Monday, November 7, 2011

In Search of Perfect Pizza



We have a favorite pizza spot in downtown Salt Lake, but we have been trying to make them at home, which is tricky because the thing that makes them so good is the this crispy chewy crust achieved with the giant wood burning, brick pizza oven. My friend Heidi suggested grilling them which we will definitely try if we ever get a grill!

At any rate, we followed these directions (right down to the special flour and buffalo mozzarella thanks to the local Italian market) for my favorite Margherita pizza, used a pizza stone and loaded our gas oven with Terracotta tiles, and were quite pleased with the results. We have made many pizzas this way and I think we finally have it down. Plus it was a good way to use up some basil and tomatoes from our garden.

And since we are trying to eat healthier I think we might start trying some variations using grilled veggies and maybe no cheese.

Its a really fun tradition. For a few weeks we were doing it every Friday night, even once for a football party and let everyone make their own. Avery LOVES throwing the dough up in the air and twirling it around to stretch it (hers always end up not quite as pretty but she has fun so...), and the rest of us just loved stuffing our faces.

Pretty perfect pizza if you ask me.

9 comments:

  1. I have found that making the dough the night before and letting it rise/ferment in the fridge overnight gives me a much better crust. It's crispier and chewier at the same time and tastes better too. Just be sure to set it out on the counter 60-90 minutes before you want to shape it and let it come to room temp.

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  2. I do the overnight method, too -- a la Peter Rhinehart -- but I've never made anything more delicious looking than the one you have pictured here! :) Yum!

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  3. Seriously!?! Tiles in the oven!?! That is GENIUS! I'll have to try that! Your pizza looks amazing...and I'm sooo hungry now. Sigh. :)

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  4. which market are you using? i've had a hard time finding the 00 flour.

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  5. Oh we had that tradition growing up. The tiles in the oven work great! Your pizza looks delicious!

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  6. Alissa-- we got the flour at Caputo's market...the one with the deli right down town. They also make their own mozzarella.

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  7. It looks like a perfect pizza to me too. I'm a little jealous of Avery dough throwing skills... I'm rubbish at that bit!

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