Pizza for Christmas

My wife, Camille, had some friends over tonight for a mini Christmas party so I thought I'd play along.  We got some zucchini with cracked green peppercorns and a tomato Christmas tree.  I tried making a tomato candy-cane but it just wasn't happening.  The dough is made with all-purpose flour and some EVOO in the mix.  

Merry Christmas!

Late Labor Day

Oops, looks like it's November and I never posted the Labor Day fire-up album. Well here it is; whatever I wanted to say is now forgotten and the pictures will have to do the talking. Enjoy.

CLICK HERE FOR THE LABOR DAY FIRE-UP

Margherita + Cherry Tomatoes

My cousin Ava is a natural Pizzaiola.

An egg-breaking action shot

July Fire-Up

Since last fire-up didn't produce the best pizzas, I thought I would get back to the basics and just focus on the dough. Put a little extra love into it and not just rely on the Kitchenaid mixer. Not even bother prepping any special toppings. Just focus on the dough and make a bunch of margheritas. It worked out well; I had a roaring fire and spit out probably the best pizzas I've ever made. They may even be good enough to start inviting people over -- we'll see. If you've been tracking my pizza pics on facebook, twitter, instagram, and on this blog, you'll see what I mean. Check out the pics below and click through for the album.

CLICK HERE FOR THE JULY FIRE-UP ALBUM!

Part of Margherita-Mania.

Nice little cross-section shot.

The first tomato from garden - yes that's the whole tomato!

Pizza Home Improvement pt. II

Here's something to do while you wait for the oven to get hot. Take your pizza peel, a drill, and a bit and start making holes. Now, when the pizza slides off the peel so will a lot of the flour. There's nothing worse than biting into a slice and getting a nice flour patch on your tongue. If you want to lay out the paddle with grid-lines you can definitely make it look a lot nicer. My excuse was I had to use the peel shortly thereafter and didn't want any sharpie or lead on my peel. I just started making holes, and before I knew it was time to cook. Next time I'll finish it off. It was real nice seeing the flour fall right through. A perforated peel, one of the finer things in backyard pizza.

One thing to note is that it's worth trying to make the smoothest hole possible. You don't want rough edges causing a pizza to snag on its way off. If you got a grinder to smooth it out then that's even better.

Memorial Day 2012: Puffed Out

I think it's important for me to try and improve my dough recipe every time I fire-up.  There is no way I'm making perfect pizza which means there is no reason not to experiment - sometimes aimlessly.  This iteration, as you can see, produced a puffed-out and airy crust mainly due to the increased amount of water.  Probably too much.  The dough was extremely sticky making it hard to stretch, and some of the pizza's insides were so moist they weren't able to cook all the way through.  No big deal, it's just another step closer and the pizzas still tasted good.  Lesson learned = successful experiment.  


Below you'll see some of the highlights of the day.  The first one being the broccoli and kalamata olive pizza which was my favorite.  The uncooked broccoli sits in the ingredient tray seasoned with olive, salt and pepper, and comes out of the oven lightly cooked and with charred florets.  A sparing amount of kalamatas are able to cut through and provide a little flavor kick.  You'll also see a "Panuozzo", which is a large pizza-dough-based-sandwich.  The only cooked part is a stretched, untopped doughball which is slced longways and topped with some goodies.  Depending on the cheese, I'll throw it back in the oven to let it melt.  It was a nice little change of scenery.  

See the Complete Memorial Day 2012 Album Here!!

The day's prize: broccoli and kalamata.

A puffed out margherita

Fresh cut balsamic tomatoes, mozzarella, arugula

A Panuozzo with ricotta, pancetta, tomato, kalamata, arugula.