making pizza

Posted on | July 4, 2009 | No Comments

in my past life as a chef, i actually had a job where i made pizzas among other things, for almost a year.
my dad obtained an absolutely smashing pizza dough recipe for me, from a pizza expert friend of his back in auckland, and i had a big grimy old…but very good… commercial pizza oven to work with.

for really excellent pizza, you need two things:
1. great dough
2. a great oven

for great dough, you need three things:
1. proper bread flour
2. semolina
3. time

for these reasons i’ve never really attempted to make pizza at home….getting the right flour is a trial and as for the oven, forgettaboutit.
however, this evening, i suddenly decided it was pizza time and i proceeded to throw together something edible and tasty, if not quite the wood-smoked gourmet experience i would gladly pay twenty five bucks for in the city.

i grabbed a quick dough recipe off the net….they are all pretty much the same….and after some enthusiastic kneading, i shaped two balls and let the dough rise for an hour in front of the fire.

i took out my brand new pizza stone and wiped dust off it and placed it cold, into the cold oven (they will smash otherwise).
the ilve oven has a pizza setting, so i flipped to that and cranked the oven up to the highest heat possible.
while it heated, i assembled my ingredients and picked some greens in the dark with a flashlight: scallions, golden oregano, marjoram, basil, chives, rocket.
i grated some aged pecorino and mixed it with shredded cheddar…..sliced a couple of very ripe tomatoes thinly….minced some garlic….and got ready with a jar of sacla tomato pesto (which is great stuff to have on hand for emergency bread and pasta situations of all kinds)…..and a pepper grinder.

i read a lot of chatter about pizza peels and while in my pizza days i did indeed wield a long handled peel, the thing was very necessary to get pizzas out of the dark rear recesses of the oven.
i felt i could manage with something else and seeing as how i didn’t have any cornmeal on hand to dust my pizza stone with, i came up with the idea of a sheet of parchment paper laid over a thin magazine.

i alternately tossed and rolled the dough to get a reasonable diameter of pizza….in retrospect, i’ll go thinner and larger again next time…..and laid the pizza base down on the parchment paper.
i assembled the pizza right there on the paper and magazine, and by then, the oven was ready.
picking up the entire magazine/paper/pizza layered thingie was simple and it was easy to just gently slide the paper and pizza onto the very hot stone and then slam the oven door shut so as to keep it toasty in there.

by now my husband had torn himself from the sofa and was in the kitchen with me, hungrily watching the pizza puff up and begin to bubble.
it didn’t take long, but next time, i’ll drop it down a rack and cook it for a few minutes longer….i like the base to be smoking and even slightly charred in spots.

we removed pizza number one from the oven and slid in number two….as slickly as a pair of pizza hut employees.
all that pizza needed was some fresh rocket, a grinding of pepper and a knife.
ok, it wasn’t the most amazing pizza dough i’ve ever eaten, but it was acceptable for a first try at home and the toppings were really worth it.

looks like i’ll be looking out for that special flour after all.
and making a bit of an effort to time the dough.
good pizza dough really needs at least 12 hours to prove, much like the fabulous no-knead bread.
i know the texture of my base could have been vastly better if only there had been the luxury of time to let the gluten develop properly.