[cardguy]

An obvious point. But I only just figured this out a few weeks ago.

I have been putting way too much tomato sauce on my pizzas. As such - I need to start all over in terms of rating my pizza sauces.

Since even a great pizza sauce can taste a bit bad if there is too much of it on the pizza.

I love the taste of tomato sauce - but I am realising you can have too much of a good thing when it comes to pizza.

[Veloce]

Sounds like you're taking this shit really seriously, in which case, let's break down your pizzas into their various parts:

Dough
Sauce
Cheese

Forget toppings for now.

By far, the most important part of baking pizza is the dough. When thinking of dough, try to conceptualize dough for what it is; it's a foam, bound by starch and given structure by protein (gluten). Think of dough as a ratio of starch, protein, and water. The starch and protein are constants; so your main variable here is water. Now when thinking about water, or wetness of your dough, think about the relationship between the hydration and the temperature of the oven. If you want to bake at a very high temperature, your dough needs a very high hydration so it doesn't burn.

Less heat? Less moisture.
More heat? More moisture.

Expert pizzamakers don't go by recipes for this very reason. They understand that baking is about relationships between starch, water, and oven heat. If you understand this on a conceptual level you can do anything. You can make pizza in a 300 degree oven but you'll need a low moisture dough for that.

Find a dough method that interests you and stick with it. Whether it's Peter Reinhardt's method or Jeff Verasano. Repeat over and over and over, seriously make 100 pie crusts without any cheese or sauce just to practice. This is how you master cooking.

THEN, once you have a dough that you've been successful and had repeat-able results with, THEN you can start worrying about cheese and sauce. Cheese is an emulsion of protein, fat, and water. Key word there, WATER. Lower the moisture, the better, and there are many cheese brands that specialize in low moisture mozzarella for pizza, you just need to find one that melts nicely and has a great flavor.

For sauce, not sure if you've tried just pureed canned tomatoes but IMO that's the way to go. If you want something more interesting you can sweat one clove of minced garlic in some olive oil, a TINY pinch of dried oregano, a pinch of chile flake, and then add your canned tomato puree and cook for 5-10 minutes. I would not do anything more elaborate than that.

[The Lizard of Oz]

@thedude, f'ing great post. As I wrote on the expertise thread, this is what hard-core expertise fluently and memorably communicated looks like.

"sweat" is a very nice word choice for what you do with the garlic.

[Veloce]

(01-06-2014 10:08 PM)The Lizard of Oz Wrote:  

"sweat" is a very nice word choice for what you do with the garlic.

With very few exceptions, I hate the taste of browned garlic. It's overpowering and masks other flavors. Garlic that is cooked gently but thoroughly takes on a very sweet, very subtle background flavor that is essential.

That said, there is a specialty in the Friulian town of Grado, Boretto Gradese that's a quickly made fish stew that starts off with completely burning the garlic until it's black, adding the various fish and seafood items, deglazing with water, vinegar, and plenty of black pepper. It sounds weird but properly made it's incredible.

[presidentcarter]

thedude,

Have you ever heard of "Antico" in Atlanta?

It's BY FAR the best pizza I've ever had. I think the cheese is imported from Italy regularly and maybe other ingredients. Also, you eat on big metal tables right next to three stone-? ovens, which I believe are also imported.

Closing time for the restaurant is "when out of dough".

The full website is down atm, but here's a link anyway (and Zagat link - 28 rating):

http://www.anticoatl.com/

http://www.zagat.com/r/antico-pizza-napoletana-atlanta

[Cyr]

It hasnt been mentiomed here, but babecuing pizzas over charcoal turns out incredible, (just make sure it doesnt burn).

[cardguy]

I moved into my new flat in the past few weeks.

And on Friday I will be buying this.

Get ready for the second half of my search for a decent supermarket/homemade pizza!

[Sombro]

Love pizza, but homemade it's a pain in the ass.

If you live near a bakery, get some French bread and do the pizza bread thing at home. Tasty, and way easier.

[cardguy]

I used my small pizza oven (see above) for the first time last night.

Excellent product - probably the best thing I have ever bought. It does a superb job - and is easy to use.

[In case any of you get the same product as me - here is an important tip. Heat the machine to 2.5 - insert your pizza - and then put it on 3. This is very important - since this way the heat above the pizza will still be switched on. As opposed to switching off since it has already hit the required temperature. The best pizzas need to have heat coming directly above the pizza.]

Anyway - I still have a bunch of different things to play around with in terms of getting a pizza I really like. But as for the product itself - it is even better than I thought it would be.

[cardguy]

What is the best way of adding tomatoes to the top of a pizza?

I chop up cherry/piccolo tomatoes and place them on top. But they don't seem to cook very well - and are still soggy when I eat the pizza (despite using a pizza oven). My sense is that I need to reduce the water content of the tomatoes before I place them on a pizza.

If that is correct - what would be the best way? Would the best way to cut out the seeds of the tomatoes since that is where most of the moisture seems to be? Would doing that remove the flavour from the tomatoes though?

I like tomatoes - and placing them on top of a pizza seems like a good idea. But I am not 100% sure.

[killongy]

I make this all the time and its worth it

http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/20...pizza.html

[cardguy]

I am looking for an EASY to make pizza sauce.

I swear - a lot of the time I see recipes with ingredients I cannot get hold of.

And everyone swears there's is the best around. Also - I am no great cook - but I have made fancy recipes in the past, and they didn't taste that great to be honest. But - I am sure I was probably adding too much pepper or something.

But - having one that is easy to make is important to me. Even chopping up garlic annoys me since the smell stays on my hands for ages. The same applies to onion as well - but not so much. In the case of onion - I find it a little annoying how it makes my whole flat smell of onion for a few hours.

There is a supermarket (M&S) in the UK that does a good passata. But it is lacking in flavour - still I wonder if there are some simple ingredients I could add to it to help make it taste like a good pizza sauce?

I dump the passata in a bowl - and then what? What would be a good way of making it taste like a good sauce?

Remember - I know nothing about cooking. And am lazy. So - I am trying to find stuff which is not a pain in the ass for me to make after a busy day at work.

I have a pizza oven in my flat. And the pre-prepared pizza doughs from the supermarkets are okay.

It is just the sauce I am focusing on for now.

[samsamsam]

I not sure if the recipe is the most amazing. But it was entertaining.