"I'm going to make the original Uno's pizza this weekend."
That kind of "pizza" is ok for what it is (an American permutation), but it's almost a different food from the thin crust stuff you find along the Mediterranean.
Pizza's become a ceremonial thing in this house. It's labor intensive, but that's part of the 'event'. We have a local flour miller that has "00" (super fine) milled pizza flour in unbleached white and whole wheat. That gets mixed with about 30% corn meal. After a lifetime of indulgence, this is my favorite recipe hands-down.
The goal with the crusts is the diametric opposite of the deep-dish style. We go minimal - wafer thin. Toppings are the same.
The base flavors are flour, olive oil, an herb, maybe garlic... From there we top with just a few, super-fresh things. Over the course of the evening, we start with the more subtle combinations (i.e. zucchini, thyme, mozzarella, tomato, etc.) and move to the more intense (i.e. preserved lemon, veggie Italian sausage, pesto/potato, olives, etc.) We've pretty much abandoned tomato sauce.
The wine selection gets a similar work over. Early ones are light/white. Late ones are heavier/red.
Some nights we just lay out ten or a dozen ingredients, I make the crust then our friends step up and top their own. Makes for a super evening centered around food.
Enjoy yours this weekend! |
