National Pizza Day - What's Your Favorite?

I love pizza of all kinds.....Deep dish and brick oven thin and everything in between..

I do make my own from scratch, the way my mom (born n raised in Italy) does it. I have a degree in culinary arts so that helps too....

 

I like a nice hand-tossed baked in a proper brick oven.

 

I was going to ask you what were some take-aways from your time in RI, what did you see, do, like. The Sicilian is a style to itself, my 2nd favorite to NY (even though I have Sicilian ancestors and you would not believe what they called pizza). Caserta is the name of a town that my Grandfather came from. I recently got the "right" pan, following advice from barpizzabarpizza.com, I have always made my own. I followed their recipe and it was too short, too much oil, cracker like. The pan was good, but I'll stick with the stone.

 

DiGiorno's for sure.....

Ok....ok.....put your pitchforks and torches away

Sadly, I don't live in an area blessed with really good pizza joints......We have the chains, of course (Domino's, Pizza Hut, Little Caesar's)....and a few "specialty" pizza places....but to be honest, although all are.......ok.....none are particularly good in my book.

There's a city not too far away that makes really good wood-fired pizzas that have unusual (but not ridiculous) toppings....I've had that a couple times and really liked it.

Probably the best I've had was at a place whose name I forget in NYC, and another in San Francisco that was really good.

I've also made it from scratch, and really like my own....BUT.....I can never get the sauce to taste like "real" pizza sauce...at least not the sauce I'm really TRYING to emulate.

Gotta admit....that pizza that Tubelife made looks pretty darned tasty.....

 

I think this topic is more controversial than politics. Coming from the tri state area, it is my belief that the recipe for good pizza gets evaporated when you cross those state lines. It has baffled me since i moved away from joisey, why a simple recipe of dough, sauce and cheese in an oven can get screwed up so easily. That being said, I’m not moving back.

 

I quickly checked out the barPizza site and there’s some useful info there. I agree with grating your own mozzarella cheese, it’s a must. Also for the sauce it’s really that simple...

I sometimes use my folks sauce which they make from scratch and jar up themselves. To be honest tho, I usually save that for pasta and use canned San Marzano crushed tomatoes, salt, pepper and a tad of olive oil. That’s it!!

I use a totally different dough method/recipe than the “Bahh Pizza” method... I make it the way my ma makes it, basic and simple.

 

Cracker thin crust with Italian sausage, broccoli and pineapple. Yeah I went there! Mozzarella and super fresh tomato sauce, of course.

When I lived in Birmingham back in the 90s there was place called Baker's Pizza where the owner (last name Baker) was an insane person that made his insanity work on his absolute dedication to making the best pizza that he learned how to make when he lived in Italy. The man made is own tomato sauce from scratch.

Best friggin' pizza I have ever had. Nothing has even come close since then.

 

Details!

 

Dating myself, but when Pequods in Morton Grove IL opened up, it became my favorite.

Been a long time, but love that pie.

 

Just this past weekend I made my gluten free Celiac-American wife the first pan pizza she's had in 14 years.

Not the best by any means, but it turned out well enough that I'm not sure I would have been able to tell that it was gluten free, and if you've been subjected to gluten free bread/baking products, you will know that that's high praise.

As for myself, I don't really have a single favorite. I like a stripped down Neapolitan and Chicago deep dish alike. And while it may be heresy to some, I've got no problem with a good old cardboard crust frozen pizza. It's what I grew up on, and I still like it. My current go-to:

And a side of Hidden Valley Ranch for dipping. Yep. I said it.

 

Hand tossed New York style is always good to me.
I like mine with anchovies and mushrooms, but I’ll basically eat any pizza topping with the exception of olives.

However, I’m OFF the pizza pie for now.

 

Sorry to derail the thread...
The recipe is simple but so many things come into play here. Type of oven, cooking temp, pan etc etc. I recently started blind baking the dough, which simply means I cook it without toppings for like 5-8 minutes. I then add toppings and blast it in a 450-475 oven to finish it off. The oven is so important here, which is why a restaurant style za usually comes out different than an at home za. Now my ma does not do any of this, (it’s the chef in me) she just does it normal per se and cooks it at 400 or so until done.

One other thing, I started using bread flour in place of AP flour. Bread flour is a tad crispier/chewy and the all purpose rises more and is more airy, softer if that makes sense.

4c Flour
2 1/4 t Dry yeast
2 t Kosher Salt
1 t Sugar
1 1/2 c Water (cold tap then heated to 110ish)
2 T Olive oil

T-Tablespoon
t-teaspoon

Then let it rise. I usually make mine a day ahead to let the dough relax. Here it is rising....

 

Push come to shove, NY style. But there are many, many, many fine pizzas out there. Tonight we are having sausage, green olives and extra cheese from a run-of-the-mill mid-Atlantic mom and pop style place.

 

Back when I still could be bothered(and had an oven) I made them thin and crunchy from bread flour. Good tomato sauce with a sprinkle of fresh basil and oregano is a must. From there it’s salami, some chopped green peppers, depending on mood maybe some onions, olives and/or mushrooms, covered with a grated well matured cheese(I’d say Gouda is the bare minimum). I don’t like Italian cheeses on my pizza, but that’s probably cause I don’t have access to the good ones.

What is a Sicilian pizza?

 

I’m a born and raised California boy who lives in a beach town..

Make mine Hawaiian.

 

I've made my own. It's a lot of work for me and it came out well:



But my favorite is just a mile or so down the road, at Luigi's:

 

I love pizza, Hawaiian and BBQ chicken are my go tos but as long as it doesn't have olives, mushrooms or anchovies I'm happy.

My wife is gluten and dairy intolerant so when we get pizza it's always on a gluten free base with vegan cheese, now that might not sound fantastic but I would highly recommend it as it's pretty good.

 

Thin Crust
Pesto, no tomato sauce
Garlic, onions, mushrooms, spinach and chicken.
Mozzarella and a bit of parmesan.
Can't have too much garlic.