How 'bout Pizza for Supper?

So after a couple of weeks of social distancing (my house began March 12), the freezer is full - raisin bread, cookies, ciabatta, sandwich rolls, currant lemon muffins, chicken soup.  I made Altoids yesterday. I have roasted chicken in the fridge for dinner. D still has two days of apple crisp for breakfast, so it’s too soon to make pumpkin. 

Now what? Ahhhh. New pizza recipe.

Patrick Ryan Pizza Dough

  https://www.ilovecooking.ie/food-tv/patrick-ryans-no-fuss-sourdough-pizza/

3/27/20 - Here’s the beginning of the starter. (10AM)

100g ww pie pastry flour

100g water

1 g yeast

Now watch the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3GcHQoxrYA  Love his oven.  Not available in the US.  I wonder why? Everyone I know likes the doors, but I have not found that type door anywhere here.

Pizza Dough

Strong white flour 500g
Semolina 50g
Salt 10g
Sourdough starter 200g
Fresh yeast 1g / 1/4 tsp of dried yeast
Water 325ml
Olive oil 50m

After an overnight rest, the dough is shaped into balls to rest for an hour or so before shaping.

3/28/20

After a rest, it's time to shape.

Toppings

Tomato Sauce

sauce from our tomatoes made with:
hot italian sausage
ground beef
pepperoni
garlic
onion
mushrooms
Parmesan cheese
basil
parsley

Add your choice of sausage, meatball, pepperoni, black olive, anchovies, mozzarella, ricotta, parmesan. 

This one has no tomato sauce, some meat, and lots of cheeses.

This one is meatless.

Well, reviews are mixed. Our favorite continues to be the original Nina's, which in now in Chittenango, and it's a bit different from what we remember. The oven temperature and timing are a problem. This may be the last trial - (at least until oldtimer's disease takes hold, we forget, and we get inspired to try again.)

And depressing as doing a lot of work with not-so-good results, this was in the inbox today from the NY Times:
"Kitchen failures will happen and especially these days, as so many of us cook more regularly at home. Recall that Ted Williams was one of the best hitters in baseball history. His lifetime batting average was .344. You are doing just fine. We are all of us doing the best that we can."  Sam Sifton, e-mail, 3/29/20.

It's Pizza Night

We were terribly disappointed when the world's greatest pizza place, Nina's, in Norwich, NY, was sold.  The new owners changed the recipes and the ingredients.  The new one is too salty to eat.  (The last one I bought I gave to the chickens.  It was inedible.) Also, the cheese does not have the right texture - more like American cheese.  Sad.

The original owners opened a restaurant about 1 1/2 hours away from home.  A couple of times a year we go there and enjoy a meal and stock the freezer.

I guess it's time to make my own.

I found some 00 flour in our local supermarket.  It is a finer grind than all-purpose flour.  The NY Times had a recipe for dough.  Roberta's Pizza Dough
Pizza Dough

INGREDIENTS

• 153 grams 00 flour (1 cup plus 1 tablespoon)
• 153 grams all-purpose flour (1 cup plus 1 tablespoon and 2 teaspoons)
• 8 grams fine sea salt (1 teaspoon)
• 2 grams active dry yeast (3/4 teaspoon)
• 4 grams extra-virgin olive oil (1 teaspoon)

So I decided to try it.
It can be made that day.

It turned out to be excellent.  Not too tough, not too bready.  A real Goldilocks dough.

The dough is topped with sliced sausage, mozzarella, parmesan, olive oil.

The sauce is my standard sauce.

It's a keeper.

~~~~~~~

I froze half the dough (I had doubled the recipe to make four pizzas.)
That way, by thawing the balls, I could make two more pizzas.
Today's pizzas are pepperoni

and 

white garlic with black olives and anchovies.

The white one is a favorite!

FWIW, the garlic is "Chesnok Red" from our garden.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My Standard Sauce

Parts of this sauce go back to Hurricane Irene (2011).

Begin by cooking some Hot Italian Sausage in a porcelain lined stock pot.

Add garlic, basil, parsley, and tomatoes (either my own or Tutto Rosa), and parmesan.

Enjoy!

Freeze the extra.

Thaw some sauce.  

Make meatballs.  Bake them in the oven and add to the sauce.

Remember to add the brown bits stuck to the pan.

Enjoy!

Freeze the extra.

Thaw some sauce.

Usually there is too much meat to sauce ratio, 

so add tomatoes, garlic, basil, parsley.

Enjoy!

Freeze the extra.

If there are extra porkchops or chicken pieces,

thaw some sauce and add them.

add tomatoes, garlic, basil, parsley.

Enjoy!

Freeze the extra.

Over time the flavor becomes impressive.

Oh, and don't forget to add some red wine every once in a while.

Pizza 2 - in a Fry Pan!

Continuing the search for a good pizza dough.

This is the adaptation of a recipe from Serious Eats

Ingredients

• as modified 
• 20 ounces flour - I used Sir Lancelot high gluten flour
  
• 2 teaspoons salt, plus extra for assembly
• 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 12 ounces water

Use the heavy duty mixer to knead the dough.  It's very stiff.
Then refrigerate.  I kept it overnight and then cut into 6 pieces, keeping 2 pieces out to make pizza today.  Four balls are oiled in pint containers in the fridge for another day.

After a two hour rise, it is stretched.
A bit of tomato sauce (this one is made with tomatoes, sausage, pork chops, meatballs, seasoned with basil, parsley, garlic, locatelli, red and black pepper).

I made two.  The first is pepperoni with mozzarella.
This one is pepperoni with provolone.

While putting the pizza together, the 11 1/2 inch cast-iron frying pan is heating on high (for 3 minutes).
The broiler, with the rack as close to the broiler as will fit the pan, is preheating on high.
The pizza is slid onto the frying pan and is left on high heat until the bottom looks right.
Then it is moved to under the broiler.
I found that I needed to move it away from the broiler after a short time, because the top was bubbling, but the dough was not done.
I put it on the bottom rack until I was satisfied with the dough.

Then it's ready to eat.

The bottom is crunchy.  The top is chewy.

I think this may be it!

Now to experiment with flavors/toppings.
And to work on aesthetics!

The trick seems to be the super hot frypan.
We were not happy with the pizza stone - no significant improvement over a pan.
And with the stone or without, even at 550 degrees, there was no crunch to the crust.
The other recipes we found were too breadlike.
Next question - is it the technique or the recipe.  Will have to keep experimenting.