It Just Keeps Getting Better

This week on PizzaQuest we introduce you to the Sweet Water Gypsies, two pizzaiolas from southern Utah. Look in the Instructionals section, posting on Thursday, for the video we made together featuring a wonderful arugula topped pizza with fresh mozzarella, grana padana cheese, bacon and crushed tomato sauce (the recipe for the sauce was posted last week). Also on Thursday, in our ongoing series of fundamental culinary building blocks, I’ll post a new recipe, this one for an easy to make fresh basil pesto that you can use either before or after you bake your pizza (and it’s fabulous on pasta too!).

We’ll also be posting on Friday the first of a two part guest column series from John Arena, the multi-talented owner of Metro Pizza in Las Vegas. John is also a pizza historian — maybe the only one in America– as some of you who have taken his college course at UNLV on The History and Culture of Pizza know. In his guest column he explores various dimensions of pizza as an act of creative self expression, a subject close to our hearts here at PizzaQuest (after all, our sub-title is “A journey of self-discovery through pizza”).  In previous weeks our guest columnists have written about the human need for community (Joseph Pergolizzi) and also the importance of respecting the craft and the craftsmen (Tony Gemignani). Each week our guest columnists will build on these kind of imperatives that drive the human spirit. I hope you have been finding them enriching, and I encourage you to jump in and and keep the conversation going by posting comments. We are building a community of our own here on PizzaQuest, and the best way to do that is for us to interact.

I keep getting e-mails from our readers asking about upcoming classes that I may be teaching. Because I’m working on a new book, I won’t be doing any travel teaching for awhile, but will be sure to post my travel schedule when I have one. Writing a book entails long, lonely hours, usually in the middle of the night, and my deadline is July 1st, which seems like far off but I know how much still needs to be done. Until we put the book to bed I have to keep my focus on it, as well as on our weekly postings here, and the less frequent postings on my baking blog (http://peterreinhart.typepad.com). So, keep checking and, eventually, the road trips will start again.

Enjoy this week’s offering and, for those who are just joining us, be sure to visit some of the earlier videos and features in each of the sections–use those buttons at the top of the page for the grand tour. And don’t forget, next week we return to our Pizzeria Mozza webisode series, with a visit to LaBrea Bakery, where the Mozza dough gets made.

Till next week,

May Your Pizzas All Be Perfect!

Peter

PS  Don’t forget that every time we post a new video or column, we move the earlier ones to their respective section, so you can still see them. If you’re just joining us for the first time, you can catch up on all of the early postings and webisodes by simply clicking on the buttons above.