Posted by Pizzablogger, February 8th, 2010
The pizza wasn’t a beauty, but finally a successful crust using the “all broiler” method:
 Burnt Pistachios and Crust Getting Closer.... Unfortunately, I nuked the hell out of the pistachios, which obviously don’t like hanging out inches from an open flame, sliced the red onion too thin and the crumb was a little too open and not quite as “fluffy” as I would prefer. But the crust was also pretty good as well, being light and airy and having a very pleasant flavor somewhat similar to hearth baked bread. The sourdough notes were noticeable, yet did not overpower the other flavors. Almost a beautiful pizza, but I’m taking steps in the right direction. If I am eventually able to get repeatable, proven results, I’ll post them here. We’ll call this round a draw.
Pizza Notes:
“Rosa”
Toppings: Parmigiano-Reggiano, Red Onion, Crushed Pistachios, EVOO, Sicilian Sea Salt, Fresh Rosemary
Cook Time: 1:54
100.00% Caputo 00 Pizzeria flour
60.00% Water (going to up this next time)
2.60% Sicilian Sea Salt
5.00% Ischia sourdough starter (as percentage of formula water)
17hrs fermentation @ 68°F
5hrs proofing @ 68°F
Posted by Pizzablogger, February 5th, 2010
…where the truly wonderful parts of human civilization comes from is these lunatics at the fringe –Jim Koch, Founder of Boston Beer Company from the movie Beer Wars
Posted by Pizzablogger, February 5th, 2010
Everyday With Rachael Ray magazine’s March issue will feature a bracketed, March Madness tournament style pizza face-off to determine the best pizza in the country. Sixty-four of the country’s best pizzerias flexed their muscles, rained pepperoni from beyond the arc, slam dunked fresh mootz over the competition and smothered the opposing team’s offense with a competent crusty defense.
 - East Coastin!
Slice’s Adam Kuban and Serious Eat’s Ed “A Slice of Heaven” Levine lended an assist to the the Rachael Ray crew by filling out the brackets. Adam’s West Coast Pizza Madness Tour back in October was to help figure out some of the bracket winners out west.
A minor quibble: Maryland was in the South-Southwest bracket. Yes, we are below the Mason-Dixon line, but our easternmost boundry is the Atlantic Ocean. Last time I checked, the Atlantic Ocean IS the east coast, but we were denied inclusion in the East Coast bracket. I mean, c’mon guys! 
Three area pizzerias made it to the bracket of 64:
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DC’s 2Amys won its first round game by beating Dallas based Campania Pizza & More only to lose in the round of 32 to Dough Pizza Napoletana.
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Bethesda’s Mia’s Pizzas made the deepest run of the area pizzerias by making it to the Sweet 16 after dunking on Houston’s Dolce Vita and then Miami’s Casale before losing to famous home pizza maker turned pizza shop owner Jeff Varasano’s Atlanta based Verasano’s in the round of 16.
The final four have been revealed and what a doozy it’s gonna be! The all wood-fired oven line-up of the Final Four are sure to heat up the road to the championship:
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NYC based Motorino will represent the East Coast and face off against Nick Lessin’s Chicago based Great Lake out of the Midwest bracket.
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The West Coast will be represented by Pizzeria Mozza, who will face-off against iconic Phoenix based Pizzeria Bianco out of the South-Southwest bracket.
It’s gonna be a clash of the titans type shoot-out for the championship. Lot’s of PTPers on the floor, babyeee! Who is the winner? Find out in the March edition of Rachael Ray’s Everyday Living, which is set to hit newstands on February 14th. Check out the full brackets here.
Posted by Pizzablogger, February 2nd, 2010
Well, my oven seems to want to give me some troubles when trying to cook pizza using nothing but the broiler, but I’m gonna skin this cat soon. Included in the recent tests were some pizza disasters….placing my pizza stone so close to the broiler that the pizza caught on fire when I tried to fit it in the narrow gap between broiler and stone is among the fun events which took place in the blogger kitchen over the last two days.
 Bottoms Up of two recent pizzas I made While I ultimately struck out over the past two days, there is promise involved in these tests, as shown in the two bottoms up shots above. The char is maybe a tad overdone, but never before have I gotten this level of char on a 100% Caputo 00 formulated dough in my kitchen oven. That’s shaved pecorino romano from a previous batch, picked up from placing the slices on the marble, in case yer wondrin’ what that white squiggly stuff is.
The inner crust and tops need LOTS of work, so it’s back to the drawing board!
Posted by Pizzablogger, February 1st, 2010
 Marjoram. Photo from Bon Appetit. Click photo for link to Bon Appetit. (UPDATE 2/2/2010): Talk about timing. Iggies new pizza of the month for February, Cigliegina, uses marjoram as an ingredient. Yum!
If you are familiar with my pizza tastes, then you know I don’t give a damn about the rules, dare I say restrictions, imposed by groups like the VPN. However, when it comes time to make pizzas in my house, the VPN does mention, “all types of pizza are agreeable to basil leaves.” You’re damn straight on that! In fact, life without basil would be very sad indeed.
Enter Nick Lessins, pizzamaker and owner (along with Lydia Esparza) of Chicago’s much talked about pizzeria, Great Lake. While reading articles about Great Lake, I thought the mention that marjoram was used on top of some of the pizzas was interesting. I filed that info away in the cobweb laden attic that is my head and there it lay for a while.
Cruising Whole Foods looking at what fresh herbs could help cure my winter time blues over the lack of herbal goodness in the “backyard” brought me face-to-face with a pack of marjoram leaves, which I scooped up and got onto a homemade pizza within hours.
The result? Marjoram is awesome on pizza. I very much like it on a Bianca instead of basil and plan to use it on a few pizzas to give a nice switch from the basil which usually adorns nearly every pizza I make. To me at least, Basil and Marjoram are very similar to two of my long-time favorite American pale ales, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Anchor Liberty Ale. The Sierra Nevada product is very much the citrusy-grapefruity “male” to the more “feminine”, floral Anchor Liberty Ale. Marjoram plays more of a feminine counter to basil, delivering, as Mrs. Blogger pointed out, a “perfumed” note to the pizzas it’s cooked on.
It’s a tad sweet, a little mintish perhaps with maybe even a bit of pine-resiny notes and it adds a nice brightness to the pizzas. Basil will always be king on my pizzas, but perhaps a queen has been found in the blogger kitchen. Try adding some fresh marjoram on your home made pizzas immediately after they come out of the oven and lemme know what you think.
Posted by Pizzablogger, January 30th, 2010
If you’ve been following Paulie Gee’s Twitter stream, you probably have seen these. If you haven’t, hear ya go. Test pizzas are looking good. Opening day is getting closer and I really want to show a full picture of the oven, which is a thing of beauty, but you’ll just have to wait and see on opening day. Good luck the rest of the way…..
(Update 2/1/2010): PG’s most recent tweet: “Just gave my notice. I am retiring from my career as an IT professional. No golf for me. I’ll be spending my time in front of a hot oven”.
(Update 2/3/2010): Village Voice mentions that Paulie Gee’s is among the most anticipated openings (of any type) in NYC this year.
 By Row, L to R: Stefano Ferrara tiling Paulie's oven in Napoli, all fired up, Paulie and Jen from Morta di Fame, first pie in the oven, Sopressata Picante pizza, wanna slice? All pics from Paulie Gee's Twitter stream. Most photos taken by Jen Galatioto of Morta di Fame
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