Let's make pizza!
gorgonzola
Member Posts: 3,864
one of the game tips of the original bg2 game, maybe it is preserved also in the ee version told something like: "remember, your characters don't need to feed themselves but you do", so let's make pizza...
all started from me liking pizza but living in a little village in the mountains, far from every place where i can eat a good pizza, and my oven is not very good so baking it at home did never get good results.
then i found a video about how to make pizza at home simulating the temperature and cooking time a real professional pizza oven, that cost like 500 bucks or more for a home version, has.
what i did not like of the video is that a non sticking pan is brought to a very high temperature and i suspect that even the modern non sticking coatings release harmful stuff at those temperatures, if you can smell it probably something is wrong.
so i took a cast iron disc that i had, cleaned it very well and used it for the first part of the cooking process. also a cast iron skillet large enough should work as well or to obtain a piece of cast iron or steel from a metal working place, even square and not round, should work as well, as long as it is 5mm or 1/4 inch thick.
then i transfer the pizza in some metal plate and procede to the second phase, as a new pizza is cooking on the cast iron. in the second phase i found also that the pizza does not need to be so close to the electrical resistance, to keep it like 1 inch 25mm far from it, but creating with aluminium foil a heath reflector above the resistance, give better results.
the bottom of my pizza is ready in less than 3 min and the top in about 1 min, so i can produce a pizza every 3 min, the method is good also for large families and if you invite many friends for a true neapolitan pizza evening.
i prepare my dough starting from 1 kg of flour getting a dough of about 1.65-1.70kg, that is enough for 8 pizza. i also let the dough mature in the refrigerator for about 1 day or at least overnight, using much less yeast than the amount suggested in many recipes, this way the pizza is more tasty and more digestible. the dough last at least 3 days in the refrigerator so with minimal work i can have a pizza ready with minimal work, i take the right amount, form the balls, wait an hour or so and then in less then 15 min i have pizza ready.
here is a (bad, taken with the cellphone and with dim light) photo of the result. on the left you can spot a piece of the cast iron disk
and here is the you tube video that started everything
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X8ZhGJ8SUo
last and very important thing, don't use a rolling pin or the crust will never rise well, to learn how to properly stretch a pizza is not difficult, there is more then one method and very good online tutorials. also for preparing a proper good dough a quick googling will give a lot of information.
a channel that i like very much is bake with jack
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTVR5DSxWPpAVI8TzaaXRqQ
i believe that the method for cooking pizza in a pan was first published in an english cookbook or site, is not an original invention of the video poster, there are also some other videos about it if you search the internet.
so now that you know it you have to try it, i can show you only a photo of the results i get, but also the taste is better then the one of most of the pizza restaurants i did try. of corse i live in northern italy, living in naples the things would surely be different, i surely can not compete vs da michele or the other best pizza makers in neaples and probably in all the world...
all started from me liking pizza but living in a little village in the mountains, far from every place where i can eat a good pizza, and my oven is not very good so baking it at home did never get good results.
then i found a video about how to make pizza at home simulating the temperature and cooking time a real professional pizza oven, that cost like 500 bucks or more for a home version, has.
what i did not like of the video is that a non sticking pan is brought to a very high temperature and i suspect that even the modern non sticking coatings release harmful stuff at those temperatures, if you can smell it probably something is wrong.
so i took a cast iron disc that i had, cleaned it very well and used it for the first part of the cooking process. also a cast iron skillet large enough should work as well or to obtain a piece of cast iron or steel from a metal working place, even square and not round, should work as well, as long as it is 5mm or 1/4 inch thick.
then i transfer the pizza in some metal plate and procede to the second phase, as a new pizza is cooking on the cast iron. in the second phase i found also that the pizza does not need to be so close to the electrical resistance, to keep it like 1 inch 25mm far from it, but creating with aluminium foil a heath reflector above the resistance, give better results.
the bottom of my pizza is ready in less than 3 min and the top in about 1 min, so i can produce a pizza every 3 min, the method is good also for large families and if you invite many friends for a true neapolitan pizza evening.
i prepare my dough starting from 1 kg of flour getting a dough of about 1.65-1.70kg, that is enough for 8 pizza. i also let the dough mature in the refrigerator for about 1 day or at least overnight, using much less yeast than the amount suggested in many recipes, this way the pizza is more tasty and more digestible. the dough last at least 3 days in the refrigerator so with minimal work i can have a pizza ready with minimal work, i take the right amount, form the balls, wait an hour or so and then in less then 15 min i have pizza ready.
here is a (bad, taken with the cellphone and with dim light) photo of the result. on the left you can spot a piece of the cast iron disk
and here is the you tube video that started everything
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X8ZhGJ8SUolast and very important thing, don't use a rolling pin or the crust will never rise well, to learn how to properly stretch a pizza is not difficult, there is more then one method and very good online tutorials. also for preparing a proper good dough a quick googling will give a lot of information.
a channel that i like very much is bake with jack
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTVR5DSxWPpAVI8TzaaXRqQ
i believe that the method for cooking pizza in a pan was first published in an english cookbook or site, is not an original invention of the video poster, there are also some other videos about it if you search the internet.
so now that you know it you have to try it, i can show you only a photo of the results i get, but also the taste is better then the one of most of the pizza restaurants i did try. of corse i live in northern italy, living in naples the things would surely be different, i surely can not compete vs da michele or the other best pizza makers in neaples and probably in all the world...
7
Comments
practicing a little make you better, a couple of photos of my yesterday dinner.
gorgonzola's gorgonzola pizza, topping has gorgonzola cheese, parmesan cheese and toma, the traditional cheese of italian western alps, almost every valley has its particular way to make toma.
the crust is more rise and regular.
and a look at the inside of the crust that shows the big bubbles of air
this is a neapolitan style pizza, that is soft, not much crunchy, you must be able to fold the pizza slice without breaking it, but cooking the bottom at lower temperatures give a more crunchy pizza and delaying the adding of the topping allowing the center of the pizza to rise gives a pizza more high in the center.
you can obtain the style of pizza you like simply altering the way you bake it.
the dough of that pizza was obtained with a 65% hydration and 2 hours of hydrolysis, you just mix flour, salt and water and wait that the gluten absorbs the water, then 20% of a poolish with 100% of hydration was added and the dough was kneaded and had 1 day to mature in the refrigerator.
a poolish is a mix of flour, water and yeast without salt.
but you can obtain similar results very easily, and this is why i started the thread, if you are using an electric system to cook in your kitchen it is probably even easier to control the temperature you bake the bottom and a thinner metal sheet, also an aluminium one, can be used.
or you can buy a G3 Ferrari Pizza Express Delizia pizza maker for about an hundred bucks.
(i hate to tell this as it seems a promotion for a commercial product, but seeing the results of the research over internet and the reviews i could find is the best cheap pizza maker on the market, anyway i am not affiliated in any way to g3 ferrari, i don't own it and i think that the method i use gives more control over the results, a faster cooking time, so a pizza closer to the ones you get from a professional oven. a lot of people that uses the ferrari mod it, to have it work at higher temperatures, thing that imo is really dangerous as the components are not made to work at those temperatures. not modded it should work quite well, even if as i told i don't own it and did not test it).
if you are willing to try, i really suggest you to do it, some metal sheet is cheap if not at 0 cost, and the whole process takes time, so planning, but the actual time you work at it is really short, the most is waiting time. i can give you all the information if you have doubts on how to do something, if you are really interested i can even make a full tutorial with photos of every phase, but not a video as i lack of the proper equipment to do it and of the knowledge about editing it.
Guess I'll have to try it your way since my SR-71 is in the shop.
(That's me in the foreground wishing I could take a quick flight to Italy.)
but i have a friend from uk, maybe he will let me use his personal Avro Vulcan, just in case please tell usaf to don't intercept any incoming bomber
be ready to receive a bombing of 4.5 metric tons of hot delicious italian pizza...
i know that many people think that war has also a positive effect as maintains a population strong, and this is true, competition make strong. but this is not only true for human kind, competition is a mean of evolution and working for every species. the particular competition based on brute force is the kind used by beasts, and maybe human kind should learn to do better then beasts as it claim to be superior to them, maybe other types of competition could be used.
paraphrasing 2 slogan of the hippy era
make pizza, not war
and
all we are saying is give pizza a chance
end of off topic? what? off topic in the off topic section, is that really possible?
10 minute pizza (with pictures)
Just got home from a frustrating and long day at work and are hungry (or have picky kids to feed) and all you want to do is crawl into bed and watch tv or play your favourite game while you pass out?
Don’t really want to spend $20-30 on delivery and have to wait that extra 30-45 minutes for it to get there?
Or is it 4 a.m. and everything is closed and you have drunk friends over who have the munchies and you don’t have any chips (or you want to impress)?
This should be for you:
First ingredients:
Obviously you can make your own pita or sauce or shred your own cheese, but all these steps add to both the prep time and clean up time.
Feel free to change up the toppings or cheeses but try to keep it to a max of three and don’t over prep. Too many toppings gets in the way of the cheese melting. Also make sure all toppings are considered precooked. If you are doing chicken, cook it properly and thoroughly first before following.
Step one: Prep the toppings (3-4 minutes)
Add a teaspoon and a half of olive oil to a small frying pan and heat element to medium heat.
Put oven on broil.
Slice the mushroom and pineapple, shred the ham.
Step two: Fry the toppings (3-4 minutes)
Add toppings and spices (to your own flavour standards) to pan and toss slightly. Make sure the ham does not get stuck to bottom of the pan.
While frying, prep the “crust” with sauce and spices (again to taste) and cheese.
(Optional step, before adding sause, you can glaze the pita bread with olive oil to get a more crispy outer crust - I don’t like crispy crust so I am skipping this step)
Step three: add toppings (1 minute)
Carefully spoon the toppings evey around the sliced cheese, or if you don’t care about picture perfect just scrape them on into the middle and spread them out.
Step four: cook/melt cheese
Place in oven and broil for 3 to 5 minutes until cheese is melted. Do not leave in the oven for too long or the pita might burn.
While it’s in the oven, clean up the mess of one pan, knife and spoon and wipe down the cutting boards.
Step five: plate
Remove from oven and transfer over to a plate. Serve with cold beer or other beverage of choice.
edit: now with pictures
about pinapple in the topping many italians think that is one of the worst offenses that can be done to a pizza, i am much more open minded about braking the true italian tradition about pizza and sometimes i will give it a try, which vegetarian ingredients work well together? here in italy i never found an hawaian pizza in restaurants so i don't know how to deal with it. i suppose that something contrasting the sweetness should work well, maybe even gorgonzola cheese or pecorino cheese that is quite salty.
an other quick way to save your day is to use some bread cut in slices about 1 inch thick, bath them in milk, put them in an oiled baking tin, put on tomato sauce, cheese and other stuff and bake them. when the bottom and sides of the slices are toasted and crunchy and the interior not too wet the "pizzas" are ready. quite tasty if you use some whole flour bread or rye flour one, is also a mean to use bread that is becoming too old and is no more soft, as long as you can still cut it in slices. it takes more baking time then your quick pizza, but the time to prepare it is very similar. the slices have to be quickly bathed in milk, not completely soaked, the more fresh is the bread the less milk is needed.
But I get the “it’s not a pizza thing” even though all the base ingredients are bastardized to look like one. It’s like using any other cheese but curds and putting it on French Fries with gravy and calling it a a poutine.
Usually if I do pineapple, I do it with hot peppers to get the sweet and spicy flavour. (Just didn’t have any available this time), but ham is also common for a sweet and savoury flavour.
I am not a fan of heavy bread (and I like this pita bread because it is just flour, water, salt and yeast and made locally), but what you are describing is similar to a Pizza bagel, which have a heavy following here.
I use to make my own thin crust and sause but the cleanup was just too much of a hassle a majority of the time. Just wanted to share a quick and dirty recipe compared to your thought out perfect restaurant style one.
i did not know pizza bagels but seems about the same thing as the one i suggested, even if i always did it starting from a big loaf and cutting slices, so the bottom is not crust, but crumb fried and made crunchy by the oil in the baking tin.
in italy we don't have pita bread, but we can find something really similar, also i like it, but usually i prepare it by myself, i do roti, chapati, like the people in northern india does, the difference is that there is not yeast at all, if done properly the steam formed inside make them swell like balls, only so the interior is properly cooked by the steam, and they are not baked, but a special iron is used.
i like also heavy bread, but only if is properly done. i had a little mill to prepare myself the flour, using different kind of cereals, wheat, rye, barley, buckwheat and i used also a little amount of flour made from hemp seeds, that give a beautiful brown color, adds taste and contain a lot of healthy stuff. then i prepared the bread using my own sour dough starter. that way, and using flour just milled, so without oxidation, the heavy bred is something very different from the one i usually find in stores. but when my girlfriend left me she took away the mill and the oven i have now is not very good, so i don't bake bread any more, even if i plan to do it again in the future.
it is amazing how many beautiful things we can make with flour, and i am not even talking of pasta, even if i am not a big fan of it, spaghetti and all the rest, unless is home made tagliatelle, that i don't do any more cause to prepare them takes too much time. and to not be a pasta lover is quite strange for an italian
i appreciate much your contribution to the topic, and your quick pizza way, and i hope that also other people will join and share their experience, i bet that even in this fast food and trash food era some other people participating the forum make, or have a husband/wife/mum that make pizza in their own way.