Pizza

[Jungle Fan]

@StreetwiseI don't think we have enough liability insurance to peddle those results I got out of my attempts to recreate what I tasted in Italy. 😄 I have not found a single pizzeria that could come even close to passable, or even remotely close to the original product.

[Fish Folk]

Good slices! 

[Patrick_G]

On 7/21/2021 at 12:57 PM, Fish Folk said:

Good slices! 

I like what I see there! Nonna’s slice looks like Roman style. 

[Fish Folk]

On 7/21/2021 at 4:02 PM, Patrick_G said:

I like what I see there! Nonna’s slice looks like Roman style. 

Key is: SAN MARZANO TOMATOS

[dasaltemelosguy]

Oh, they are beautiful!

I haven't had a Grandma's Pie since I lived in NJ, 30 years ago! But after seeing your pictures, I can almost taste it again. I second the San Marzano's, nothing like them. Buffalo "mutz" helps too! Nancy Silverton out here in LA makes Roman Style pies but frankly, after you've had a Bonci, hers tastes like fast food!

Well now you've done it, now I have to place an order with Goldbelly!

[OnlyGenusCaps]

On 7/21/2021 at 2:57 PM, Fish Folk said:

Good slices! 

If I'm going to be real honest...  I sort of expected something better after all the grandiose talk.  The "Vodka" and the "Nonna" in particular look like generic local pizza slabs.  Plus, they are offensively square cut!  I've sent many a Midwestern pizza back for that crime.  They should have to post in large font if that is their default approach to slicing.

Does make me glad I have Punch just 10 min down the road though.  Crud.  Now I'm hungry again!  And Punch is closed.  😭 

[Fish Folk]

On 7/21/2021 at 10:44 PM, OnlyGenusCaps said:

If I'm going to be real honest...  I sort of expected something better after all the grandiose talk.  The "Vodka" and the "Nonna" in particular look like generic local pizza slabs.  Plus, they are offensively square cut!  I've sent many a Midwestern pizza back for that crime.  They should have to post in large font if that is their default approach to slicing.

Does make me glad I have Punch just 10 min down the road though.  Crud.  Now I'm hungry again!  And Punch is closed.  😭 

This is a fair critique. The place serves “good pizza” but it’s nowhere near Neapolitan perfection. 

[Jungle Fan]

Pizza is like fishkeeping a matter of personal taste and preference, I find the diversity as refreshing and interesting, as the ethnic connotations, or the discussions about what makes great pizza, the opinions are as varied, as those about what makes a great fish tank. Some like Lake Malawi with just rocks, others Dutch style heavily planted, and reglemented with varying color and texture stem plants, there are fans of pure Amano style Japanese Aquascapes, some like wild style fantasy landscape, or Bonsai looking scapes, some like myself like nature style jungle tanks,... I'm glad there are different style pizzas, and different styles of tanks, so we don't all have to like the same thing day in and day out.

Have you ever noticed how boring even your favorite food can become if it is all you ever get, day in, and day out? I fondly to this day remember my three student dormitory friends from different regions of Italy that were ready to go to fisticuffs over which of their pizzas ruled supreme but all went silent and agreed while munching French Crepes coated in sugar, flamed with Grande Marnier, and served with whipped cream and strawberries.

Diversity, and different experiences is what makes life interesting, and since we all come from different backgrounds we tend to like different things, sometimes we agree, finding those commonalities enriches life, and makes us appreciate it. How boring and drab would a world be where there was only one prescribed way to do things without license to find your own way, without freedom to explore, so you can find a better, or sometimes tastier way but without discarding knowledge that has been found to work. I have developed food allergies so I'm restricted in what types of food I can eat but just because I cannot, or don't like some foods won't see me criticizing others' choice.

All that said I enjoy a good food competition like a spaghetti competition, a bake off, chili cook off, with all the ensuing discussions and challenges, as long as in the end every faced is stuffed, and winner, or not the prevailing feeling is fullness, and settling in doubt over the capacity to have space for dessert.

[Fish Folk]

On 7/22/2021 at 11:54 AM, Jungle Fan said:

Pizza is like fishkeeping a matter of personal taste and preference, I find the diversity as refreshing and interesting, as the ethnic connotations, or the discussions about what makes great pizza, the opinions are as varied, as those about what makes a great fish tank. Some like Lake Malawi with just rocks, others Dutch style heavily planted, and reglemented with varying color and texture stem plants, there are fans of pure Amano style Japanese Aquascapes, some like wild style fantasy landscape, or Bonsai looking scapes, some like myself like nature style jungle tanks,... I'm glad there are different style pizzas, and different styles of tanks, so we don't all have to like the same thing day in and day out.

Have you ever noticed how boring even your favorite food can become if it is all you ever get, day in, and day out? I fondly to this day remember my three student dormitory friends from different regions of Italy that were ready to go to fisticuffs over which of their pizzas ruled supreme but all went silent and agreed while munching French Crepes coated in sugar, flamed with Grande Marnier, and served with whipped cream and strawberries.

Diversity, and different experiences is what makes life interesting, and since we all come from different backgrounds we tend to like different things, sometimes we agree, finding those commonalities enriches life, and makes us appreciate it. How boring and drab would a world be where there was only one prescribed way to do things without license to find your own way, without freedom to explore, so you can find a better, or sometimes tastier way but without discarding knowledge that has been found to work. I have developed food allergies so I'm restricted in what types of food I can eat but just because I cannot, or don't like some foods won't see me criticizing others' choice.

All that said I enjoy a good food competition like a spaghetti competition, a bake off, chili cook off, with all the ensuing discussions and challenges, as long as in the end every faced is stuffed, and winner, or not the prevailing feeling is fullness, and settling in doubt over the capacity to have space for dessert.

This is so nice. Thank you!

(And of course, all inferior "pizza" imitations are welcome . . . to be instructed . . . reprimanded . . . and set straight . . . ) 

[Jungle Fan]

As long as you type with a slice of the real deal in your mouth, for authentic comparison😆.

[Taco Playz]

Am I the only one on the WHOLE care forum that likes hawaiian pizza?! 😂

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

I’ve been having pizza night with the family almost every Friday for the last 3 years. I’m a sourdough baker so it’s been a really fun adventure. My best is OO organic Italian flour + 25 % either organic bread flour or ap, homemade sauce with the bulk of the recipe San Maranzanos, cheese is a mix of Buffalo moz + pec Romano and parm regiano, and then the rest is superfluous. I typically use Ken Forkish’s recipe for dough - same day vs my overnight or 2 day depending on timing. We also do focaccia and a Detroit pie every once and awhile for variety. 

[dasaltemelosguy]

Yes Streetwise, you've raised a most important point, no discussion on pizza is complete without discussing the Calzone. 

As someone above pointed out, calzone in Italy is largely different from 'domestic' versions in that, I find, even if the calzone is done well and has the best ingredients, they too are not true calzones. The cardinal sin being it's common to basically stuff half the refrigerator or garden inside the pastry and add tomato sauce to be effectively a folded pizza.

Although most I had in Italy also violate tradition too. But when you do find a true and great calzone, it's a simple, sublime and unique flavor combination. 

A true calzone, hails from Naples, 17th century or so. It has but 6 ingredients and no sauce. Ricotta, Mozzarella, Romano, salt & pepper (I have seen basil) and SALAMI not ham is inside. Prosciutto sometimes, but salami is the original. Also calzones are baked, not fried (That's a panzone) and the calzone dough is very thick.

Roughly translating "calzone" would suggest it means "pants legs" in a referral to it being 'walking food'.  It was designed to be sealed and reasonably neat to eat such that it was for 'people on the go'. Hence no true calzone has sauce. And the limited amount of ingredients and unusually thick dough also suggest it's for clean, portability. 

In the NY/NJ area we had plenty of authentic and wonderful calzones available. Out here in CA. it's much harder to find. It exists, but 90% of what exists are really giant empanada-shaped Stromboli's. The latter a Philadelphia invention which is really a rolled pizza.  I shudder at the thought.

And calzone has been called "folded pizza". I think such a reference is a felony in New Jersey, but it's certainly an affront to God, Man and probably my Fish!

 

[dasaltemelosguy]

Beardedbillygoat1975 that looks amazing! And your ingredients show you really know your stuff!

OK, so when can we all come over?!🤣

[Fish Folk]

On 7/26/2021 at 11:34 AM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

I’ve been having pizza night with the family almost every Friday for the last 3 years. I’m a sourdough baker so it’s been a really fun adventure. My best is OO organic Italian flour + 25 % either organic bread flour or ap, homemade sauce with the bulk of the recipe San Maranzanos, cheese is a mix of Buffalo moz + pec Romano and parm regiano, and then the rest is superfluous. I typically use Ken Forkish’s recipe for dough - same day vs my overnight or 2 day depending on timing. We also do focaccia and a Detroit pie every once and awhile for variety. 

This looks really good! San Marzanos . . . good bread . . . excellent. 

[Patrick_G]

@Beardedbillygoat1975, that looks great! I’m the home cook for a family obsessed with food. My sister’s a pastry chef, one brother is a sommelier and one runs a large restaurant. My teenage daughter currently has a part time job at a fine dining restaurant. With practice and time I can usually figure out most dishes. You would think I could make a decent pizza dough, but NO! “00” flour, over night cold rise, fancy yeast all have failed and my crust  tastes like an old biscuit. I don’t want to make a perfect dough, just one that’s passable. 🤨🤔

Edited July 26, 2021 by Patrick_G

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Patrick_Gi find that you don’t need a recipe so much as a method and the reason why is we all live in different climates, use different equipment, ingredients, etc most of the time some variables are different. A method gives you a structure to adapt it to yoursituation. I can’t recommend enough Ken Forkish’s books - Flour Salt Yeast Water and Elements of Pizza are super helpful providing a structure rather than a recipe where so much can go wrong. 

Edited July 27, 2021 by Beardedbillygoat1975

[Patrick_G]

On 7/26/2021 at 5:33 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

@Patrick_Gi find that you don’t need a recipe so much as a method and the reason why is we all live in different climates, use different equipment, ingredients, etc most of the time some variables are different. A method gives you a structure to adapt it to yoursituation. I can’t recommend enough Ken Forkish’s books - Flour Salt Yeast Water and Elements of Pizza are super helpful providing a structure rather than a recipe where so much can go wrong. 

I totally agree on the method over recipe   idea. For instance I make a decent loaf of no kneed rustic bread and I’ve been thinking of trying a variation on that method with pizza dough. I’m just reluctant to put my family through another nasty pizza experience. 
I guess I’m not totally hopeless, I can make a decent Chicago style. To bad I prefer New York! 

 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Patrick_G I have a same day yeasted dough recipe I use all the time as a pizza dough recipe. If it makes good bread there’s a great chance it’ll make good pizza dough. 

[Taco Playz]

Y’all are making me so hungry I’m going to Dominoes tommorow. Lol I used to go down to my grandparents place and they had this INSANE pizza place called Evaroni’s I actually ate like 6 or 7 in a day then I threw up that night. 😂

[dasaltemelosguy]

Relativity defines everything we see and experience. Good and bad require each other to exist. Nothing and something quite literally create each other. Everything is defined by it’s opposite. Nothing exists without something to relate it to.

But Relativity defines our experiences, far beyond physics and mathematics…

It was cold,  -9* cold, and dark. We just moved from Las Vegas to Boulder CO. The movers were 14 hours late. Apparently these guys cut geography class in high school as they decided to ‘take a shortcut through Wyoming’ !  I may sound old here but a paper map could have avoided an extra 800 miles of driving! 

Alone, cold, dark, hungry, only my 2 chihuahuas, Zeus, Norman & myself.  We had just driven 16 hours from Vegas to Boulder only to wait another 14 hours for the movers to arrive and then start moving us in. All told, we’d been up and physically working for 30+ hours.

After 30+ some hours, and not knowing much about where I now am, and it being in the middle of the night, I ordered a delivered pizza from a local chain I had never heard of called Round Table.

Sometimes there are good reasons to fast! This was one of them! It could best be described as a large, flat dinner roll covered in spiced  ketchup with some dubiously organic white topping asserting the title of “cheese”. A claim I doubt to this day!

Not being up for 30+ hours, nor the -9* cold, nor the pure exhaustion of moving could make me eat this dreck.

Zeus and Norman were no doubt as fatigued and hungry as I was. I decided I’d rather go to sleep than force down this dreck so I put the box with the 7 remaining slices on the floor and went to bed.

In the morning, the pie and box were gone. No one was there to clean it up? I looked everywhere.  I mean, everywhere, wherever they dragged it, ants would soon follow so I had better find it and dispose of it.

All I was able to recover was a piece of the box top with some of the little man saying “You’ve tried the rest, now try the best!”.

They ate the pizza AND the box!

I suppose the moral of this story could be that taste is Relative!!!???   

 Ask Zeus and Norman...woof.

[Fish Folk]

On 7/28/2021 at 9:56 PM, dasaltemelosguy said:

Relativity defines everything we see and experience. Good and bad require each other to exist. Nothing and something quite literally create each other. Everything is defined by it’s opposite. Nothing exists without something to relate it to.

But Relativity defines our experiences, far beyond physics and mathematics…

It was cold,  -9* cold, and dark. We just moved from Las Vegas to Boulder CO. The movers were 14 hours late. Apparently these guys cut geography class in high school as they decided to ‘take a shortcut through Wyoming’ !  I may sound old here but a paper map could have avoided an extra 800 miles of driving! 

Alone, cold, dark, hungry, only my 2 chihuahuas, Zeus, Norman & myself.  We had just driven 16 hours from Vegas to Boulder only to wait another 14 hours for the movers to arrive and then start moving us in. All told, we’d been up and physically working for 30+ hours.

After 30+ some hours, and not knowing much about where I now am, and it being in the middle of the night, I ordered a delivered pizza from a local chain I had never heard of called Round Table.

Sometimes there are good reasons to fast! This was one of them! It could best be described as a large, flat dinner roll covered in spiced  ketchup with some dubiously organic white topping asserting the title of “cheese”. A claim I doubt to this day!

Not being up for 30+ hours, nor the -9* cold, nor the pure exhaustion of moving could make me eat this dreck.

Zeus and Norman were no doubt as fatigued and hungry as I was. I decided I’d rather go to sleep than force down this dreck so I put the box with the 7 remaining slices on the floor and went to bed.

In the morning, the pie and box were gone. No one was there to clean it up? I looked everywhere.  I mean, everywhere, wherever they dragged it, ants would soon follow so I had better find it and dispose of it.

All I was able to recover was a piece of the box top with some of the little man saying “You’ve tried the rest, now try the best!”.

They ate the pizza AND the box!

I suppose the moral of this story could be that taste is Relative!!!???   

 Ask Zeus and Norman...woof.

Love the story! 

[ARMYVET]

Pizza is like sex

when it’s good…it’s great!  When it’s bad … ehh it’s still pretty good! Just sayin🤷🏻‍♂️

[Streetwise]

I spotted poutine pizza on Reddit. I got to practice my French comprehension reading comments. Vermonters also love poutine, but I have not tried this.

[FrozenFins]

Poutine Pizza! I've had pizza poutine but never the other way around.