Pizza Without Limits

September 22nd, 2011

How Good Can it Get?

I wrote a long piece about the crazy “Seven Blessings of Passover/Pentecost/Atonement” doctrine that is sweeping charismatic churches, but something told me to keep it to myself for now. So instead I’m writing about PIZZA.

My pizza gets better and better and BETTER. Over and over, I find myself saying, “This is the best pizza I’ve ever had.” Every time it happens, I think it can’t get significantly better, but I’m always wrong. I’m positive God gives me food ideas. There is no other way to explain it. If the food were merely great, I could say it was me, but it’s so good it’s beyond explanation. I can’t do that.

A while back I made sourdough starter and froze portions of it in foil. Last night I thawed one out. I would say I got about 100 grams of usable stuff from it. I mixed it with my regular dough recipe, with the yeast reduced by two-thirds, and I stuck it in the fridge overnight. This morning I let it warm up, formed it into a crust, and let it rise all day.

I got Boar’s Head whole-milk mozzarella from the grocery deli counter because I was out of delicious Costco mozzarella, and I used Bel Gioioso provolone. Ordinarily I use frozen cheese, and it’s cheap and excellent, but freezing reduces the quality a little, so it’s not perfect. And deli-counter mozzarella is the only decent substitute I’ve found for Costco cheese.

I topped the pie with quartered Hormel pepperoni slices. I am not a pepperoni fan, because it makes pizzas sour, greasy, too spicy, and orange, but for some reason it WORKS with my recipes. Like you would not believe. So I cut 30 slices in quarters and used them.

I generally use very fresh dough, because it’s fast and convenient. The resulting crust is way better than anything you can buy around here, so I’m satisfied with it for most purposes. But sourdough culture improves the texture of dough, and I suspect letting dough sit overnight is also beneficial. I don’t have the patience to use pure sourdough for an ordinary meal, so I made the little starter packets. You get a lot of the improvements, and it’s easy.

Anyway, I made my usual sauce and put it on top of layers of provolone and mozzarella, and I baked it in the usual way. I somehow ended up with about one and a half times the right amount of pepper in the dough, and that worried me, but it actually made the pizza better. The crust was chewier, and the added pepper really brought out the fruity flavor of the sauce. The aftertaste was almost like cherry pie.

That deli cheese melts much more smoothly than anything frozen. It spread out so well some of it went off the edge of the pie. That’s a plus, though, because you get little bits of crunchy cheese at the edges.

Geez, it was good. I’m still reliving it in my mind.

What is the purpose of this? It’s too good not to have a purpose. If I couldn’t make my own pizza, and I knew of a shop that used this recipe, I’d stand in line to eat there.

2 Responses to “Pizza Without Limits”

  1. Gerry From Valpo Says:

    I am a pepperoni pizza freak and I follow your recipe for everything else. Here’s a tip.

    Place your pepperoni in a single layer between doubled paper towels and microwave for 10-20 seconds on high (depending on how much you add). Place pepperoni on top of the sauce before adding cheese.

    My preference is the larger sandwich style deli cut.

    This method reduces the grease and adds a slight crunch.

  2. Jim Says:

    When I lived in San Antonio, there was a place called “Cuzzin’s Pizza” on State Highway, just barely in the Leon Valley city limits. Buddy Calk was the owner, but sady, he dove into a bottle, never swam out and lost the business.

    But, he had the best sourdough pizza, top quality ingredients and a very, very high consistency of quality.

    Still, I bet your pizza is better.

    I’m wondering…. could you make a sidebar feature, at which your “latest and greatest” pizza recipie is posted, so that the information doesn’t always scroll down into blogbivion?

    I just bought a couple of 12″ pans, and am shopping for a good pizza stone.

    Jim
    Sunk New Dawn
    Galveston, TX