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Webisodes

New Webisode: Baking Mini Baguettes from Pizza Dough

Hi and welcome Back! Here’s a webisode we’ve been saving from the Forno Bravo Oven Expo where I get to bake my favorite thing (beside pizza): bread!  And not just any bread but a remarkable mini-baguette made from a wet, ciabatta-like dough, that puffs up beautifully in a hot oven immediately after shaping (and this will work not just in wood-fired oven but even in a home oven set to…Read More…

New Webisode Series, Part One: Anthony Mangieri, “I Don’t Compromise”

Hi Again, Here’s the beginning of a new webisode series featuring the legendary Anthony Mangieri, founder of Una Pizza Napoletana. This segment is just a short teaser, but I promise to post Part Two next week, when we get into the heart of it all with Anthony. This series was shot in San Francisco, before he moved Una back to NYC, where he originally launched it about 15 years ago….Read More…

New Webisode: Brigit Binns, Wood-Fire Cooking Part 3

We’re back with Part 3 of our wood-fired mini-class with the talented Brigit Binns, and her equally talented “Cinder-Fella,” husband Casey Biggs. Here, at the Forno Bravo Wood-fired Expo,  held at the beautiful Talbott Vineyards in Carmel Valley, CA,  they demonstrate their own colorful version of a Mediterranean-inspired chorizo-fennel pizza. Brigit always has lots of cooking tips for us, and Casey has figured out a few things, too, regarding how…Read More…

New Webisode: Pinot Noir Master Class, part 2

We’re back with another installment of our master wine class with wine maker extraordinaire, Dan Karlsen of Talbott Vineyards. If you haven’t been following along scroll down the home page or head over to the Webisodes section and watch the previous segments in which we get to meet Dan and talk about food and wine pairing (and lots of tasting, of course).  I have to say, in these simple, fun…Read More…

New Webisode, Marco’s Coal-Fired Pizza, Part 1

I’m on my way to Denver as you read this, and am planning to have dinner at Racca’s, one of the most highly praised pizzerias in town. Had I not run into Mark Dym, the owner and patron of Racca’s, in NYC at the World Pizza Summit a few months ago, I would not have discovered that I’d already eaten at Racca’s a couple of years ago, except it was…Read More…

Peppe Miele, Part 9, Pizza Bianca

White pizza can take on many forms, whether with ricotta cheese and spinach, as we often find in the popular New York-style version, or simply any pizza without tomato sauce.  In this classic Neapolitan version, Peppe shows how he builds his bianca by first making, essentially, a Margherita without sauce, and then layering on the flavors after it comes out of the oven. In this instance, fresh prosciutto crudo (raw,…Read More…

Peppe Miele, Part 8, Calzone

I often say that pizza is just dough with something on it. But, when you think about it, it can also be dough with something in it (which means, a nicely made grilled cheese sandwich is a kind of pizza too!). In this week’s segment, Peppe shows us how easy it is to use pizza dough to make a classic calzone filled with salumi, ricotta and mozzarella (with a dash…Read More…

Peppe Miele, Part 7, Marinara Pizza

In bread baking, it is the simple baguette that is held as the benchmark of a baker’s skills. A Mexican restaurant better make a killer salsa or I’m out of there. Any ice cream artiste can make fanciful flavors but it is their vanilla or chocolate that proves if they have the golden touch.  For Neapolitan pizzas, it is the Margherita, for sure, but also the lesser known (in the…Read More…

Peppe Miele, Part 6, Margherita Pizza

Welcome back to our “Master Class” series from Peppe Miele. In each of these segments we’ve learned another golden nugget of pizza wisdom and this one is no exception. For instance, he mentions (so quickly that I almost missed it) that the”official” Vera Pizza Napoletana (VPN) Margherita Pizza is supposed to use a sprinkle of only Pecorino (sheep’s milk) cheese, even though most places (even his) now use mostly Parmesan….Read More…

Peppe Miele, Part 5, The Oven

We continue our exploration of Vera Pizza Napoletana with our Naples guru Peppe Miele. In this installment we turn to the wood-fired oven that is absolutely essential if you want to get certified as a real deal, verace pizza guy. It’s hard to believe, but important to recall, that only a few years ago in the United States a wood-fired oven siting was a rare and exciting discovery. Little by…Read More…

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Vision Statement

Pizza Quest is a site dedicated to the exploration of artisanship in all forms, wherever we find it, but especially through the literal and metaphorical image of pizza. As we share our own quest for the perfect pizza we invite all of you to join us and share your journeys too. We have discovered that you never know what engaging roads and side paths will reveal themselves on this quest, but we do know that there are many kindred spirits out there, passionate artisans, doing all sorts of amazing things. These are the stories we want to discover, and we invite you to jump on the proverbial bus and join us on this, our never ending pizza quest.

Peter’s Books

American Pie
Artisan Breads Every Day
The Bread Bakers Apprentice
Brother Junipers Bread Book
Crust and Crumb
Whole Grain Breads

...and other books by Peter Reinhart, available on Amazon.com