So, a while ago (at the time of writing, it says 37 days ago) zebra2 shared a personal triumph in pizza, which piqued my interest, as I also like to make pizza and try out different toppings.
It seems like there are a million ways to make pizza and of course, there are pizza purists, who insist that the only pizza that counts is Pizza Napoletana, which of course, has its own association. From their USA/Canada site:
- VPN Americas is the American Delegation of the Associazione Vera Pizza Napoletana, an international non-profit organization founded in the mid 1980's by a group of Neapolitan pizzaiolis (pizza makers) seeking to cultivate the culinary art of making Neapolitan pizza. On June 1984, the association was officially established as a denomination of control (DOC) by the Italian government, a designation that made the VPN a legal entity able to give special designation to pizzerias who meet strict requirements that respect the tradition of the art of Neapolitan pizza making.The President is Antonio Pace.
Which is cool and all, but . . . whatever. Anyway, the way I make pizza is by beginning with a recipe intended for ciabatta. Even more blasphemously, it's adapted from a no-knead ciabatta recipe. And because I am a terrible, terrible person, I have altered the recipe even more.
It makes good bread and good pizza, which is all I care about. So, here is the base. By the way, I am using Imperial measurements. As long as the proportions are the same, it's ok, though you'll end up with more or less dough. I used to use an old jar and one of those little plastic cups that come with cough syrup to measure out my stuff, so don't sweat it.
For the biga (starter):
1 3/4 cups warm water
1/2 tsp yeast (whatever you got)
1 tsp salt dissolved in 1 tsp water
3 cups all purpose flour
Let the yeast bloom in the water and salt and then sift in the flour. Stir it all together until it all looks wet, cover with a cloth or some plastic wrap and let sit around for at least 2 hours. At the end of 2 hours or so, you should see little bubbles.
For the next part:
1/4 tsp yeast
2 cups water
4 cups all purpose flour
Add the yeast and the water directly to the biga and stir it all around until it looks like the biga has mostly dissolved. Then, sift in the rest of the flour and stir that all together until it looks like wet biscuit dough (kind of shaggy and lumpy). If you plan to eat this the same day, let it rise for 2 hours, knock it down, let it rise again for an hour, divide it into four, let the dough rise for 1/2 an hour and bake into loaves. Or, top with pizza stuff and bake it. Either way, bake at 425F on parchment paper, either directly on a low rack, or on a pizza stone (preferred) until the crust is golden brown. If baking bread, thump it. If it sounds hollow, it's done.
To make pizza, get a piece of parchment paper, no bigger than the pizza stone (if not using a stone, just spread the dough out on the parchment paper) and spread the dough with a rubber spatula. It will be very wet and sticky. Don't worry about that though. What you should worry about is the moisture of your pizza sauce and toppings.
So, that's the basic way. But, if you want really good pizza/bread, I suggest you do the following:
Instead of water, use buttermilk. Instead of all purpose flour, I suggest you use bread flour. However, if you use bread flour, you will need a half cup or so more buttermilk for the biga and up to a cup more buttermilk for the next part. Also important, is to let it cold ferment. This means, leave it covered and undisturbed in the fridge for about a week.
What this will do, is give the bread or pizza base some real, complex, delicious flavor. Using buttermilk increases the flavor and it also helps the crust to brown and when it's golden, it's nice and shiny, as well as very crispy and chewy. The bread flour will also help with the crispy and chewy part. All purpose flour will be crispy, but not as chewy.
As this yields 4 large loaves of bread or 4 pizzas, I generally make 4 pizzas over several days. This time around, I also made some pesto, because I got some garlic scapes, which ended up on two of the pizzas.
The first one:
Sliced ham, a little leftover bacon and some wild mushrooms sauteed in butter, with mozzarella and red sauce. And of course, some oregano.
The second pizza was garlic scape pesto, with mozzarella and tomato. I ate it, but I wasn't too happy. The mozzarella killed the pesto. So, no pictures of that one.
The third pizza:
Note those crust bubbles!
This one had no mozzarella. Just pesto, hot capicolo, tomatoes, Parmigiano Reggiano and oregano. It also came out better because I drained the excess oil from the pesto before dressing the dough and salted the tomatoes in a strainer about 30 min. before topping. Then, when it came out of the oven I finely grated the Parmigiano Reggiano over it and added the oregano. Finally, just before eating, I drizzled some of the excess oil from the pesto over it.
I liked this last one a lot too:
It had sauteed peppers and onions, hot Calabrese, pepper salami, red sauce, some goat's milk Gouda and oregano.