[Sca-cooks] White Pizza- OOP

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius adamantius1 at verizon.net
Sun Jan 27 06:52:52 PST 2008


On Jan 27, 2008, at 9:15 AM, Georgia Foster wrote:

> For the pizza sauce, I mix up a flour salt and milk base, add lots  
> of parma and regiano cheese (no I don't grate my own, I get it in  
> little plastic tubs from the deli ... so there).

Parma and reggiano are the same thing, basically. Do you mean Romano?

> Put it in the oven about 8 inches from the broiler if possible.   
> Broil slowly until the cheese gets all melty and tan-ish.

Russet's a good look. I've decided, though, that the gods that  
invented pizza were all about contrast, and that pale spots and small  
charred blisters, taken together, are vastly underrated where pizza is  
concerned.

Some authorities maintain that the cheese not only needs to melt and  
brown, but that some butterfat needs to break out. I suppose it's akin  
to not skimming the grease off your chili; some people feel strongly  
about its presence. I always thought it was silly, watching people  
drip/drain the weird orange oil (which is basically tomato-flavored  
and colored butterfat) that is so frequent a component of the standard  
NY pizza, but never really thought about the flavor lost in the  
process. I just thought it looked dumb. Eat your friggin' pizza while  
it's hot, stop playing with your food, and if you wanna live forever  
order something else -- much good may it do you ;-).

> I don't have a baking stone anymore (long story, very sad), but  
> replacing it is high on my priority list.

I've heard of those. That's that thing that I'll never have room for,  
no matter how big a kitchen I have, right?

I experimented with a variety of methods, and reached a reasonably  
high plateau using my largest cast iron skillet instead of a stone. I  
tried heating the pan and slipping the pizza in, not pre-heating the  
pan, and putting the pan for about two minutes over a flame on the  
rangetop, before baking. In the end, the easiest method, which was  
just to assemble the pizza in the pan and bake it, was so  
infinitesimally inferior to the other methods, while still being  
easier, won out.

> Things I had not considered but now may have to try ... Italian  
> sausage and capers.
>
> Things I had not thought of until recently inspired by this list ...  
> caramelize the onions, peppers and garlic ahead of time.
>
> Something that sounded weird at the time but that I am thinking  
> about trying ... grill the pizza.

Sounds good, and a lot easier than the mechanics of tandoori pizza...

> OOO ... I think we are having white pizza for dinner.

Around here the standard wisdom involves ricotta and mozzarella... I  
think that formula needs work, but hey...

Adamantius



More information about the Sca-cooks mailing list