Comments on: Pizza Dinner, Rome

By: greasemonkey

greasemonkey — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 11:25:12 +0000

as close as you can get (in subic, at least): ‘a tavola’, near royal supermart in sbma, has a woodburning oven flown in from italy and they make very mean versions of the 1st, 2nd and 4th pizzas above. i like the one with anchovies (napolitana?) best. =) used to make it a point to eat there at least once a week. hope the owner’s doing well, he smokes an awful lot…

By: gonzo

gonzo — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 01:24:30 +0000

hey bogchief, MM is spot-on with his description of making a good crust: ‘OO’ flour, slow rising time etc. with the possible exception of rolling the dough. pizza makers say rolling the dough removes the all-important air pockets that make for a good crust, hence the focus on hand pulling, throwing the pizza disk up in the air etc. (but i’m guessing the throwing the dough in the air is more for the customers’ visual benefit!) a rolling pin is anathema, they say.

Also, the oven is pretty critical; you need a woodburning oven not only for that smoky char but also because home ovens cannot reach the high temperatures required for good pizza (700-800 deg F). The heat is so high in a traditional woodburning oven that it only takes around 3 minutes to cook a pizza.

But the secret of perfect pizza crust? As MM says, that secret will remain safely in Italy, unfortunately for the rest of us. The atmosphere, environment, terroir, whatever you want to call it seems to have an effect on food, and this is especially true in Italy.

But even in italy, pizza making is not a science. Quality varies even there, and i believe it is still very much an art form, so much so that masterful ‘pizzaiolos’ are still highly sought after by dedicated restaurant owners.

I myself have tried to analyse what makes a good pizza crust. Good crust seems to have that combo of crispiness and chewiness. Crispy but not cracker-crisp, and chewy but certainly not like an American style ‘bread-y’ pizza (eww). Also, i notice the best pizzas in italy have that uneven charring on the bottom, and the aforementioned air pockets (aside from topnotch italian topping ingredients).

So this is a sad fact but I guess one must lower one’s pizza appreciation standards until fortunate enough, like MM, to spend some time in Italy.

By: linda

linda — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 01:21:11 +0000

MM,thanks for the pizza dough making tips – it’ll surely come in handy as we make pizza every fortnight. Here’s a diet tip,too – plain almonds are better than cashews if on a diet (heard this from the Oprah show).

Have a good day!

By: lee

lee — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 08:52:04 +0000

yes melissa bandeaux this is me on a virtual food trip.

aaah diet! remove the “t” and see…

By: melissa

melissa — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 08:08:49 +0000

Your posts never fail to get me out of the doldrums, MM. Eye candy even for those on a diet. Or food porn?

Wave to LeeSan, is that you? Pobresito man. Take care gid, migo.