Sunday, August 28, 2011

Birthday Pizza

All she wanted for her birthday was a fire-up so my gift to Gia was to cook for all her friends.  It almost didn't happen because of the terrible weather.  We actually cancelled the party, then put the party back on, then thought about cancelling again.  It felt like the early seasons of Entourage - Vinny's doin' the movie, Vinny's not doing the movie.  Good thing the party went on because I was getting some awesome crust char and spotting.  Funny because my scale broke so I was mixing dough based on feel.  I mixed the water with a couple cups of flour and then just kept adding flour until it felt right.  I did this three times and made about 25 panuzzi.  Some of the highlights and fan favorites are below, along with a link to the complete album.




The First of the Night: Marinara

Margherita

Prucola

Mozz, Arugula, Pecorino, White Truffle Oil

Herbs from our garden are plentiful this time of year!

Posted by * at 8:30 PM
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2 comments:

  1. Berto these look fantastic! Can you elaborate a little bit more on the conditions that yield crust char and spotting? What does it do for texture and taste?

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  2. No prob Mr. Ferre! The big thing is heat source. When the oven air and deck get around 750deg is when the spotting comes out for me. It adds another smokey-well-done taste to the crust you can't get otherwise. However, if it's bitter then it's burned and not spotted/charred. As far as texture, high heat, a flame, and rotating creates blisters and sort of "blast cooks" the crust so it's not a uniform dense piece of bread. The fast cook time also makes a fast rise making the crust a little springy. There are so many factors, I mean, I didn't even mention dough composition.

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