New York Pizza Showdown

    We have all heard of New York style pizza. Some pizza places around every town advertise real New York style pizza. We, as west coasters don't know what that means but it sounds good. I like almost anything that says it's authentic, original or genuine. But, as we all know, what truth is there in advertising?  When an appliances advertises it has genuine plastic parts or that it was imported does that make it better? If an older car advertisement says it has the original paint, do I want that? If a restaurant that advertises all you can eat for $2.95 including loobster sound like a bargain? Yes, I said loobster as I wasn't supposed to notice that the extra "o" in lobster makes it apparent that the shell fish is made from fish parts and tainted to resemble lobster thus fooling us into thinking we got a bargain! So when a pizza  place says New York style, is it for real? Not necessarily, but when it comes to searching for the Holy Grail do I want style or genuine? I think we all agree that we want what is genuine. There is a place for fake, faux, pretend, artificial and imitation in the world but what about pizza? If we were to go shopping for a dog would we settle for something just like a dog? Probably not.
    That is where this next sojourn is about to take me. My quest, once I began to understand what advertisement means is, that it resembles a New York style but it isn't original. I think about the same thing when it comes to the world of art. Questions that I have, such as, can a man of Scandinavian descent do Native American art? Is he qualified? Take it one step further, can a Caucasian do art reflecting the plight of African Americans? Again, is he qualified or disqualified? So, my question has to be, can a pizza made in California be a New York Pizza? If I was born in Canada but raised in the U.S. am I Canadian or American? If I had a brother who might be born in Mexico, be of Scandinavian descent but raised in the U.S. be Mexican, Scandinavian or American? So, being born and raised in California, am I qualified or disqualified to make a genuine New York Pizza? I think we better call up Voltaire, Jefferson and the gang to sort that one out. Maybe none of that even matters. Maybe just good quality, authentic, and genuine east coast ingredients put together in a typical New York way makes it a New York Pizza. This could end up being another Philosophical Pizza ( see prior blog) questions that needs to be addressed or maybe just left alone.

    One of the books I bought online was called: The Ultimate Pizza Manual. The author and long time New Yorker, Francesco Brunaldo claims that the pizzerias of old are disappearing. By that he means that the methods and even some of the products are disappearing. Typical New York Pizza just isn't what it used to be he says. In a valiant effort to save the original style pizza from obscurity he has written this book to save this art form. I followed his recipe to the letter except where east coast brand names are not available here, so in several cases, I had to substitute. What I am hoping to achieve is what Francesco is seeing slipping away in New York City. I made the dough for an 18" pie. His ingredients are slightly different than what I was expecting as he includes some semolina flour with his high gluten flour. The procedure is what is typically different. Following them to exact detail can make or break it from what I have learned.

   Today, I set out to determine which, of the three books I have by experts, makes the best New York Pizza. I made one of Francesco's doughs. I made one of Tony Gemignani's New York doughs from his book called Pizza and I made one of Peter Reinhart's dough's from his book called American Pie. To take it a step further I have also made Francesco's pizza sauce and Tony's sauce for the big pizza showdown happening right here in my kitchen this week. Peter Reinhart didn't have a sauce recipe so it will be between these two. I have tasted them both and they both are excellent. Tony chills his where as Francesco brings to a boil then simmers his for a mere 15 minutes.

Now a true New York pizzaiolo won't roll his pizza with a rolling pin. He will work it by hand to stretch and toss the dough until it's of the right size, and thickness. He will build a berm like border shaped into the edges then add the sauce and mixture of cheeses. Every pizzaiolo will have his own blend but typically there will be mozzarella, provolone, romano, parmesan and asiago in there somewhere. Of course the pizza will be fire-baked either by wood or coal and when removed from the oven cut into large slices. The tip should sag just  a tad and the consumer will fold the tip up, bend the 2 back corners together and indulge. Unfortunately I won't have genuine fire, just my pretend fire gas oven but I hope that won't detract too much from the authenticity. This competition will be going on all week as I bake and rate each one. In the last photo I have 7 dough balls labeled and sealed to rise slowly in the fridge until the day of baking. I can't wait for the competition to begin!

Pizza for Lunch, Pizza for Dinner & Pizza for Breakfast

A good pizza out can you get you all worked up and inspired. We had gone to the Crocker Art Museum and took a tour led by the docent. We got hungry and eventually ended up getting pizza (imagine that!) at a place we had tried to get into before but to no avail. This time we succeeded. The pizza place was the one I had mentioned earlier in the previous blog called Chicago Fire. We left Chicago Fire all fired up and inspired and ready to go home and make some new pizzas. Before we headed home we detoured over to Barnes & Nobles and found a few books on pizza that interested us. We came home and ordered them on Amazon and then went to work on a pizza we had both read about. It has a name but basically it is a potato pizza with Gorgonzola on it. I believe it was Peter Reinhart, one of the Legends of Pizza who said that pizza is the perfect flavor delivery system. I couldn't agree more. That makes perfect sense. A tortilla is the method to bring you cheese, beef, chicken, salsa etc. Bread is a method to bring you peanut butter, ham & cheese, garlic and butter etc. etc. A well made pizza crust serves the same purpose. The toppings are only limited by our imagination.

We pulled out one of Albert Grande's pizza doughs that I had proofed in the fridge. Let it warm up while we went to Starbucks in the evening, skipping dinner since we were still full from lunch. (Now remember, we already had pizza once today). We boogied over to Nugget at 9:45 at night and picked up some Yukon Gold potatoes and some Gorgonzola crumbled cheese.

I cranked up the oven to 550º and precooked a few potatoes in the microwave while Sheri sliced some onions and peeled and crushed some garlic. Sheri ran out to the herb garden out back with a flashlight and picked some rosemary and oregano. After lightly coating the dough with some of Sciabica's garlic olive oil, we assembled it and shoved it into the oven. Ten minutes later we were eating a pizza that tasted more like a Cornish Pasty than a typical Italian style traditional pizza. Talk about comfort food at 11:30 at night! To top it off, it was actually a vegetarian pizza and I didn't even miss the fact that it was meatless!

I love going to bed with a happy stomach. The next morning, with only 3 slices left, we reheated it with some fried bacon on top and a fried egg placed over each slice. What a great breakfast

pizza that became! Presley, our Golden Retriever and genuine pizza lover, enjoyed the end crusts as they got a bit tough after reheating them. This was definitely a pizza I would do again and one I would do for guests as well. We put our twist on the recipes and made it personal to our tastes. How come the Irish didn't think of this? Oh and BTW, the dough was perfect Albert! Thanks!