of the calzone fillings in Modernist Bread, this is broccolini, caramelized onion, and mozzarella. The crust is a 100% Caputo (red bag), Modernist Neapolitan recipe, but no overnight ageing (not counting the poolish).

 

[Chris Hennes]

I forgot all about this one until I was cleaning off my camera's SD card tonight: I had a fresh tomato from one of my colleague's kids, so went with olives, capers, rosemary, mozzarella, feta, and said tomato. The crust was a couple-day-aged Modernist Neapolitan with Caputo red.

 

[Margaret Pilgrim]

This clever method for making caccio e pepe pizza is worth a whirl.

[blue_dolphin]

13 minutes ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

This clever method for making caccio e pepe pizza is worth a whirl.

 

@Chris Hennes did something quite similar following the recipe in Marc Vetri's Mastering Pizza and shared his result just upthread here.

He had much more success than I did when I tried it.  The ice is supposed to melt into hot, starchy water which turns into a cheesy sauce when you add the grated pecorino Romano cheese.  Much of my crust blistered up, pushing the water into a small, deep pool in one corner.  I sprinkled the cheese on and shook the pizza as directed but just got a glob of thick cheesy stuff in that pool surrounded by hills topped with dry cheese.  I think I'd need a lot of practice to get it right!

 

Edited to add this photo of my sorry attempt.  I made it last year but I was too embarrassed to post!

Edited December 10, 2020 by blue_dolphin (log)

[weinoo]

Why not make spaghetti caccio e pepe for a primi and have a pizza margherita for an aperitivo?

[rotuts]

for me , the best pizza Ive had , and have had it several times,

 

is at Pepe's in NewHaven.

 

as I recall , they don't do round.

 

they do pan-ish

 

delicious those pizzas were ;

 

Bacon , and the other White Clam.

 

both at the

 

 same time of course.

Edited December 22, 2020 by rotuts (log)

[Chris Hennes]

35 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

@Chris Hennes did something quite similar following the recipe in Marc Vetri's Mastering Pizza and shared his result just upthread here.

 

I wouldn't really call it a success, though, I'll certainly never try it again. My most successful caccio e pepe pizza was my first, just adding Romano to the béchamel in a white pie and hitting it with a lot of black pepper at the end.

[weinoo]

 

Really my best effort yet. Topped with a Sicilian cherry tomato sauce, cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, fresh local basil, olive oil. Cooked on the baking steel, blasted with the broiler for the final minute or two.

Total cook time about 4.5 minutes, which I think may be as short as it can get, though I'll shoot to shave another minute off. Still trying to figure out the best shelf for the steel when I want to use the broiler, which is super strong. My first pie on this evening might've been a little too much time under the broiler, though it still tasted good...

 

 

 

But even approximated a round pie.

[shain]

I highly recommend that you give this one a go. It's one of our favorite for years.

 

Lightly cooked tomato sauce, dry mozzarella, strong blue cheese, tart apples, fresh thyme. Lots of pepper after baking.

 

[blue_dolphin]

15 hours ago, shain said:

I highly recommend that you give this one a go. It's one of our favorite for years.

 

Lightly cooked tomato sauce, dry mozzarella, strong blue cheese, tart apples, fresh thyme. Lots of pepper after baking.

 

Done!

 

[shain]

@blue_dolphin Yours reminds me a bit of the one we first had in Bellagio 5 years ago. I do hope it was to you liking  

 

 

[weinoo]

I have to turn away.

[weinoo]

Pizza night last night; always a time for reckoning.

I made and used a dough that had fermented overnight, but without refrigerating it. Just shaped, benched, and used. slightly lower hydration, KA Sir Gallahad flour (like 11.7%) - trying to get to the NY style crust. This did not achieve that, nor was it as good as the last crust I made. Still tasty, though I had a little trouble with the roundness on this one...let's call it Pizza al Taglio.

 

 

Much more architecturally circular...

 

 

I know, I know - parchment. I'm a wuss.

 

 

Edited January 9, 2021 by weinoo (log)

[rotuts]

 nost ovens have a window in the door.

 

if you drop that steel on the glass , well ...............

 

very difficult to replace.

 

some time ago I used patio ' bricks '  in my oven for baking bread

 

these are the oblong ones , and quite heavy 

 

two on the bottom rack ,  two on the baking rack , and one on each side of the baking rack

 

that's 6 patio bricks.  

 

I realized there might be a problem removing them 

 

when cold of course 

 

so I got a 3/4 " piece of plywood , put that on the open oven door

 

it was just a little bit smaller than the full door.  

 

covered the glass of course.

 

never had a problem , the board was like insurance 

 

kept me nimble and focused 

 

 

 

[Duvel]

“Quattro stagioni” (except all are winter, and found in my fridge):

 

12’ - Tuna with onions

3’ - Pork belly roast with olives

6’ - Baked ham with olives

9’ - “Grünkohl” - boiled kale with Speck

 

 

 

 

[rotuts]

@Duvel 

 

Im not sure what the Speck did to deserve the Kale .

 

Ill take the Pork belly 

 

thank you.

[David Ross]

The crust is made using beer, one of my favorite ingredients to get a crisp crust with pockets of air inside the dough.  This one is topped with fresh mozzarella and a pesto made with walnuts.  I like the sweetness that the walnuts add to pesto.

 

 

[David Ross]

3 minutes ago, David Ross said:

The crust is made using beer, one of my favorite ingredients to get a crisp crust with pockets of air inside the dough.  This one is topped with fresh mozzarella and a pesto made with walnuts.  I like the sweetness that the walnuts add to pesto.

 

 

This is the pizza dough recipe I use most of the time,

For the Pizza Dough-

4 1/2 tsp. dry yeast

1/4 cup warm water

1/4 tsp. sugar

1 cup ale, warmed

1 tsp. salt

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

 

-Add the dry yeast, warm water and sugar in a small bowl and stir. Let the yeast bubble and "bloom," about 5 minutes.

-Pour the yeast mixture into the base of a mixer and add the warm ale.  With the mixture fit with the dough hook, add the salt and slowly add the flour, 1/2 cup at a time.  As the dough starts to come together during mixing, slowly pour in the olive oil. 

-Spray a large bowl with cooking spray and put the dough into the bowl.  Toss the dough to coat with the oil, then loosely cover the bowl with plastic wrap.  Let the dough rise in a warm place about 2 hours or until doubled in size.

-Shape and add your pizza toppings then bake

[Chris Hennes]

When using artichokes as a pizza topping, how do you prepare them? I haven't decided whether to make Neapolitan or grilled pizza, but it will be something that cooks hot and fast. Can I basically make Carciofi alla Romana and put it on pizza? Or should I do something else?

[gfweb]

1 hour ago, Chris Hennes said:

When using artichokes as a pizza topping, how do you prepare them? I haven't decided whether to make Neapolitan or grilled pizza, but it will be something that cooks hot and fast. Can I basically make Carciofi alla Romana and put it on pizza? Or should I do something else?

 

I'd be tempted to use t he pickled ones in a jar, drained and halved.

[Chris Hennes]

3 hours ago, gfweb said:

 

I'd be tempted to use t he pickled ones in a jar, drained and halved.

Nah, I have two fresh ones to use up from this week's Imperfect Foods order.

[weinoo]

11 hours ago, Chris Hennes said:

When using artichokes as a pizza topping, how do you prepare them? I haven't decided whether to make Neapolitan or grilled pizza, but it will be something that cooks hot and fast. Can I basically make Carciofi alla Romana and put it on pizza? Or should I do something else?

 

6 hours ago, Chris Hennes said:

Nah, I have two fresh ones to use up from this week's Imperfect Foods order.

 

I'd make that carciofi alla Romana, and eat it alongside the pizza 😉. Why ruin two things?

 

[shain]

I only ever used frozen artichoke hearts for pizza (fresh ones have better usages, IMO, and pickled ones have a distinct flavor that I didn't want). I sliced them and gave them a brief pan fry with butter and chilled them. They didn't seem to soften much further in the oven. Very tasty over a white pizza, finished with lemon zest and just a few drops of juice. 

 

Edited March 30, 2021 by shain (log)

[weinoo]

17 minutes ago, shain said:

I only ever used frozen artichoke hearts for pizza (fresh ones have better usages

 

Maybe you get good frozen ones; the frozen I've tried here - tasteless and useless.

[Chris Hennes]

I categorically reject the notion that I should only seek a "better use" for these artichokes. Maybe if they were some rare, exotic plant that might make sense, but that's not the case. I have some artichokes. I want to put them on pizza. That pot of @weinoo's certainly looks good, and I bet I could turn its contents into a pizza topping  .