Ah – pizza! I make pizza every week. I simply love the concept of pizza as food. One may say a pizza crust is a blank canvas onto which we can design with whatever edible we desire, as a painter is free to draw whatever he fancies. And we get to eat our handwork at the end. How cool is that! Long ago I didn’t eat much pizza. But it began maybe about fifteen/twenty years ago, a wide array of very good pizzas suddenly could be found in all sorts of places. Pizzerias, ristorantes, bakeries, and even some supermarkets offer pizzas that are far from run-of-the-mill stuff, but often with that special touch in the choice of ingredients, the combination of ingredients, and almost always nicely done and delicious. Some pizzas are so charmingly put together that I can’t help but to pause and admire the aesthetics of it before I sink my teeth into the pie. Since pizza is such a convenient receptacle for all manner of ingredients the varieties seem to be endless. Some toppings that don’t take well to high heat are placed on the pizza after baking. One idea I like – and easily doable at home – is to scatter micro-greens or baby veggies on the pizza when the pie is piping hot, just before serving. It’s like having my pizza and eating my salad, too! At home, it’s easy to use full-sized veggies made small: thin strips of basil or mint or shiso, hand-torn lettuce, shaved young fennel bulb, curvy strings of scallion, or something with more of a “bite”, such as radish tops. My favorite bakery in the neighborhood is known for many of their fine goodies, among them their daily pizza. Their pizza is always thin-crust with a hint of sourdough, vegetarian, a different offer every day. The first pizza is scheduled to come out at 11 a.m., but way before then the incredibly alluring aroma of pizza-in-the-oven would have already attracted a line of customers. The bakery has this big bowl of olive oil infused with various fresh herbs – I can see it even from the coffee counter. With a pastry brush the server would dab the hot pizza generously with this aromatic greenish oil before slicing. I unapologetically do the same at home – using a much smaller bowl, of course. For me, the crust is what makes any good pizza better. Recently I got to try a box of KAF ‘classic pizza crust mix’. The dough was a bit gritty to the touch because of all the semolina, but it came together very easily. I didn’t need to use all of the dry mix. The baked pizza was very tasty, and this crust came out differently from all of the homemade recipes I have tried. What’s in the box? If I use this mix again, I’d want to experiment adding a bit of my own sourdough. I wonder how does this ‘pizza crust mix’ compare with KAF ‘pizza blend flour’? Happy New Year!

• Reply