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Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart
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Tony's Pizza Napoletana Gallery
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Tuesday, 30 August 2011 09:27
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We're going to be visiting with Tony Gemignani at Tony's Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco over the coming weeks. As I was building this Photo Gallery I thought back to when we first arrived and met Tony. We were walking around with him as our crew was setting up while he showed us around his new pizzeria. He took us in to see the wood fired oven that he brought in from Italy; he explained to us about temperature, wood, time, and the importance of using the right ingredients. We then went into the back kitchen, where he showed us three more ovens that he had -- each one for a different and specific style of pizza.
I thought to myself, "Who would go through the effort to have four different styles of pizza ovens?" Well, as you will see, Tony would. You will also see that he is that way about everything he does, giving equal attention to the big details as well as the small ones. There are certain ways he recommends that you stack your flour; he takes care to pick the right products, know the growers, and keep focused on the traditions of his craft. I realized that Pizza Quest had just entered into the world of Tony's Quest, our journeys had converged, and we had a great time as Tony generously let us peer into his world.
Tony grew up in the Bay area -- it's his home turf and, so, he took us outside of the pizzeria a couple of times. One of those trips was to cross over the Golden Gate Bridge, just to talk about life, pizza, and to look back with fondness over his city. He also arranged to take us out to the farmlands of his main California tomato producer, Stanislaus Tomatoes, where we met with Steve Rouse, the Stanislaus marketing director. We got some great footage there.
I'm sure you will enjoy our visit into Tony's world as much as we did and we thank him for letting us in. Please enjoy the gallery and the coming webisodes.
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Joseph's Provolone Pizza
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Wednesday, 19 October 2011 15:13
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As a special welcome to The Fire Within, our newest sponsor, here is a video we shot last October at an oven owners conference hosted by Joseph Pergolizzi, the owner and founder of The Fire Within. We shot a number of these instructional videos at the end of the conference with various attendees, asking each of the oven owners what kind of pizza they wanted to make, and Joseph chose this one and a couple of others, including a killer clam pizza. In this video, though, we not only get to make a simple yet beautiful pizza with pesto, two kinds of cheese (with a special tribute to Provolone, which both of us love), and local cherry tomatoes, but also talk about the oven rigs themselves.
Note that the crust is a little puffy in this version, almost like a round Sicilian or focaccia style dough, but you can always make the crust as thin or thick as you like when you do it. The dough was so delicious (recipe in the PQ Instructional archives), and the combo of fresh tomatoes, pesto, and cheeses are so perfect that, when the cameras stopped running, we devoured this little pie in about 30 seconds.
For more details on these oven rigs, click through to The Fire Within website on our home page. Joseph and I are already talking about doing another conference in Boulder next autumn and would love to have you there.
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Jalapeño & Sunny Eggs Pizza
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Wednesday, 23 May 2012 14:02
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Eggs-perimentation - Numero Dos:
 I love Eggs on a pizza. They are a perfect topping being both a topping and possibly becoming part of the sauce of the pizza. If you time it right, you can get the egg to cook to that perfect Sunny Side Up - runny deliciousness. After the pizza comes out, you simply take a fork and knife, or a spoon and break the yolk and spread it around the pizza. The egg is now playing two roles, both of which work perfectly on a pizza. But I've already told you this the last time I posted, and then Peter reiterated it in his recent blog about Pure Pizza in Charlotte.
So this is the second pizza in my latest little pizza experimentation here at Casa Ingles (as we affectionately call it)! The fun thing about making pizza, as I've written before, is that there is a lot of opportunity for creativity. Unlike when cooking other things, you get to try a number versions every time you make pizza. They bake quickly and you are generally making at least 4 different pizzas during a meal. It would get costly if you cooked up 4 large steaks every time you had that as a main dish, using seasonings and different cooking techniques. I suppose you could cut a steak into smaller portions and do that, but that has it's own set of downfalls. My point (and I do have one) is that pizza is a naturally interactive food during planning, prep, and eating.
 You can lay out a plan and easily find a new path to the perfect pizza that you are hoping to make. I often only plan out a couple of the pizzas I'm going to make and then let the others come out of something I see while I'm shopping, or something that may be in the house at the time. It's those found ingredients that sometimes take a pizza to the next level. This pizza came out of the idea of using Jalapeños. I am fascinated with the idea of pre-cooking them, which knocks out some of the heat and leaves you with a bold flavorful ingredient with enough spice to make them stand out, but not too much for those who can't take a lot of heat.
Jalapeño & Sunny-Eggs Pizza de Casa Ingles
 Ingredients:
Pizza Dough
-I used my favorite Central Milling Germania Flour, Signature Bruery Pizza Dough but you can use your own favorite dough
Peter's Herb Oil
Partially baked thinly sliced potato
Sautéed Mushrooms, Zucchini, and Jalapeños
-I sautéed these to get them started cooking before going onto the pizza. Season with a little salt and pepper and sauté until just cooked - allowing room for them to finish cooking on the pizza.
Bel Gioioso Creamy Gorgonzola Cheese (or other blue cheese)
2 Eggs
Chopped Scallions
Fresh Rosemary Needles
Grated Parmesan
 The Build:
Spread the dough on a well floured peel.
Sprinkle a little of the Herb Oil on the dough.
Add the potatoes, zucchini and mushrooms.
Break off chunks of the creamy gorgonzola cheese. Alternatively, you could use another soft cheese, like a brie mixed with a little blue cheese. I didn't use much cheese here. First of all this cheese is very flavorful and I didn't want it to take over. Second, I wanted the sautéed vegetables and the egg to play a bigger role.
I wanted to make sure that I achieved runny sunny-side Up eggs on this pizza. So, I decided to set this pizza in the oven and bake it for a couple of minutes and then add the egg.
 The Bake:
Bake in your oven for approximately 2-3 minutes.
*Make sure you pre-heat the oven for at least an hour to get your pizza stone up to temperature. I pre-heat at 550 degrees and then turn it to Convection Bake before loading my first pizza, which lowers the temp to 525 degrees.
Pull the pizza out and crack two fresh eggs over the top.
 Add the sautéed jalapeños.
Place it back into the oven. Bake until the eggs and crust and all the ingredients are just right. This should be about 4-5 minutes. For this pizza, base the doneness on the eggs.
The eggs came out perfect on this one. You can see that my crust has some charring and darkness to the edges and the toppings got a little brown on the edges as well. The egg is perfectly cooked! The yolk is soft and ready to be spread across the pizza and become part of the overall sauce.
 Carefully spread the yolk around trying not to move all the ingredients away from the center as you do. You'll find that you can move things back and forth once you break the yolk and start spreading it out so that you keep the ingredients balanced for each bite.
Finally, top the finished pizza with scallions and some grated Parmesan.
Enjoy! And do send us some ideas of your own...
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Margherita Pizza with Mozzarella di Bufala
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Thursday, 26 January 2012 20:11
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We've been wanting to share this webisode with you for quite a while, so here it is. Last year, when we were at the Fire Within Oven Owners Conference, we taped a number of demo's in the beautiful mobile ovens built by Joseph Pergolizzi and his team of masons and metal craftsmen. Among those in attendance was Andres Salazar, who was just on the verge of releasing his first batch of Buffalo Mozzarella in the USA. As you will learn, his herd of grass fed water buffalo live in Columbia, South America, and the Salazar family has perfected the art of making gorgeous, creamy cheese from the milk. I'll let Andreas do his own talking but I have to say, this was amazing cheese -- so sweet and velvety that, after the tape stopped rolling, I couldn't stop eating the cheese. It maybe hard to find, but it will be found under the label of Annabella Cheese and at www.annabellacheese.com/
You'll notice that after Joseph's Margherita pizza came out of the oven we garnished it with threads of fresh basil that have been sliced chiffonade-style. This is different than we saw Tony Gemignani and our other featured pizzaiolos do it, but I like this method for when you're having pizza parties and have to cut the pizzas into slices for everyone (as opposed to the more traditional method of one pie per person, folded and eaten). Consider it yet another option to add to your repertoire.
We love discovering artisans doing extraordinary work, and what a treat it was to meet Andreas and hear about the commitment he and his family have made to go "all in" with their water buffalo farm and cheese business. Enjoy it now, even if vicariously on the screen, as we make a pizza with this extraordinary cheese and let us know if you've been able to find it anywhere and, if you have, what you think.
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The Pizza Guy
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Friday, 11 May 2012 04:50
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The Pizza Guy, or is he the "Other Pizza Guy? Let me explain.
 I found myself driving through the desert thinking a lot about pizza. Having thoughts of pizza dance around my head wasn't out of the ordinary, but you don't often connect pizza with the desert. I was cruising east at about 5 miles per hour over the speed limit to avoid being taken down by one of the open highways finest on my way from LA toward the big Pizza Expo that is held in Las Vegas once a year. I was going to finally meet John Arena, who often writes on our site. What had me so excited was that he had expressed to Peter that he wanted to make some pizza with me. So, as I drove my mind wandered through the possibilities of this new experience.
 John is more than a pizza chain owner. He is a pizza encyclopedia who walks the walk and talks the talk. He is a pizza guy from Brooklyn who struck out to find his slice of the American Dream when the opportunity to buy a small pizzeria in Las Vegas came up. I love his story! He and his cousin sold everything they had to come up with the down payment for the business and, through a moving service, shuttled a car out to Los Angeles for someone. On their way, they dropped off their possessions in Vegas. After delivering the car to LA the next day, they returned to Vegas on a Greyhound bus. A few weeks later, when they opened their pizzeria, the two of them had less than $100 between them.
Here's my favorite part: As their business grew he and his cousin started noticing folks saying "Hey, there's The Pizza Guy, and the Other Pizza Guy." I can't remember if John is THE Pizza Guy, or the OTHER Pizza Guy, but he is definitely our Pizza Guy!
 Today he is opening his sixth Metro Pizza in Las Vegas. Talk about a Pizza Quest! You can see why I was excited to meet John, eat his pizza, and be shown the ropes of his hometown event - The Pizza Expo.
True to form, John was my ambassador and tour guide for the Expo. We walked the floor, meeting people I knew from a year of operating this site but had never met in person, and ran into a number of friendly faces. I was there to spread the word and look for potential sponsorship interest in our site as well as just connecting with the industry of pizza. The convention hall was filled with ingredient companies (Flour, Cheese, Tomato, Meats, Toppings), oven manufacturers, pizza box makers, and all the little things that you need to operate a pizzeria, or restaurant. It was also filled with hot ovens pushing out tons of delicious pizzas, calzones, panini and all sorts of other "samples".
 After my first day, where I met a host of characters, including Scott Wiener of Scott's Pizza Tours in NYC, John invited us out to one of his Metro Pizzerias for dinner. I was full from testing and tasting pizza all day, but I was really excited to get out to one of John's pizzerias and see what he does. It looked like we wouldn't have time to make pizzas together on this trip, but I was happy to go and just take in the atmosphere.
John started cranking and the food just kept coming. First came the fried garlic knots. Then came these delicious meatball sliders made on the same garlic knots, but not fried. Stop the presses! I loved these!! I would be in trouble if this were my local pizzeria. Next came a giant, massive, Sicilian Pizza. It was done perfectly. The crust was thick and light. It was moist and crispy and juicy. I had stepped behind the counter to talk to John and snap some photos. I didn't think about it then, but he was in performance mode. He was delivering his pizzas to some pretty insane pizza lovers at the table where about ten of us sat awaiting the next course. He checked the crust on this Sicilian over and over, pulling it out, looking at the bottom and sliding it back in. He wanted to get the timing just right, and he did.
Earlier in the day, as we walked the floor of the Expo, we ran across a few booths doing fried pizza crusts, and fried paninis. John talked to me about how this was the new craze. I had just had my first fried dough in NYC at the new Don Antonio by Starita and thought it was definitely interesting. John explained that back "in the day," Italian immigrants would set up on the street and make deep fried calzones. They had a sidewalk business that consisted of a pot of oil and a burner and would serve up amazing calzones right off the street. So, this led to John's next treat, which I don't think was on the menu. He made us up some traditional deep fried street calzones. Watching this Pizza Guy make his food is like watching a master artist mixing his paints to create the exact colors he sees in his mind. John was set up on a prep table in the middle of the restaurant, but I could see he was not only here in this space, but also somewhere back in time, connecting to his ancestors. He comes from a long line of family members that worked in and around the pizza business. You can see that his heart is connected to his past, their shared experience, and also the present, where he is truly fulfilled sharing his soul through his pizzeria.
The deep fried calzones were amazing.
 Out came another pizza. It's called the Seafood Fra Diavalo. Did I start the presses again? If so, stop them again. You will be seeing this baby being recreated by yours truly on these pages soon enough. It was really good and it was also interesting. Then, out came a tomato pie with roasted red and green peppers, tomato sauce, olive oil and oregano.
Let's just restart the presses tomorrow.
My favorite moments of the night were still about to happen. John finally finished making and delivering platters of pizzas and appetizers and came out and sat down. We were all talking and laughing and he looks at me and says, "What's this?!" while pointing to my plate, which was now full of left over pieces of everything I had been eating. I looked down over my bloated belly and smiled, thinking how good everything was and how full I was. He then said, "Great! Brad English doesn't like my pizza!" I laughed and realized he was kidding, but then I started to explain that I was stuffing every bite I could into my mouth but, after a day of eating pizza and now a night of it, I had finally reached my limit. I assured him that Brad English did indeed love his pizza.
 The punchline of this piece of the story is that when I was back in my hotel room and called my wife, I relayed this part of the story. She started laughing hysterically. She said, "You're THE Brad English? You're named now?!! Hahahaha".
Metro Pizza bills itself as a family-style pizzeria. They are that and more. There's a huge wall-sized map of the United States with famous pizzerias marked on the map. John is such a pizza fanatic that he will give you a free dinner if you take a photo of yourself in front of a pizzeria in another city and give him the photo to post on the wall. Talk about a pizza guy on his own pizza quest. What a great way to build a family.
Thanks John for the great pizza and the personal pizza tour throughout my days at the Pizza Expo.
Brad English - Yet Another Pizza Guy.
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