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
Posted by Pizzablogger, January 29th, 2010
Kale, I Dun You Wrong
You know what? It miffs me that I had such a beautiful head of fresh kale and I botched the pizza I put it on. As I mentioned in my recent home made pizza post, I had nearly run out of fior-di-latte and did not have enough to cover the petola! A sad looking pizza, albeit a delicious one, indeed.
 Soughdough, Kale & Beer, Oh My! So, to make amends with Mr. Kale, it’s high time for Wintergreen II. Half of the flour and all of the water are kicking it on the kitchen counter, autolysin’ it up for 30 minutes before the remainder of the flour, salt and biga get added and then party really starts.
I’m gonna use this latest batch I’m mixing up (4 dough balls) to test different fermentation times and to get the Wintergreen (fior-di-latte, tellegio, fresh chopped garlic, sea salt, evoo, fresh marinated kale and lemon juice (post bake) looking all good and fancy this time! I’ll fire one pizza each day for the next four, beginning Sunday, to see which fermentation times work best with the South African sourdough culture I’ve been meaning to use. I’ll also be tinkering with a broiler only cook with these as well. I’ll report back with the results. More later…..
Posted by Pizzablogger, January 29th, 2010
Hey pizza peeps. As an FYI, the reviews here will be undergoing revisions. Most noticeable:
1. The “Verdict” rating will be dropped, so enjoy it while you can. I’ll have more to say about why I am ditching the ratings soon.
2. Verdicts at the end will be replaced by a “Snapshot” which briefly summarizes the pizza.
3. Each review will contain a Summary Information box at the beginning of the post. To give credit, this is a blatant
copy of what Slice employs on their site. I like the summary box very much and decided to use it myself. Hi Adam.
4. I will try to incorporate more of my ongoing experiences into the review itself, in addition to continually adding “Updates” at the end of each review.
The first review to get this treatment is Coal Fire Pizza, which you can see by clicking on this link. This review is mostly updated.
I will also be updating Fortunato Brothers in Baltimore very soon, as a couple of recent visits have very much proved my initial visit there was during an off day.
More info soon and have a great weekend!
Posted by Pizzablogger, January 26th, 2010
 All American Print Advertisement All American Deli & Pizzeria Set to Open February 2010
I was reading the February 2010 issue of Baltimore Magazine when I saw the ad to the left on page 115 of the magazine.
More pizza in Harbor East? Yup. And apparently another pizzeria, in addition to All-American Deli & Pizzeria, is in the pipeline, set to expand pizza options in downtown Baltimore’s restaraunt mecca from one to three. More on that in a hot second.
Curious to learn more, I went down to Harbor East on Sunday, walked around and found the spot where All American will be located. All American Delicatessen & Pizzeria will open in February 2010 at 1006 Aliceanna Street (map) in the space formally occupied by recently closed Elevation Burger.
 Hanging in the windows of the Elevation Burger space is the sign to the right. Note the sign says they are re-modeling, which to me indicates the current ownership (from Elevation Burger) is still in place. I need to confirm this, but if memory serves me correct, there is a relation between the owners of All American Deli & Pizzeria/Elevation Burger and Harbor East’s first pizzeria, Bagby Pizza Company. I will try to confirm this soon.
If so, this is a brilliant move to lock down the pizza market in Harbor East by all involved. Bagby Pizza Company offers only whole, super thin crusted pizzas. Harbor East could use a place to get pizza by the slice, and All American Deli & Pizzeria may offer just that. Stylistically, I think good (not too much sugar in the crust already!) New York Style pizza would be a nice compliment to the pizzas being offered a block over at Bagby Pizza Company.
I mentioned a third pizzeria coming to Harbor East, didn’t I? Curious to learn more about All American after my scouting trip, I Googled it and ran across Suzanne Loudermilk’s excellent food blog, In Good Taste. To quote Loudermilk’s blog:
“I also confirmed this week that another pizza shop will open in the area in the near future. The owner (who has Little Italy connections) asked me not to divulge the details until he crosses the “T”s and dots the “I”s on the lease, which should be next week. I’ll be able to give you more info soon”.
 Future Space of All American Deli & Pizzeria
Little Italy connections? I wonder who it could be. At a quick glance, the most notable open spaces currently available in Harbor East are the ground level spaces in the Legg Mason tower and the second tower which will house the upcoming Four Seasons Hotel. These spaces could potentially be quite expensive for a pizzeria, but there are also some spaces on the outskirts of Harbor East that are currently unoccupied.
As far as what kind of pizza will be served at this third pizzeria….who knows? The neighborhood certainly appears to have the demographic to support a Neapolitan inspired pizzeria. To see a true, high quality Neapolitan inspired pizzeria in Baltimore making pizzas in something like a Stefano Ferrara or Acunto wood fired brick oven would make this dummy jump for joy, but I’m putting the cart way before the horse!
(UPDATE 1/26/2010) I’ve got pretty much the full scoop on where the third pizzeria is going in and some of the players involved. That’s all I can say for now, but I’ll be sure to take construction pictures as this new space comes along. To you Harbor East Pizza peeps, your pizza plate overfloweth!
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