At one point in my life, I worked in a few restaurants recognized by Michelin, James Beard, Wine Spectator and many others, for their excellence. I am grateful for everything I learned during the years that I was there. If there is one lesson I picked up right from the get go though, I would have to say, it is that ingredients matter.
I know we all say that, but then we cut corners and cook with packaged and processed foods to save time, money and energy, or worse yet, we eat fast food. Sometimes this is necessary. When I have a meal made with top-tier components though (whether at a restaurant or home-cooked), it always reminds and inspires me to better prioritize consuming fresh, high-quality ingredients, for both superlative taste and health.
This is one such inspirational meal, that I deserve no credit for. This pizza night was hosted by my friends (thank you, L.S. and J.C.), to celebrate their new pizza oven. My only contribution was a bottle of wine, an appetite, and this post, which documents their pizza making skills, generosity and the delicious food.
Caesar Salad with Anchovies and Homemade Croutons
From the very beginning of the night, I could taste that the individual ingredients used for each dish were of excellent quality. Take, for example, this Caesar salad. One bite and I could surmise that this was not a packaged, grocery store salad.
Sure enough, my hosts confirmed that homemade, sourdough bread was used to make the croutons, the anchovies were imported and gifted by a friend who is a connoisseur, and the dressing was made from scratch. This salad was incredibly fresh and satisfying.
Homemade Pizza Dough
That same theme carried through to the pizza. The pizza dough was made from scratch using 00 flour (a.k.a. doppio zero or double zero) from Italy. In Italy, unlike the U.S., flour is categorized by the size of the grind, on a scale from 00 - 2, with 00 being the finest grind and the gold standard for making Neapolitan pizzas.
If you are rolling your eyes at this point, and having thoughts that include the word "bougie," let me explain why this matters. The finer flour makes high-elasticity dough, necessary for kneading, but delicate enough, that when cooked, it does not become tough or rubbery. This was the base for all the pizzas to come.
The first pizza to enter the oven was the Margherita pizza, considered the flagship of all Neapolitan pizzas in Italy. The ingredients represent the colors of the Italian flag: red (hand crushed, San Marzano tomatoes), white (buffalo mozzarella) and green (fresh basil).
The ideal cooking time for this style of pizza is between 60 - 90 seconds in an 800 - 900°F (430–480°C) oven, with some exceptions. Sure enough, about 90 seconds after entering the oven, our Margherita pizza came out, perfectly cooked.
The cheese was bubbling and the crust was chewy and airy. All that the pizza required now, was a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and some fresh basil.
Margherita Pizza
Sound too simple, ingredient-wise? Maybe, but the Margherita is the standard by which I judge all Neapolitan pizzas. There are only two elements in this pizza that truly test the chef's skill: the impasto (dough) and the salsa di pomodori (tomato sauce). (Cheese is usually sourced from experts in that discipline.)
If you get those two things wrong, there's no cheating your way out of it. When you get them right, this is some of the best, and most balanced pizza you'll ever taste.
Once the traditional, Neapolitan, Margherita pizza was digested, we moved forward in the spirit of creativity. Our second pizza swapped out tomato for barbecue sauce, on top of which we evenly distributed bite-sized pieces of barbecued chicken.
To balance the softer and sweeter flavors of the barbecue sauce, we used a blend of Gruyere and Swiss cheese to impart some stronger, nuttier flavors. In addition, we added some roasted cauliflower and thinly, sliced red onion. With that, it was into the blazing oven.
90 seconds later, the pizza came out smelling sweetly of the caramelized sugars in the sauce.
Barbecue Chicken Pizza with Roasted Cauliflower and Red Onion
Then, we were back at the table and ready to eat again. I am generally a pizza traditionalist and don't venture too far out of that zone. That said, one of my values is to be open to trying new things, pizza included. In this case, I am glad I did, because this pizza was excellent.
For our final pizza, we thinly, sliced potatoes using a mandolin, par boiled them and placed them on the stretched dough, which had been brushed with a homemade, garlic sauce.
To that, we added lardons, which are small pieces of thick-cut bacon. Incidentally, circling back to my initial comments about using high-quality ingredients, my friend made these lardons from pork belly he had cured himself. You can see them sizzling away under the high heat, in the video above. Yum!
Then, (you know the drill) 90 seconds later, the pizza was out of the oven, and almost ready to eat.
Potato Pizza with Rosemary, Garlic, Lardon and Black Olives
All it needed was some extra virgin olive oil, and a light sprinkling of rosemary from the garden, ...
... and it was ready to devour. Another delicious pizza was under our belts. I mean literally, for those of us wearing them. From there, it was time to relax, enjoy more wine, and share stories.
One of the aspects of this meal that I really enjoyed, was that we cooked each pizza individually, and then sat down to enjoy it while it was still fresh out of the oven, prior to cooking the next one. In addition to tasting the pizza when it was at its apex, this also allowed us to slow down and take each moment in with gratitude and appreciation.
Thank you again to L.S. and J.C. for a wonderful, summer evening, full of amazing food, great conversation and meaningful friendship.
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