I love to cook. Be it alone, where I find an afternoon of solo chopping to be quite therapeutic, or tackling major menus with friends, there’s nothing better than wielding the knife with some music blasting (dub-step was a popular cooking choice of mine this year) and a cold beer next to the cutting board. I’ve learned much more, but have so far to go. I mean, I’ve never done a souffle! Or a standing rib roast! I want to learn Indian cuisine, and how to clean and filet fish, and charcuterie, and…the list goes on. For now, here are a few of my favorite cooking lessons from 2011.

Pasta dishes like aglio e olio, cacio e pepe, and carbonara made many appearances this year. Simple enough in design, to obtain the perfect texture and sauce consistency requires experiential timing and touch. I finally feel like I can make a proper pasta. Beautiful fresh pasta nests like these definitely help.

My favorite pasta all year was a quick pan sauce of salty pasta water and ‘nduja, a hot Calabrian spreadable salami I obtained from Jason at Cured Meats. I must have made that dish four times that week. I did spare a little to make a stunning grilled cheese with basil.

Cooler sous vide – I finally got my pastured pork at that exact right temperature.

Flannery beef. Still the reigning champ of steak in my book. So expensive. But so good. Look at the marbling on this strip!

Lasagna. My ultimate comfort food. I made many in 2011, including a few vegetarian versions so Katie could enjoy it along with me. But my heart belongs to Bologna. I made the bechamel (which I’ve finally nailed) and meat ragu version a couple of times, including once with calf livers, which made it extra funky and interesting. Lasagna for breakfast (with an espresso, in this one photo) is the best. Marone!

Soups. I’m making them quite regularly these days. They used to intimidate me for whatever silly reason, but now I know I can dig around my fridge and pantry and make SOME sort of soup. The Vitamix helps (understatement). This soup below is a mix of frozen peas and water and herbs. Nothing more.

Over the last week I’ve knocked out cheese sauces. I had a mac and cheese break (greasy, grainy) a few weeks ago, so I spent some time researching why this happens, then played around with a few variations of recipes. I wanted a cheese sauce that could take a real sharp cheese, melt smoothly, and hold up even when reheated. I’ve found my easy, no cream method – bechamel held with xantham gum. Mix in small quantities of grated cheese over very low heat.

The veggie plate. Chili oil marinated squash. Gently simmered pink eye peas. Yuzo kosho mashed cauliflower. Tomatoes with chives. No recipes, just preparing things simply and properly and seasoning in a way that makes sense.

Homemade biscuits. Buttery (but not soggy), flaky, crusty on the outside, made with buttermilk and frozen butter. Maybe not the prettiest, but I nailed the texture. It made my day.

Porchetta. Or a version thereof. This one was a picnic pork shoulder, with herbs, roasted for hours, the skin finished under the broiler.

2011 was the year I broke the oven in my kitchen. I began cooking my pizzas at 800F+ on the clean cycle, which is a process that requires some trial and error. I became a little more familiar with making, aging, and working with doughs, though I still need lots of practice there.

Moving on to other people’s food – my brother made some extremely impressive gougères. Better than the last time I tried the French Laundry recipe, and better than any I’ve tried outside of my meal at Per Se.

My friend Brad and I tackled a Momofuku meal. While I wasn’t overly impressed with the dishes, it was once again a great learning experience. This time we got to break down a whole pig’s head, debone chickens, and assemble this dish with meat glue.

And while I learn a lot by trying to follow complicated recipes word for word, my friend Rowdy continues to rock it in the kitchen and be an inspiration with his freewheeling style. I still can’t touch his hot chicken. How did he know that dish of cured, but uncooked bacon with a thyme dressing would be brilliant at 1:30 in the morning? I don’t think he did. But he just gets in the kitchen and experiments, and more and more I think that’s the way to do it.

Fuoco di Napoli is now open, with pies made by Enrico Liberato, formerly of Fritti and Antico. Recommended to all you pizza crazies.

Interesting fact – Enrico told me he uses no added yeast in his pasta (dough). Which results in a pie without dough bloat and all flavor comes naturally from the 48 hour ferment.

Full photo set here:

Last night Katie and I were planning on hitting up Tartufo, the newly opened pizza restaurant which shares a wall (and ownership) with La Fourchette. As we were getting ready, I received an email letting me know that Tomo’s new location in the Ritz Carlton Residences was able to open their doors that evening, a week earlier than the most recently announced opening date. Though according to Restaurants Consultant Group owner Tony Akly, whom we sat next to during our quick visit before Tartufo, they had hoped to be open four months ago. Mr. Akly’s group (F.A.B., {three} sheets, MF Buckhead) is responsible for the design and build, an impressive and fashionable room which could swallow the old location five times over.

The menu is in a different format, though 90% of the items are carryovers from the Vinings location. In addition to the many chairs at regular tables, there’s a sushi bar with maybe ten seats, and a more traditional bar with another ten, which is where we setup shop. I ordered the Nippon 75 cocktail (above) with gin, yuzu, and a few other elements, really nice.

I also tried the “sake in a can” below. I was told it was a sake beer, but at 19%, this was no beer. It was, however, a very nice, clean, and sweet fruit rich sake.

I sampled a few nigiri, my favorite. The red snapper in the center is garnished with flaky salt and lime juice. Definitely the best piece on my order. I prefer to sit at the sushi bar and eat nigiri a couple of pieces at a time, as the intimacy that makes sushi so great is lost when sitting anywhere else. And many pieces are meant to be eaten quickly.

Same goes for the gunkan-maki (aka battleship style) uni, which should be eaten quickly while the nori is still crisp. By the time it reached my table it was already soft and chewy so I just saved those pieces for last; the dreamy uni is like dessert to me. It was very fine fish, but not the best nigiri I’ve had at Tomo. In such a large space, with most orders being prepared en masse by one of four sushi chefs behind the counter (none of them Tomo, he was working the room), I think it’s near impossible to maintain the personal touch with the chef which I desire. It’s a trade-off, and clearly this is a more lucrative design for Mr. Naito, and I can’t blame him for reaching for such success. There’s no money in running a tiny room with eight seats for omakase.

We finished with the banana flan, gone in about five point eight seconds. Awesome.

There was an excellent crowd there on their first night.

Chef Tomo Naito, very confused as to why this big nerd here wanted to snap a photo.

On to Tartufo! We got the classic Margherita. By the time I could walk next door to La Fourchette and grab a beer (which they allowed me to bring to Tartufo), our pizza had already arrived from their 650 degree brick style, electric powered oven. I wonder why they don’t crank that sucker up to 800!

We thought it quite delicious. Great mozzarella, nice coverage, and a thin layer of bright, lovely tomato sauce.

The crust is reminiscent of Antico, but lighter and more preferable to me. I’m not sure how many days this dough was in ferment, but they may be able to get a bit more structure if they give the dough another day or two. But this was their second day open, so I’m not criticizing. The staff was great, eager to know what we thought. It’s a small place, with a few seats at the bar where you can watch the pizzaiolo, a communal table for twenty, a maybe three four tops. I could easily see this being a popular spot, the place is cool, staff is friendly, and the pizza is very, very promising.

I’ve amassed a bunch of crappy iphone pics (and crappy good camera pics) to share with internet-land. Operation photo barf commencing.

How about the above bar near Lake Burton? I’m considering opening a satellite location in College Park.

The wines I’ve tasted lately have continued to be an embarrassment of riches. Le Montrachet (right) is one of the most prized vineyards in the world, while the Leroy (left) one of the best producers. But this ’02 Leroy is simply a bourgogne (unclassified grapes, not necessarily from a particular vineyard). The Grand Cru is clearly better, but the lowly Bourgogne held its ground. And it costs 1/5th the price.

Columbia has food truck parking lot get-togethers, just like Atlanta. And just like Atlanta, it’s hot, and the lines are long and the food takes a while.

Georgia Tech football has been fun. Can’t beat a night game in Midtown.

The Quality Wine & Spirits / Inland Seafood show was a few weeks ago. This is Kevin O’Connor of LIOCO. They make good chardonnay and pinot noir that you will see around town.

The Jon-David Headrick table was where all the cool kids were hanging.

These St. George gins were amazing. Gotta find me some of these.

Two dogs waiting on their owner at Octane.

Really nice white blend. I had this in South Carolina, but the Au Bon Climat wines are recently available at Holeman & Finch bottle shop.

A few tacos from the new location of Verde. The shrimp and grits special on the left was tasty, and the schlong looking buffalo chicken was way better than it looks below. Pulled pork was surprisingly tender with a few chunks of bark. When I want “fusion tacos”, I much prefer Verde to Taqueria del Sol. I hate standing in line.

Playing around with the Tartine Bread pizza dough recipe with Rowdy. This was late night. He can make them look way prettier than this.

My former roommate got married last weekend, this was his groom’s cake.

Wine lunch at One Eared Stag. This one was one of my favorites.

And this one.

And this one too.

Bone marrow at OES.

Catfish at OES was extra dirty tasting (it IS a bottom feeder), but the creamed cabbage it was served on…beat still my arteries!!

Pork sandwich.

Salt and pepper shrimp. Best thing I’ve had in a while.

Crab cakes a friend sent from G&M as a wedding present. MASSIVE lumps of crab, very little batter. I made a yuzu kosho mayo to go with them. If you don’t have yuzu kosho, buy some, it’s citrusy and spicy and powerful.

Two winners from Tim Gaddis’ (Star Provisions) cheese week. The goat cheese feta from Carrolton made me never wanna turn back to the mass produced stuff at the grocery store.

I’ve been cooking bomba (Spanish) rice in the paella style, then scraping up the rice from the pan once the socarrat (the crispy layer on the bottom) has formed. Then I eat it with normal fried rice accompaniments, or just a splash of soy sauce and sriracha. It’s uber crunchy and the short rice is so resilient with good chew and absorbs flavors like no other. I don’t want normal long grain fried rice anymore.

Recently I had the pleasure of visiting Marietta to return some internet equipment mistakenly sent to me by Comcast. Waiting in a line for half an hour to talk to a cable company representative who understandably sits behind bulletproof glass is a fine way to spend my well deserved weekend.

The Comcast office is just down the road from Baby Tommy’s Taste of New York, one of my favorite selections from the world famous Eat It, Atlanta Pizza Days tour. Though they’ve since opened a location on 14th street, this was my first visit in years. So much has changed since then! My ad revenue has increased a whopping 400% to $50 a month, my friends have stopped reading the blog as I probably annoy them with my constant food chatter, and at least seven burger chains have opened in town. A few more things probably happened in those couple years, but I hit the notable points.

This “quick” pizza was not good. I wanted a slice for the road. The constipated guy at the counter grunted hello, took my order, and actually threw my change back at me. As in, I had to pick it up all over the counter after it ricocheted off my hand with furious speed.

Then I waited ten minutes for them to reheat my slice. REHEAT.

The size, thickness, consistency, grease, and cheese quantity were all I desire in a standard NY slice. But the sauce was terrible, that sweet and canned style I can’t stand. I think the sugary and old dried oregano flavor becomes intensified when reheated, as the sauce is cooked twice and more liquid evaporates. As I only ate whole pies cooked to order during the pizza tour, it makes sense I didn’t notice this early on. Or they changed product, or my personal taste changed/developed. It happens.

Anyone like this place? Been to the 14th street location?

As a side note, the other week I made my first visit to Varasano’s in a few months, it was on point. Those first couple slices of his pizza can’t be beat. If ordering two pizzas as we did, be sure to tell them to put in the orders one after the other so both can be devoured right out of the oven.

It’s tough out there for a blogger. You visit a restaurant in the opening days, you’re a glory-seeker and the pros roll their eyes at you, especially if you pan the place. Wait a few months, and those writing for a living have already provided their official starred review.

It makes me wonder about the value of my blog; if it’s already been thoroughly covered by the press, what can I add to their generally excellent summaries?

Besides being a source for early intel, I like to think a blog can survey a more casual approach, without word count limits and maybe a few more photos than a newspaper can provide. One can also begin to associate with a blogger, identifying with their habits and tastes, and maybe learn a few things. Are these assumptions delusional?

Though I, myself, am still on an educational culinary journey, I do receive a fair amount of inquisitive emails and I do my best to respond. I’ve learned a considerable amount about cooking pizza from Jeff Varasano’s website, and about fried chicken and Sichuan cooking via emailing back and forth with Rowdy Food. The first time we were introduced, I left Rowdy’s home with an armful of Jacque Pepin cookbooks, Sichuan peppercorns, and Maldon salt. There are lots of kind people eager to talk about what they’ve learned, and a blog is just a different form of that. Sharing the gospel, according to Escoffier.

I do wonder if people associate with my eating obsessions, if they find themselves at a similar point on the learning curve. More than likely they just want a few sometimes-pretty pictures. Either way, it’s still fun for me, I just feel dumb when posting on restaurants that have been reviewed and blogged a dozen times over.

If I haven’t lost you yet, onward with the post!

A couple of weeks ago was my first visit to Double Zero Napoletana, where I was especially nervous about taking good photos as our dining cohorts were the uber-talented Scobey wedding photographers. Unfortunately it’s somewhat dark in the unexpectedly large restaurant, and I don’t have the bucks for a big boy blogger lens yet. You know, one of those that make everything look ridiculous even with it’s pitch black.

It’s been routinely chronicled that one of the biggest issues with Double Zero is that they over do it. Too many elements to the dish, too many sauces, just too many conflicting or cloaking flavors in general. I found that the service was the same. Numerous people came to our table to chat (whether we were talking or not), including the owner, and our waiter was of the super stoked “Hey guys and gals! What can I do ya for?!?” varietal. Of all the things to gripe about, overly attentive service isn’t really a big deal, but it’s noticeable and sometimes broke conversation.

We started with arancini, fried risotto. A good place to start. They lack the finesse of the light and aromatic version at Cakes & Ale, but they weren’t too heavy or full of mushy rice, the only way I can see screwing this up, save for burning them in the fryer.

The octopus definitely succumbed to the habit of over-doing it. I could barely taste the arthropod amongst the red pepper sauce and the white bean pureee. It was also a smaller piece than expected for $12.

The pork belly with polenta and egg was everything it should be - gluttonously rich and full of calories. It’s heavy, but when sharing it’s very manageable. It’s not a must order for me as I don’t want an appetizer to put me down for the count, but I was happy to try it.

Our first pizza, the classic Margherita, arrived quickly. Basil, sauce, and cheese coverage were proportionally excellent, and the crust was sporting a very promising set of leopard spots on the crust. We cut our pizza with the scissors provided to us and dug in. Except for a slight gumminess in the interior of the cornicione, and a dough flavor that doesn’t quite compare to the sourdough I’ve come to love at Varasano’s, I found it to be delicious. It wasn’t soggy, or soupy, though it could have probably used another 10-30 seconds in the oven to finish off that crust. The toppings and the sauce (my favorite part other than the crust), were quite good.

We were having no problems attacking the first pizza when the Affettati with soppressata, sausage, and pancetta arrived. This one was even crisper, with just the right amount of salty cured pork on it. Though at $17 I think it’s priced $2-3 too much for the size.

I shared the rapini and sausage pasta with Katie, though I was directed to eat all the sausage. It’s not the prettiest of pastas dishes, in fact, I might call it homely, but I mean that in a good way. It felt like how I’d make this dish at home. Not perfect, but satisfying.

The Scobey’s paglia e fieno (“straw and hay”, so named for the colors of the tagliatelle) had a similar rustic look, and while I didn’t taste it, they seemed to enjoy it.

I was quite full at this point, but when the ladies insisted on dessert I didn’t put up much of a fight. I just had an espresso and pushed through. The Nutella terrine was easily my winner from the dessert flight. The hazelnut rich chocolate flavors with banana gelato are right in my wheelhouse.

Truly, I don’t remember much of my one bite of the ’00′ chocolate cake. Though, I do know it satisfied the cake/chocolate tooth in one gal.

They brought us a few cannoli, either because we spent a bunch of money, or because I was taking photos, moving dishes around to stage shots and what not. They also waived the $15 corkage fee for the two bottles that I brought. Blogger benefit? Maybe. But I also ensured to share my wine with the wait staff, and I’ve found providing alcohol to weary (or overly excited) waiters is a sure way to earn some brownie points.

We had a very enjoyable meal overall. A few misses that I wouldn’t expect at this price point, and the staff is a bit too chummy for my tastes, but we had a lot of fun and I left full and happy. The menu is large, and having a selection of cheeses, meats, pastas, and pizzas that range from good to very solid is going to please a lot of people. Their location on the edge of the ‘burbs (but still only 15 minutes from my house on the Westside) is sure to attract both ITP and OTP crowds, so it’s easy to see them being a success. I’d like to see them nail down a few dishes and maybe adjust the price point on a few items but I’d definitely go back.

I picked up this “Farmer’s Cheese” on a recommendation from Tim the weekend before last. I was having some people over for my last pizza party in my old home, which had an oven modified to cook at 800F+. Looking to do a tomato/cheese appetizer, Tim told me they were getting ready to use this Chapel Hill Creamery in a dish at Quinones that weekend. He also mentioned that they had yet to pair mozzarella with tomatoes. Not that they don’t go well together, but there are other cheeses out there to discover that can work just as well. Which reminds me, Tim said they have some crazy good local burrata arriving soon. Anyways, this fresh round of tangy, soft cheese with a curd-like texture on the interior certainly did the trick. In fact, more than one person commented on its deliciousness.

The Black Krim tomatoes are from Star Provision’s Local Farmstand. Also really nice, but I wish I could easily find heirlooms for less than $5-6/lb in town. My parents get them for half that in Greenville.

I can’t believe I only took one pizza photo. And it’s blurry. Pizzas came out above average, short of excellent. I prepared dozens of toppings. One of my favorites was a white pie with rendered bacon fat, low moisture mozzarella, parmesan, lardons, and garlic. One person asked for a pie with some chili oil that I made over a year ago…just a splash of it adds some great heat.

Yeah, it’s no secret I’m sort of a pizza nut. I love the stuff; I like reading about it, writing about it, discussing it, cooking it, of course consuming/inhaling it, and hell, I even like looking at it. My obsession level is still probably sophomoric compared to that of many. Go check out the pizza freaks on the pizza making forums.

Many of those folks eat pizza on a near daily basis. When I eat pizza I tend to hit it hard, dining out and making it a bunch at home for a week or two. Then abruptly I stop for weeks, or even months. I’ve had very little pizza during my paleo challenge, probably just a slice or two.

The challenge has actually ended as of this past weekend. I was out of town when the body fat tester returned so I didn’t get to record my muscle gain/fat loss, though I did feel much leaner and a bit stronger. We did a timed benchmark workout at the start and finish of the challenge, and I saw over 20% improvement in my time. Of course, much of that could be contributed to the frequency of my gym visits instead of my diet, but I learned a lot and will post on it one day. I’m sure you will be on the edge of your seat waiting for that one.

Oh, and before I move on, here are some worth while pizza links I’ve come across lately.

The Best Thing I’ve Ever Done [amazing video about Dom DeMarco, who has made every single pizza himself at Di Fara pizza in Brooklyn for over forty years.]

Best Pizza Places in the US [Food & Wine - these lists are a dime a dozen, but I always look at them. I've been to 4 of their 25.]

American Pie [Alan Richman's tome to American pizza (he says we do it better than the Italians), plus another top 25 list. I only have two hits on his.]

What is VPN pizza? [Everything you need to know about the famed Neapolitan standard, to which locals Fritti, Antico, and Double Zero apply]

Pizza dough arguments [AJC - Kessler disses the dough from Fritti's new ovens, pizza fans and owner Riccardo Ullio agree or disagree. I haven't been since the change - where do you stand?]

Pizza Quest [Online pizza resource led by Peter Reinhart, sponsored by Forno Bravo - lots of good info]

<> ON TO SOME PIZZA <>

I visited Hearth Pizza Tavern in Sandy Springs prior to “the diet”. I had never been but was told great things by friends in this area. They have a large and varied menu, with many changing specials, such as the Philly sliders we tried. They were greasy and good but I didn’t understand the ketchup, and I swear someone drizzled some truffle oil on there. Not like that’s a tough flavor to identify, but the waitress said I was wrong.

We tried the Ring of Fire as well as the Mass Pike pizza, two of their signature pies. Wowzas, these are some loaded up pizzas. Very topping driven. While I’m more of a dough guy, a huge dose of greasy and flavorful toppings (sausage and peppers and mushrooms and cilantro and chili oil, oh my!) can be real enjoyable. The dough did it’s job – which in this case was to sustain the large mass of said toppings. Slightly above average dough flavor. Everything tasted good, but again, don’t expect the VPN style…it’s more like delicious and creative hangover pie.

Fast forward two months, last night we visited the newly opened Siracusa’s on the East/West Connector. Formerly Pizzeria Fortunato, the new restaurant is pretty much the same inside, and they claim it’s the same pizza, even touting “2009 Creative Loafing Best Pizza in Atlanta” on the strip mall sign.

The menu is similar, but lacking a few items I enjoyed (the sinful pan fried provolone), but with a few new items, like the zucchini fritti below. The batter was light, though unseasoned, and while not a must-order dish, the very thin slices of zucchini didn’t feel too heavy and hit the spot.

For pizza we ordered a Margherita pizza with sausage. I recalled that Fortunato had two “plain” pizzas in the past. A regular and a Margherita. The regular is the pie on the left below, the Margherita the one on the right. The Margherita was sparsely covered with fresh buffalo mozzarella while the regular was more like a slice of NY style ‘za.

While the dough is similar in appearance, the new Margherita was like neither. Sliced tomatoes instead of tomato sauce (not a fan here), a bit more cheese, but not NY style. The sausage used to be spicy and crumbled but is now a average tasting sliced version. The dough is similar in texture, shape, thickness, and overall appearance, but was even more bland that I found Fortunato’s to be. The dough is in some serious need of some salt. And less sugar. A day or two of cold ferment could really help with the flavor, and probably texture too. I really didn’t enjoy the dough, and the toppings didn’t really make up for it, though the fresh mozz was nice.

I really, really don’t enjoy saying I dislike a new restaurant (especially pizza), but I don’t know that I’ll be risking another $20 for a medium pizza of this caliber.

Of course, they are brand new (damn these bloggers and their itchy camera fingers!), so things could change. If you have a better experience I’d love to hear about it.

As part of a 60 day challenge at my new gym (Crossfit Atlanta, shout out) I’ve started a new diet, the Paleo AKA “Caveman” diet. In general this means no carbs, no sugars, no dairy, no processed grains, etc. I am giving myself two cheat meals a week to maintain sanity and to give myself something to look forward to during this soul sucking stretch of time. My reasons for wanting to do this are best covered in a separate post.

I did what any fatty would do in the days leading up to the beginning of the challenge – I gorged on bread, pasta, cheese, and pizza. And if you’re going to eat pizza, you may as well eat the most cholesterol challenging genre of them all – deep dish.

Only once have I made my own, and was pleasantly surprised that it turned out to be excellent. This time I wanted to go out and could only think of one place – Nancy’s, a Chicago based chain with two locations in Atlanta. I’d been once a few years ago, but I was just there to enjoy the company of some old friends and I don’t recall anything about the pie.

Jimmy’s Inner dialog – “Geez, this is a long lead in for a short review of my experience”

Pass. The bread may be cooked to a promising golden sheen, but it’s dense and dry. Cheese is super stretchy, making for a great recreation of every pizza commercial ever as you pull a slice away with the spatula, but it too is devoid of character. The peppers in the filling added punch but also liquid, sogging up the bottom. But the canned, cloying, sugary sauce was the real pie killer. I can’t deal with that.

On a favorable note, it’s a good value, as any normal human really only needs one slice.

I’ve read all of Jeff Varasano’s thoughts on his website, but it isn’t going to make great pizza for you. Pizza is all about experience; trial and error. I record hydration levels (use a scale, not cups when measuring dough). I try different flours, vary cold fermentation times, amounts of salt, pizza stone position, etc. A lot of the variables that I change are based on experience and feel. If I see that a particular batch of dough is more active than usual, maybe I will use it after two days instead of three and I won’t let it sit out on the counter very long before cooking. And when cooking at 800F+, cook times can vary greatly. When I say greatly, that could mean twenty seconds, but when the average cook time for me is 140 seconds that can be the difference from a just crispy enough crust and a burnt to hell pizza.

The latch on my oven being broken, the highest temp I’ve measured is around 870 degrees. The window of my oven is lined with foil. If hot cheese/sauce/water was to come off the pizza at that temp, it could shatter the glass. There’s a reason you’re not supposed to be able to open your oven when it’s that hot.

800-850 degrees is great for cooking the top of the pizza, but it’s too hot for the bottom. The pizza stone will completely char the bottom before the top can cook. So while the oven is warming up, aluminum foil (a large length fold back over itself numerous times) is placed on the stone. Based on my experience, the stone will be 150-200 degrees cooler than the ambient temperature when using foil.

Then you can measure ambient temperature by using an infrared temp gun and pointing it at the foil.

This is right up against the edge of how much char I like on pizza. Maybe a little less would be preferable here.

This pie was good and cripsy, no doughy center in the edge of the crust (aka the cornicione).

This one was slightly undercooked – just under two minutes. I learned most pies needed 140-150 seconds to be as crispy as I’d like.

I’ve also got better at working quickly with a somewhat sticky dough. The key is to have everything ready, judicious use of bench flour, and the whole time the dough is on the peel I’m shaking it with one hand while adding the toppings with the other. Adding minimal toppings helps too.

I also learned that my oven/stone has hot spots, and if I don’t give the pie a 180 degree, I will end up with some severely burned spots on the crust and the bottom. This turn is after sixty seconds.

140 seconds. Delicious.

Another experiment. I like putting the basil on both before and after cooking. It’s obviously much more aromatic after.