The Elements of Pizza: Unlocking the Secrets to World-Class Pies at Home

341 Pages·2016·14.84 MB·English

by  Forkish

CONTENTS
Introduction
CHAPTER 1
THE SOUL OF PIZZA
CHAPTER 2
PIZZA STYLES
CHAPTER 3
EIGHT DETAILS FOR GREAT PIZZA CRUST
CHAPTER 4
INGREDIENTS AND EQUIPMENT
CHAPTER 5
METHODS
CHAPTER 6
PIZZA DOUGH RECIPES
SATURDAY DOUGHS
Saturday Pizza Dough
“I Slept in but I Want Pizza Tonight” Dough
Single Dough Ball
Enzo’s Pizza Dough
Saturday Pan Pizza Dough
REFRIGERATED LONG DOUGHS
24-to 48-Hour Pizza Dough
48-to 72-Hour Biga Pizza Dough
48-to 72-Hour New York Pizza Dough
NATURALLY LEAVENED DOUGHS
Wild Yeast (Levain) Culture
Overnight Levain Pizza Dough
SPECIALTY DOUGHS
Al Taglio Pizza Dough
Bar Pizza Dough
Gluten-Free Pizza Dough
CHAPTER 7
PIZZA RECIPES
SAUCES
Basic Tomato Sauce, Two Ways
FWSY Sauce
Vodka Sauce
New York Pizza Sauce
ITALIAN & ITALIAN-INSPIRED
Pizza Marinara
Pizza Margherita
The Ferdinando
Pomodoro Royale (with Cheese)
Prosciutto and Bufala
Mortadella and Pistachio Pizza
Zucchini Blossom Pizza
River Po Pizza
Carbonara Pizza
Pizza Bianca and Pizza Rossa
NEW YORK & NEW YORK–INSPIRED
New York Cheese Pizza
Simple Tomato Pie
Meatball Pizza
A.J.’s Pie
Vodka Sauce and Sausage Pizza
Brooklyn Hot Honey Pie
Pepperoni, Mushroom, and Onion Pizza
Grandma Pie
Adam Kuban’s “Love Supreme” Bar Pizza
KEN’S ARTISAN PIZZA CLASSICS
Margherita and Arugula, Two Ways
Arrabiata Pizza
Prosciutto Pizza
Fennel Sausage and Onion Pizza
Spring Onion Pizza
TRIFECTA FLATBREADS
Oregon Basil Pesto and Burrata Flatbread
Tarte Flambée
Nettle Pesto Flatbread With Morel Mushrooms
VEGETABLES & JUST BECAUSE
The White Owl
Escarole Pizza
Delicata Squash Pizza
Butternut Squash Pizza
Artichoke and Bacon Pizza
Chanterelle and Garlic Pizza
The Tommy Habetz Pizza
The Pie Hole Skillet Pizza
Hawaiian Pizza
Raclette Pizza
Measurement Conversion Charts
Acknowledgments
Index
Pizzaiolos at Da Michele in Naples.
INTRODUCTION
IT’S REALLY UP TO YOU.
The hidden reality of pizza is that you can easily make better pizza at home than
you can buy at any but the best independently owned, quality-focused pizzerias.
All you need are good ingredients—flour, canned tomatoes, and cheese—plus a few
tools and a standard home kitchen oven. And some good instruction. Even if you
live somewhere that has great pizzerias, imagine making your own—a pizza that
you can be proud of and is exactly how you like it. Discover for yourself what
different cheeses are like on pizza: splurge on water buffalo mozzarella, see what
happens when you seek out caciocavallo cheese, or try adding freshly grated
Pecorino Romano. Master thin-crust and Neapolitan-style pizza. Bang out a couple
of killer pan pizzas to eat with Sunday football. Serve it with confidence to your
family and friends. Making it yourself will give you a greater appreciation for the
craft of the pizzaiolos at your favorite pizzeria: you will probably find yourself
looking more closely at their shaping technique; the dough they use and its
texture; and how it’s topped, loaded into the oven, and baked. By making pizza
yourself, you become more intimate with it. It’s seductive. You are more informed,
and that understanding leads to better pizza, great pleasure, and plenty of pride.
I grew up in Maryland, and I now live in Portland, Oregon, where I opened
Ken’s Artisan Bakery in 2001 after a Silicon Valley career, first as an engineer and
then as a sales guy. In 2005 we started making pizza once a week in our big bread
oven at the bakery and called it Monday Night Pizza. Then, in 2006, I opened
Ken’s Artisan Pizza, a wood-fired-oven pizzeria, with my head baker turned chef
Alan Maniscalco. My third venture is a full-service restaurant called Trifecta
Tavern & Bakery, open since 2013, where we include flatbreads on our dinner
menu that are baked in yet another wood-fired oven. I’ve been to Italy about a
dozen times. I wrote about pizza in my first book, Flour Water Salt Yeast. So, what
did I know about pizza? Put it this way: the more you know, the more you know
you don’t know. As it turns out, I had plenty left to learn.
Researching pizza for this book took me to Naples for the first time to visit its
pizzerias. Many of the lessons I learned there opened my eyes to another way of
thinking about pizza—especially about how to make the dough. It took a while to
realize what was right in front of my eyes: think like a pizzaiolo, not like a bread
baker. Pizza dough and bread dough have different needs. Bread wants to expand
to its maximum volume; pizza does not. Pizza dough has structural needs—to
stretch without breaking and without being too elastic. I knew this before, but I
was still thinking of pizza as a kind of bread. The bread I like to make comes from
wet doughs—made with a lot more water than you’re probably used to—but pizza
doughs that are equally wet don’t work very well. And who knew that I should
think about matching the hydration of the dough to the type of oven the pizza
bakes in? At my pizzeria we long ago figured out the right dough for our oven.
What I realized is that finding the perfect dough, and figuring out the perfect
baking technique, is different when you’re baking in a standard home oven.
What’s more, it depends on the style of pizza you want to make.
The best part of this little journey of mine was affirming that great pizza in the
home kitchen is not complicated. It’s really very simple. On the pages that follow I
take you through the process—how to make it—and the reasoning behind it so you
can learn the same lessons I learned.
Even in Italy, more than 25 percent of households make their own pizza from
time to time. It’s an easy meal that comforts—pizza baked in a pan in the home
kitchen. I guarantee you can make better pizza at home than you would buy from
any chain, and for less money, too. And it’s going to have heart. A decent home
oven (not necessarily an expensive one); a baking stone, or better yet, a baking
steel; a few baking accessories; good ingredients; and simple-to-follow instructions
will get you there. (Trust me, you can buy affordable ingredients that are far better
than any chain pizza place will put on your pie.) Making pizza can be a solo effort,
where you enjoy the process as much as the result (and get better every time you do
it), or it can be a tradition you share with your family or housemates.
Great pizza as we know it has been happening in Italy for about 150 years,
especially in the region surrounding the Bay of Naples. Great pizza is happening
in America, too, with a dramatic growth in quality pies around the country in the
twenty-first century. And this may not sound like news, but in the last several years
a movement has grown that honors traditional techniques and ingredients, then
goes beyond the standard to push the quality boundaries higher. It’s in the air.
People are traveling long distances to eat pizza made by Franco Pepe at Pepe in
Grani in the small village of Caiazzo, about a 45 minute drive from Naples. The
queues at Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix are legendary. Nancy Silverton’s ingredient-
inspired Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles is known for brilliance on top of a great
crust. The Salvo brothers in Naples select from seven different olive oils to match