When you think of Savoy, think of the Alps. There is something about the chill of a mountain that encourages you to eat your way into a pot-bellied stove, as if eating the food will lend you the experience of baking with it in a very warm and cozy place. Perhaps that is why anything "savoyarde" seems to contain three very comforting ingredients: gooey and smelly Reblochon cheese, potatoes, and ham—like tartiflette. It's hearty and perfect for winter.
Ironically, my first taste of Savoy was in a small seaside town in Provence called Cassis during the height of summer. I parked myself at a little crêpe establishment, and after some consideration, ordered the crêpe savoyarde. The crêpe was stuffed with running Reblochon cheese and potatoes, and on top of the envelope-fold of crêpe was placed a drape of jambon cru, like prosciutto. It was rich and wholesome and far too heavy for summer, so that I staggered back up the hot, hot hill to my house, feeling more like I resembled a snowman than a girl. But the crêpe's flavors worked so well together that I thought to myself instantly, "I want to make this into a pizza."
I've been thinking about these for awhile and finally gave it a try. Easy to do. Make your pizza, roll it up, slice and place in a muffin pan.
I used a dough that's about 55% hydration. Overnight retard. It's easy to roll and shape. After rolling into a rectangle I sauced it and added pepperoni and mozzarella. You have to kind of figure the size of the roll or it may exceed the diameter of you muffin pan. Mine is 2.75" across and about 1.25" deep so I sliced the roll every 1.25". The slices are a little hard to handle. Lay the slices in the pans and bake at 425 for about 25 minutes. The slices were in the pan about 30 minutes before baking. Have to play with this to see how it effects things. Slight sticking problem. I used PAM. I may invest in a non stick muffin pan.
I could simply flip the pizza over. The crust would brown and the cheese would not only melt, it would become crispy and caramelized like a frico, making the leftover pizza into something possibly better than the real thing.
Wish I had some leftover pizza in the fridge to try this with. Guess that's an excuse to order some.
Note: Due to pilot error, this recipe post crashed sometime Saturday night after I fiddled with it—only a few hours after taking flight. I just worked with FoolishPoolish to restore it and am bumping it back up in the queue here today for those of you who missed it. —AK
After much deliberation, I came to my own conclusion that crust is the defining component of pizza. Fitting, then, that my next pizza culinary adventure would be making "Pizza Bianca." In its traditional form, this popular Roman flatbread has no toppings other than oil and salt—just six feet of crisp, chewy, flavorsome CRUST!
Now, I'll confess I have never visited the legendary Antico Forno Campo de'Firori in Rome, or such New York bakeries as Grandaisy or Sullivan Street—or even Spianata & Co. in London. However, if Jeffrey Steingarten's pursuit of the perfect pizza bianca is anything to go by, the results would be worth it. In his book It Must Have Been Something I Ate there are details of his obsessive quest, including measuring oven temperature with an infrared thermometer, laboratory analysis of flour samples, and traveling to Rome to observe bakers practicing their craft before returning to New York to consult with baker Jim Lahey at Sullivan Street Bakery.
My far humbler efforts, on the other hand, consisted of 2 weeks researching drooling over Flickr pictures of prime specimens of pizza bianca and getting covered in flour while trying to stretch insanely wet dough in my home kitchen.
Note: You may know foolishpoolish from the comments on Slice, where he dives in with abandon—particularly where pizza-making is concerned. Yesterday, he shared this recipe with us. I'm putting it up today, as it takes a while. You should go grab the ingredients and start today. You'll be enjoying this delicious-looking pizza by Monday. —The Mgmt.
- makes two thick-crust 14-by-10-inch pizzas or three thinner pizzas -
Notes
Time: 2 days (first day making the sauce and mixing preferment, second day mixing the final dough and baking the pizza). Three days if refrigerating the dough
The recipe for the sauce was inspired by two different Heston Blumenthal techniques featured in his In Search of Perfection... books and television series. One used tomato pulp and seeds to make an umami-rich paste (which I have dubbed "tomami") while the other involves drying fresh tomatoes in the oven to bring out their sweetness
The recipe for the dough was designed to be flexible enough to use sourdough starter (if you have some available) or just baker's yeast if not. For those using a sourdough starter, there is an optional refrigeration step, which will give the crust greater depth of flavor, make it slightly chewier, and mildly tangy. Use according to taste
The baking process is very much influenced by Dom DeMarco's method for making the square pies he turns out at Di Fara Pizza in Brooklyn. Thanks to all the food bloggers and YouTube uploaders who, between them, have almost the entire process captured on video, although I should clarify that in no way is this pizza recipe intended as a "Di Fara copy"
Roberto Caporuscio, one of the partners-pizzaiolos at Kesté Pizza & Vino in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, led a Neapolitan pizza-making class last night. Before he began punching dough balls and spreading tomato sauce, he went over the basics. Naples is a couple hours south of Rome, and "the pizza from there is not better, it's just different." He gave us a little history on the famous Naples-originating Margherita pizza, which we were about to bake in the Kesté oven cranked up to 950°F.
A baker named Rafaele Esposito whipped up the first pizza Margherita in 1889 to welcome the Queen of Italy, Queen Margherita, to Naples. To make the pie a little more patriotic-looking, Esposito used tomato sauce (red), mozzarella (white), and basil leaves (green)—the colors of the Italian flag. Queen Margherita loved the pizza so much the concoction took her name. (Not sure if anything else she did, but it probably doesn't hold a candle to being a legendary pizza namesake.)
To make the Margherita at Kesté, Caporuscio uses Caputo brand flour from Naples (which contains no additives like the U.S. kinds, he points out), imported canned tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, fresh basil, and extra virgin olive oil (the only fat he recommends for pizza). The recipe, adapted for normal, nonrestaurant kitchens, follows after the jump.
On Fridays, Joshua Bousel drops by with a recipe for you to grill over the weekend. Fire it up, Joshua!
Before you run out and grab all those burgers and hot dogs for tomorrow's great Fourth of July cookout, let me tempt you with another great American tradition that's great for the grill and revelers alike: pizza. Although the high heat of the grill produces a truly excellent pizza, it's a challenge to get a perfectly cooked crisp crust at the same time the toppings are ready, but after years of trial and error, I've developed a fairly foolproof way to get perfect pizzas every time.
This requires a two-zone fire, with all the coals piled on one side of the charcoal grate, and a process of cooking the crust in stages.
First you stretch the dough out to a personal-size pizza and place it directly over the coals, cooking it until it browns and crisps nicely. Then remove the crust to a plate, arrange the toppings on the cooked side, place it over the cool side of the grill, and cover. When the cheese is melted and the toppings are done to your liking, check the bottom of the crust; if it needs to cook a little longer, just move it over to the hot side again until it's perfect.
What comes off the grill is a real beauty of a pie. A wonderfully cooked crust, with that balance of crisp and chewiness that makes a great pizza--something to truly celebrate alongside our independence.
Editor's note: Philadelphia food writers Joy Manning and Tara Mataraza Desmond drop by each week with Meat Lite, which celebrates meat in moderation. Meat Lite was inspired by their book, Almost Meatless.
This is a cross between crispy flatbread and chewy pizza with extra flavor from the char of the grill. If you don't have access to a grill, bake the dough in the oven as you would any other pizza. The topping is packed with flavor from just four ounces of turkey sausage and mushrooms spiked with a splash of malt vinegar for a bright, buttery lift.
Spring onions caramelize with the mushrooms underneath the sausage, and chives perk up the deep, earthy topping along with tangy goat cheese. The mushrooms and sausage can be roasted up to three days ahead and warmed through before adding to the grilled dough.
Editor's note: Philadelphia food writers Joy Manning and Tara Mataraza Desmond drop by each week with Meat Lite, which celebrates meat in moderation. Meat Lite was inspired by the book coauthored by the two, Almost Meatless, due out in spring 2009.
In Italian cuisine, antipasto is essentially the appetizer course. The word translates to "before the meal," and it's a wonder that anyone's appetite ever makes it to the main course given the delicious array offered on a typical antipasto platter.
Mixed greens, marinated vegetables, roasted garlic, an assortment of cheeses and wispy slices of smoked and cured meats, like salami, prosciutto, and soppressata, all add up to a perfectly satisfying meal.
This pizza makes antipasto the main course (though you could certainly serve it as an appetizer instead) and is a tasty reminder of how far just a bit of good quality, flavorful meat will go. Soppressata ranks among my personal favorites in the dry-cured salami category for its rich flavor, salty edge and subtle chewiness. I opt for sweet slicing soppressata in this recipe, but feel free to request the hot variety (do specify "slicing soppressata" when ordering, which will ensure you end up with wide, thin slices that blanket the dough, as opposed to small, thick chunks). If you prefer different types of vegetables, feel free to swap them for the suggestions here. Don't skip the chopped greens, lightly dressed with simple vinaigrette--often the bed of an antipasto plate--as the final topping.
Posted by Adam Kuban, December 24, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Jim Lahey rose to internet fame—or at least his no-knead bread dough technique did—in late 2006. I remember joking that the bread dough was a nice trick but that I'd be absolutely impressed with a no-knead pizza dough.And so here comes Chef John with the adaptation.His video recipe, after the jump.
The dough looks pretty damn stretchy and good-to-go, but I'd probably advise building the pizza up on a pizza peel and cooking it on a very hot preheated pizza stone rather than on a sheet pan as Chef John does here. I'll cop to being a pizza snob, too, and would avoid the Jack cheese in favor of mozzarella and a dusting of good Parmesan.
Now if only someone can produce a pizza that kneads, stretches, sauces, and tops itself, then we'll be in business.
Everyone has a food that they love so much or crave so often that they will eat it even after just having finished Thanksgiving dinner. For me, that food is white pizza. If I am presented with a slice, or see it in a window or among the pizza pies at the pizzeria, I will eat it. If you feel the same way, then this quintessential white pizza recipe can turn your oven into your favorite New York corner pizza place.
My only edits would be that if you're really craving a white pie, buy the dough at the best local pizzeria near you, as this dough takes a day to be ready. Also, most pies I've seen have mozzarella on top, as well as ricotta, so you could always adapt and add a bit of that as well.
Pizza can be more versatile than we tend to think, and this one has neither sauce nor cheese. But pizza dough is a creative base for this season's iconic Concord grapes. Mario's basic dough recipe follows, but if you do buy your dough from the local pizzeria, this grilled bread is a sweet and salty cinch.
Daring Bakers is sort of an online happening. Hundreds and hundreds of bloggers participate. Each month, one blogger or a group of bloggers "hosts" a recipe and acts as a hub for the participants. Then, all the bakers who fancy themselves daring make the recipe, tweaking it, adding their own spin and personality, etc. They then post their results on the specified due date. This month's challenge was pizza. Awesome. It was hosted by Rosa's Yummy Yums.
This past Wednesday was the turn-in date, and I've been having fun the last few days watching results as people complete the project and post to their blogs. The seed recipe was Peter Reinhart's Neapolitan pizza dough, which I've had good luck with myself.
Brownie of Blondie and Brownie tipped me to this awesome event. Here's her entry, which combines street cart food (chicken tikka) with pizza:
Jamie Oliver may sound English, but deep down he's really Italian—take, for example, his new chain of Jamie's Italian restaurants slowly spreading their way through England, from Oxford to Bath and beyond. In his book Jamie's Italy, he offers these crisp, petite pizzas as the Italian street food answer to papadum (very popular in the UK)—fried as the "first-ever pizzas were."
Embellished only with buffalo mozzarella, plum tomato sauce, and torn strips of basil, anointed in the fryer and thereafter with a drizzle of golden oil, it's perhaps their simple old-fashionedness that renders them so fresh and modern.
According to the California Pizza Kitchen Family Cookbook, this recipe is "pumpkin pie on a pizza crust." This little jack-o-lantern gives a new life to the phrase "pizza pie," and from one pizza and pie lover to another, why not? Cute for kids, playful for adults. It's time for some face on your pie, instead of a pie in your face. And now you have the recipe to the famous CPK honey-wheat crust.
Slice is part of the Foodblog Ad Network. To advertise on this site or across a network of food-related weblogs, click here.
Slice is also part of the New York City Blogad Network, which allows advertisers to target an audience of smart and savvy Gothamites. To place an ad on Slice or on the NYC Blogad Network, click here.
This is a cross between crispy flatbread and chewy pizza with extra flavor from the char of the grill. If you don't have access to a grill, bake the dough in the oven as you would any other pizza. The topping is packed with flavor from just four ounces of turkey sausage and mushrooms spiked with a splash of malt vinegar for a bright, buttery lift. 
In Italian cuisine, antipasto is essentially the appetizer course. The word translates to "before the meal," and it's a wonder that anyone's appetite ever makes it to the main course given the delicious array offered on a typical antipasto platter. 
According to the California Pizza Kitchen Family Cookbook, this recipe is "pumpkin pie on a pizza crust." This little jack-o-lantern gives a new life to the phrase "pizza pie," and from one pizza and pie lover to another, why not? Cute for kids, playful for adults. It's time for some face on your pie, instead of a pie in your face. And now you have the recipe to the famous CPK honey-wheat crust.
