[Sca-cooks] White Pizza- OOP

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius adamantius1 at verizon.net
Sun Jan 27 06:31:42 PST 2008


On Jan 27, 2008, at 8:12 AM, Terry Decker wrote:

>> And while we're comparing to Napoli, do we even want to raise the
>> specter of cheddar cheese, Pernicious Fruits, or "Alfredo Sauce"? Or
>> would that be going too far?
>>
>> Adamantius
>
> Having used New York Sharp (the only cheese in the house) to top a  
> pizza

I'm tryina think what I might use to balance the New York sharp. Maybe  
lightly caramelized onion instead of tomato... but we've already  
strayed from margharita di Napoli. Which was pretty much my point. If  
you use a benchmark it should be unilateral, no?

> and
> having encountered Pizza de Pasqua (not really the laden foccachia  
> we've
> been discussing) with it's orange and lemon zest,

Uhhhmmm, no. No laden focaccia here, nothing to see, move along. But  
it does usually have some citrus component. I'm not sure how it  
justifies pineapple pizza (assuming one needs justification, but the  
point is either one has a standard about this or one doesn't) any more  
than, say, pannetone.

> I have no problem with the
> first two.  Alfredo sauce on pizza does seem to be going "beyond the
> beyond."

Well, my issue was with Alfredo Sauce, since it presupposes a mise en  
place of premixed ingredients, which I assume do not consist of  
butter, pasta-boiling-water, parmigiano, salt and pepper, in order to  
have this Alfredo Sauce on hand and ready to put on your pizza. It  
would be akin to making a lovely, velvety, eggy batch of real  
fettucine, and after wondering what to do with it, saying, "Hey! I  
know! Let's open this jar of Alfredo Sauce and go to town!"

I just find it ironic, to use a charitable term, that we need a  
convenience food to substitute for the arduous labor of boiling pasta,  
not completely draining it from its salted water, adding some butter  
and grated cheese, and tossing it. Is it the back-breaking labor of  
grating the cheese I'm failing to take into account?

Or, is it the "Even More, Or Even Too Much, of a Good Thing Is Always  
Better" law that is so prevalent in our culture [he said, desperately  
trying to finish off the last of the Starbucks coffee we received as a  
gift a while back so he can justify opening up the medium roast Kona],  
to the destruction of many a perfect food, or does it just come down  
to the crap Alfredo sauce from a jar can be held for a long time and  
put on anything?

>  Thinking of Ragu goop on a nice flat bread isn't pleasant.

Oddly enough, I could argue that, in theory. It might be marginally  
preferable to a stick in the eye. Of course, I'd _much_ rather be  
eating warm flatbread with salt and olive oil than arguing about  
anything.

Adamantius


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