Post your favorite pizza recipe here

[fisherman99]

As a pizza connoisseur, I have a few faves. My latest experimenting (although I make it a general rule never to write down ingredients unless it is absolutely required at a later dining) has been to put thinly sliced shreds of onion and garlic under the pizza (I don't have a brick oven yet, but I bet it'll be more delish then), and then sprinkle some on the crust of the pizza so that it caramelizes, and I like to add Oregano to the pizza dough, along with some Parmesean cheese. It adds an extra kick of flavor, and takes the thin crust pizza beyond the notch of just a "thin" pizza.

Haven't tried using chicken, but I did use pre-cooked shrimp once and I do agree that they're awesome with the tomato sauce.

[Robert Musa]

basil, motz, pasta sauce, and coppa.

i find with thin fatty meats like coppa and prosciotto, it's best to put the meat on when the pizza is half way thru cooking. also, as a general rule, (imho) it seems that leafy stuff like basil and spinach should always be placed in the bottom layer.

[sssmasi]

i think you can't beat the margherita, or my favorite, the margherita pura. the best sauce comes from black tomatoes, straight from the garden (the spiciest tomato strain i've ever tried), just crushed and salted. add sliced or pressed garlic, plenty (not a drizzle) of olive oil, and fresh basil at the last minute. maybe it's boring, but i think it's classic and unbeatable.

I couldnt agree more. The simple pizzas may seem boring but i believe they are the most difficult to make. Lots of toppings can mask some undesireable flavours that you may have somehow created in your production process. I can't wait to go back to Sicily to order a pizza margherita from a small family owned pizzeria on the hilltops of Cefalu. That was the pizza that inspired me to start making my own.

[aikitarik]

Favorite!?

How can there be only one?

Here are 3 that we had a week or so ago...

I started by mixing crushed garlic and chopped rosemary with olive oil and allowing it to steep while the pizza dough was rising.

I also made a pizza sauce by whizzing up a large can of San Marzano's (fresh season is over here) with my stick blender and then simmering them for 15 minutes with herbs and spices.

Then...

From left to right...

1. The rosemary-garlic EVO, ricotta cheese, spinach. Think there was another similar to it that had goat cheese instead of ricotta

2. The pizza sauce, some bufala mozzerella (yes, we can get it locally), yellow bell pepper.

3. My personal favorite of this batch... the rosemary-garlic EVO, paper thin slices of lemon, crunchy sea salt, and more of the rosemary-garlic EVO on top. We did 2 of these.

We also did a margherta with the pizza sauce, bufala mozzerella and basil, but it didn't last long enough to take a pic of.

MMMmmm

The pizza's in this pic were actually done in a cooling oven because we were actually done eating and wanted to simply use up the ingredients and dough. They made great breakfasts and lunches later.

I also learned how to screw up flipping pizzas and turned someones pepperoni pizza into a calzone (still tasted good). I think we made 12 pizzas that weekend for family only. Yummy!

[Jerald P]

Mexican Pizza

I marinate sliced jalapenos in EVOO and minced garlic the day before. On pizza day I drizel EVOO on the dough, add some celantro and oregeno, shreded pork, some mexican ricotta cheese, and a generous ammount of maranated jalepenos. I go easy on the topings ( other than the peppers )

[Bob C]

RM,

pizzas look great and I bet taste even greater!

Two of our favorites:

1. chicken in buffalo wing sauce...I use a local favorite...Archie Moore's...the kids and the wife love it.

2. San Marzano plums just picked from the vine with fresh basil...also just picked, "EVOO" , garlic and fresh mozz.

Yummmmmmmmm!

Bob C

[Robert Musa]

saturday was pizza day. damn we're getting good at this. my son nick can now consistently toss a THIN pizza. we tried some new combos.

1. assorted sausage, onion, tomato, tomato sauce, jalapeno and mozz
2. coppa, whole garlic, basil leaves and parm
3. bbq chicken (an old favorite)
4. chicken with basil cream sauce, whole garlic cloves, fresh basil leaves, mozz (this was the best - we're going to try the cream sauce next time with a seafood instead of chicken).

i precooked (fried) the garlic. the more pizza we make, the clearer it is that often the less (volume) you dump on the pizza, the better the pizza tastes. (its just so hard not to load it up though).

edited to add: the first picture shows chicken frying in the oven. using the oven to fry works great. thanks james ...

[james]

Wow. That's commitment.

Did you see our photos of the buffalo farm and mozz production. Very cool.

http://fornobravo.com/brick_oven_coo...zzarella1.html

In fact, the Agriturismo at the farm has an excellent cooking school and brick oven, about an hour south of Naples. Very highly recommend.

James

[jjerrier]

ricotta pizza

i'm thinking they might make it there themselves...i know he makes his own fresh mozz every morning. i'm guessing it may have been mixed with something like eggs, olive oil or maybe another soft creamy cheese. i don't have too many adventurous soles lining up for strange combos anyway...i have to cook for the masses, not the classes.

[james]

Ricotta pizza

Do you think they use imported Ricotta at Pizzeria Bianca?

James

[james]

I asked that same question a few months ago.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

I did the math on how much olive oil the family consumed over a two year period, and it was incredible. I really hope the scientists are right, and olive oil is good for you, or I'm in real trouble.

James

[dmun]

what's evo?

The first 4 pages of a google search return nothing food related.

[jjerrier]

Another good pie

another good pie i had was ricotta, a big pile of arrugula, and evo. i had it at pizzeria bianco in phoenix. i tried to make it at home but it was definitely not as good...ricotta was not creamy enough.

[jjerrier]

Favorite Pizzas

I made a lot of BAD pizzas and BAD dough before I found some favorites. I use the NY dough recipe from Reinhart's book...it is pretty durable...especially when I have "helpers" trying to shape the dough (i.e. my father stretches it on the peel and tears it and then tries to patch it without telling me so when it goes in the oven off the peel it does a double somersault onto the deck). Anyway - here are the crowd favorites:

- Thinly sliced pears, brie, brown sugar...brown sugar carmelizes...yummy and popular with the ladies
- Tomato puree, ham, crushed pineapple, mozz, evo, and brown sugar...my wife's favorite
- Buff mozz, evo, thick sliced tomato, and fresh basil leaves and a squirt of balsamic syrup when it's out of the oven
- If I can guilt my mother into making meatballs, those are always a good topping

The big favorite though is the dessert cobbler...after the oven cools a bit from the pizza, I take a pile of peeled/cored granny smith apples (peaches work well too), and toss with 1/4 cup honey + cinnamon sugar mix (6.5tbsp sugar and 1.5 tbsp cinnamon) + 2 tbsp cornstarch + a bit of brown sugar sprinkled across the top...put it in a sturdy pan (cast iron skillet is the best if you have one) and set it in the oven til apples look soft and juices are bubbling...then yank it out and cover it with crumb topping mixture (I use the marzetti mix available at Target). You have to watch it close after this because the topping can cook VERY quickly and burn. After it comes out of the oven I make it even worse by drizzling melted caramel over the top and serving with vanilla ice cream.

If you ever get to Dallas...check out fireside pies...great pizza and the reason we built our oven...i try to copy everything off their menu.

[paulages]

the all-nighter

i work at a pizzaria, and though we sell many pizzas with spinach, i don't really think it makes a good pizza.
i do routinely make the strangest combinations you could imagine. the law in oregon requires that as long as alcohol is being sold, you have to have food available. so to start closing early, i try and make something so wierd that people won't rush to buy it. the catch is, my artisan pride won't let me make something that won't actually be tasty if someone is brave enough to try it. i call this pizza the "all nighter." once i made a ceasar salad pizza--romaine, parmesan, croutons and lemons on a caesar dressing base. absolutely disgusting if you ask me, but people loved it.
my other favorite was an egg scrambler (egg, feta, ham, green peppers and cream), scrambled on the stone, then topped upon a garlic/olive oil blend with mozzarella.
last night i made an orange chicken pizza, marinading the chicken for 24 hrs. in a pseudo-asian orange savory sauce, then breading it to be oven roasted. i wouldn't touch the stuff, but it's now infamous.