In another effort to shift your mind away from the fact that I haven’t actually reviewed a new spot in the Atlanta Pizza Days in a week or so, here’s another home-made pizza for your eating pleasure.
But wait! First I have some topical links to share:
1) About.com has a video on how to make Chicago style pizza. Chicago style pizza is a different kind of animal: fun to try, but not great for every day consumption. Kind of like acid.
2) Writer Kenji Alt of Cook’s Illustrated came up with a new way to try to get a good char on your pizza. I don’t have a gas stove because my neighborhood is stupid, but I think it’s worth a try if you don’t want to go all Jeff Varasano on your oven.
3) There is now a microwave that has a pizza toaster built in. For serious.
OK back to my pizza. I had another ball of dough left from last weekend, and it was going on day 3 in the refrigerator. This dough was actually easier to work with than the day before (which was from the same batch).
I had some leftover cubed potatoes from my breakfast the previous morning, which I lightly fried and doused heavily with salty Greek seasoning. I love having steamed potatoes ready for any use – breakfast burritos, tacos, corned beef hash, pizza, really whatever my heart desires.
My basil plant is long dead, so here I’m using Costco pesto. It’s decent and comes in a huge jar for a fair price. I recommend taking half of it and freezing it as soon as you buy it. There’s too much to use before it goes bad. I used a lot of pesto here, I could have gone less.
Cheeses from left to right: Fontina, mozzarella, and parmesan.
All loaded up and ready to go in the oven. I added sliced garlic to it as well.
It cooked for 6 minutes at 550 on a stone that had been preheated for about 40 minutes. I cooked it about 1 minute to0 long.
The dough was a little on the over-chewy side, but the pie was fantastic. I think the excessive amount of olive oil from the pesto helped create a crispier upskirt, and the flavors worked really well. I could have gone a little lighter on the pesto and on the Greek seasoning (it was pretty salty), but that’s the worst I can come up with.
For the dough I’ve been creating lately, I think day 3 is really when the magic happens. The endcrust had better structure, it was softer, it didn’t deflate, good flavor.
