Learning about making your own pizza
I made my own pizza again lest night. It’s not something I do on a regular basis but it’s not something novel either. Pizza is close to being a favourite – a status it achieved through almost a month exploring Italy about 7 years ago.
I decided to try something different last night – I turned to Jim Lahey’s – yep, the same one who invented No Knead Bread – for pizza advice. The results were stunning:
There were several things I learned from this recipe and it’s approach which challenged my past experiences making pizza:
- He does not use a pizza stone – a baking tray will do.
- No need for cornmeal or flour at the bottom of your cooking tray either, line it with olive oil.
- No rolling pins, no tossing. Hand stretch it in your pan.This created a few tears which were patched up – I worried these would cause the pizza to stick to the pan but that was a non issue with the oil.
- The sauce is extremely liquid. In fact it is a can of plum tomatoes (14.5 ounces of tomatoes and 2/4 cup of the juice) and some olive oil. This flys in the face of commercial pizza “paste” and what I thought made sense. The liquid sauce keeps things moist and does not reduce to to the sweeter side of things.
- Avoid saucing the middle of your pizza. This I realized previously but this recipe took this to new heights. I “kissed” the middle with sauce and want heavy on the outside as it tends to cook first. Common sense but this had alluded me previously.
- Cook it hot and long. Hot I knew – but I did not expect my Pizza to survive at 500 degrees for almost 30 minutes. The instructions were to wait for the edges to pull back from the pan and become slightly charred. I thought this effect was only produced in a pizza oven.
The crust was thin and crispy on the outside as it gave way to a wonderfully soft and chewy crust in the middle.
Any tricks out there from other pizza lovers? We’d love to hear them.
Comments
wow! cooking for 30 minutes that is a new one to me. was it because of the size? sounds delicious!
i don’t know if i have any pizza making tricks but something fun we do from time to time when we have friends over is have ‘pizza parties’:
i make the dough earlier in the day and prepare a bunch of different toppings. then each person one at a time makes a pizza and we cut and share it – each getting a piece. this goes on like this for hours depending on how many peeps, drinking a good beer or a cool white the whole time of course. each person tries to get more creative than the next – this from time to time has resulted in tipsy runs out to the herb garden, or a guest rummaging through my fridge. At the end there is always a huge drunken, detailed debate on the hows and whys of which one of them was the ‘winner’.
it’s great fun actually.
laughing….that’s awesome…
I’m thinking of a variant of your idea – having people show up with their own mystery topping or toppings..heh…
Tigress, I pulled it out after about 25 minutes….It practically fried in the pan….the crust was not oily, and the sauce did not liquify the dough as so often happens… I always used a dry pizza stone with a thick/ non liquidy sauce…
it was 13×18 inches – a small baking sheet and relatively thin. I think the liquid sauce protects the top while the bottom gets done right…
either way was quite the experience and one I will repeat. I froze another ball of dough to see how it will come out in a few weeks…
j
this technique sounds awesome and i must try…i guess i’ll give jim lahey another chance…even though i just found out he uses ConAgra flour for the breads at this bakery.
the mystery topping idea sounds like a good one!
but according to their website they will make food you will love…
You really have me thinking re herb garden…really need to set up an urban garden this year, even if it’s on the fire escape… we’ve been fantasizing over it for the last few years and this year is going to have to be the year we maximize it… such a lavish, yet fairly simple, luxury.
I have been reading about growing winter sprouts in mason jars (one of the can jammers, can’t remember whom) and that’s kind of got the juices flowing too…
Let us know how it goes – I think the key is keeping it in that heat slightly past your point of comfort. A little char is good… moist sauce and long hot heat… I think I’d throw whole herbs (like fresh basil) on at the last minute and put it back in the oven till they wilted and out again. I think basil would turn to licoirice in 30 minutes of 500 degree oven.
the pizza was also fabulous cold as an appy for dinner tonight…Dana loves cold pizza, I like it…but this was possibly the best cold pizza I had…crust still had a crispiness on the edges that betrayed 24 hours in the fridge…
Do the sprout thing! I’ve been doing it for a year now. It’s amazing to have fresh green stuff growing in the winter months!
The Get Sprouting starter kit at http://www.sprouting.com will get you started for $10! Spend a bit more and you’ll have sprouts for life!
This sounds similar to how my hubby makes our pizza. He makes it for us every weekend.
We use a pizza baking sheet with oil. Our recipe and how to is here if it’s helpful to you.
http://www.homestead-acres.com/blog/?p=401
How do you guys live without fresh herbs? We eat quite literally handfuls of herbs from our garden daily. The best thing is that they are all ready at different times, and we have a huge variety. When we make pizza, we make the sauce early and let it age, with fresh herbs and our own tomatoes. Herbs on the fire escape sounds like a great idea!
My brother worked at a Pizza Hut and reported that the cardinal rule was “no centre-loading”. Apparently injuries can result from a pizza whose centre is too piled with ingredienrts.
Is there a link to where you read the original recipe or is it from a book?
Burtola, it is indeed from a recipe book (“My Bread” by Jim Lahey) which was released before Christmas. We will be reviewing it soon and I am asking them permission to print the pizza recipe. If you use google to look for his pizza dough you’ll likely find it – we did the one that took several hours (not 24 hours) and that should be enough to get you going if you simply can’t wait!
Joel
Much obliged, thanks!
Much obliged, thanks!
Hello!
I actually do have a tip to add: Making your dough 3-5 days before you want to bake it, and letting it rest in the fridge, will produce a wonderfully soft, much more flavorful dough. I wrote about it on my pizza blog, here: http://insearchoftheperfectpie.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/the-number-one-1-secret-ingredient-in-pizza-dough-you-may-not-like-the-answer/
Enjoy!
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