The Last Great Pizza Thread

'Bout time we had a thread for all those that make their own dough and sauce. Too many good cooks on THP to let something as magnificent as that king of foods, pizza go unnoticed on this forum. This thread however comes with some rules to post...

1) Make your own dough and post the recipe. Thin crust. Whole wheat. Foccacia. NY or Chicago style. Naan....your choice!

2) Make your own sauce and post the recipe. Red. White. Olive oil w/ garlic. Whatever gets your mojo workin'!

3) Mandatory that it brings teh heat. Habs. Serrano's. Bhut's. T-Scorps. Fatalli. Hot sauce's and puree's will qualify. Using wimp sauce's such as Tabasco Brand or Franks will
be ridiculed with extreme prejudice and boooooed heavily!

4) Toppings can be anything. Pepperoni. Avocado. Greek olives. Pulled pork. If it came out of the ground or walked, swam or crawled, its all cool and the gang!

5) Bake them in the oven on a sheet pan. In cast iron. A pizza stone. On the grill. Got a wood fired pizza oven? Have mercy!

6) Pics are mandatory! Anyone can talk smack about it but put up or shut up. No pics? It never happened and ridiculing and boooooing will follow. Capiche?

Alright ya'll, lets get it on.....

 

[cypresshill1973]

Crushed rocottos and organic green olives...
 

 
Was very very hot!!

 

[swellcat]

Someone has flung an Argentine pizza-cravin' on me.

 

[geeme]

fHm - that looks puffy, but still shy of essie's volcano pizza. Did you prick the dough with a fork before baking? What kind of cheese? Any sauce? Seasonings? Looks good, but tell us more, please!

 

[geeme]

Here goes…..
 
My son became lactose intolerant a while back, but he loves pizza. I've been trying to come up with an alternative, and finally landed on something that worked well. Consider this Asian BBQ-style pizza. (Sorry for the dark pics.) First I made a sauce, split it, and marinated chicken thighs in half. The other half I heated to reduce down a bit.
 
Sauce: Hoisin sauce, soy sauce, pineapple juice, thyme, garlic, olive oil, sesame oil, chinese mustard, honey, cilantro, fatalii powder, pureed ginger, and sea salt. I think I'm missing a couple ingredients, but that's close enough. 
 
I briefly grilled the chicken thighs, then cut them up. The big question was the binder: without cheese, how were the toppings going to stick? I went with egg white, thinking how eggs are used in fried rice. After pre-cooking the crust just a tad (7 min), I first brushed it with egg white, added toppings, added more egg white, drizzled with the reserved sauce, then sprinkled sesame seeds.
 
The toppings: Purple basil from my garden, aji cristal from my garden, the chopped chicken, snow peas, red bell pepper, green onion, slivered almonds, crushed pineapple. 
 
After the pre-bake, with uncooked toppings:

 
After the final bake:

 
Sliced (I see the dark brown parts look black in the pic, so you're just going to have to trust they're not burned.): 

 
The bottom:

 
Definitely different, but definitely good. 
 
I may lighten up the pics a tad, mañana.

 

[frydad4]

Definitely different, but definitely good. 
 

 
 
G, That's just how you roll!!!!
 
Great looking pie! I applaud your creativity!!!
 
I'd steal a slice of that from you any day!

 

[Essegi]

Strange and massive pizza g! Look good btw!
 
Here pizza with Bonci method. Now i see why many people is speaking about that.
Above i've posted 2 EN links but i've found a nice pdf that explains the method:
http://blog.giallozafferano.it/crisemaxincucina/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/ricette-pizza-bonci.pdf
(IT language)
 
Dough was the most gas filled i had and easy to strecht (i felt the gas with my hand when strechting).
Special toppings:

Piri piri and fatalii!
 
The pizza:

Right: mozz and today harvested marzanini tomatoes deseeded. Center: add pepperoni. Left: add half of above peppers.
On bottom (above dough and below other toppings, so it doesn't burn): homegrown oregano.
Cooking: max temp, 10 minutes lowest position, around 6 minutes in mid-high position.
 

 

 

 
Maybe i've not topped perfectly (a tad more salt would have been nice) or cooked (a bit humid at beginning, but afer a while was perfect).
But that is my best pizza with my standard oven! Very soft and airy, excellent tasting dough!
 
With remains and some yellow homegrown horn pepper:

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Not your best pies. I am allowed to say that because you've posted the best pies I've ever seeeeen! You set the bar.
 

 

[Essegi]

Thanks THP!
Really that pizza is very different from my last ones that were cooked with Ferrari Delizia. As you said those are similar to what pizza is supposed to be (far from being perfect, i just miss other 100°C for Naples style to say a thing, but the direction is that).
It's amazing how different are that pizzas and that all are good. Cooking with higher temp changes in a radical way the taste of mozz and other stuff, similar to many pizzerie.
But with my standard oven that last one was the best. I'll treasure Bonci method (backupped that pdf in google drive and external hdd)!

 

[JayT]

Nice pie G. Boss if don't have anything nice to say... go make fun of one of my posts

 

[texas blues]

Nice pie G. Boss if don't have anything nice to say... go make fun of one of my posts

 
C'mon now THP's post wadn't bad.
 
There's never a drama queen tiara around when you need it...

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Nice pie G. Boss if don't have anything nice to say... go make fun of one of my posts

My post was a compliment sheesh. Essegi set the bar so high it's hard for even he to match it.

Go make a slaw pie Jay, nuke it, and make sure to use that yellow 70s porn filter... it may even look like mustard.

There's never a drama queen tiara around when you need it...

Yes there is.

 

[geeme]

Strange and massive pizza g! Look good btw!
 

 Thanks essie! I am kind of laughing at myself - I was thinking you meant diameter by your "massive" description, but that pie is only maybe 8 or 10 inches - not massive at all. Then I realized, after looking at your latest creation, you are probably talking about the height of toppings. Ha! One day I might make a thin-style pizza like you make…. maybe. Better yet, come over and make one for me, please!

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Hey geeme that's a mighty fine pie, I dig the Asian theme... don't worry so much about toppings not sticking with lack of cheese. One of the best slices I've had was this focaccia type pie with no cheese... it was called the Earth Mother and had artichoke hearts, red onions, tomatoes, and some shit I don't remember (black olives maybe) on a corn meal crust. Trust when I say it was the bomb. It was a circular pie but foccacia style. And the corn meal set it off. Unfortunately the joint doesn't make it anymore. But the cheese was never missed! It was garden fresh tasting. The toppings were mountainous but most adhered. If they fell off I just picked them up and ate them.

 

[geeme]

That focaccia type sounds much like the one I made for the Pizza Rustica TD; I do love a focaccia crust.
 
And thanks! I think the egg white was a good choice for this - I only used enough to help a tad with the sticking. No noticeable egg flavor at all, and you couldn't even really see it except for here and there. 

 

[frydad4]

One of the best slices I've had ... it was called the Earth Mother and had artichoke hearts, red onions, tomatoes, and some shit I don't remember (black olives maybe) on a corn meal crust. Trust when I say it was the bomb.

 
Is there a new hippie in town????

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Yup!
 
Thumb ring is in the mail.

 

[Essegi]

Earth Mother

Something like that in mid page minus cheese?
http://lilveggiepatch.com/2011/10/17/veggie-tales/
 

Thanks essie! I am kind of laughing at myself - I was thinking you meant diameter by your "massive" description, but that pie is only maybe 8 or 10 inches - not massive at all. Then I realized, after looking at your latest creation, you are probably talking about the height of toppings. Ha! One day I might make a thin-style pizza like you make…. maybe. Better yet, come over and make one for me, please!

Exactly, lots of toppings! Even in my last one that it's thick i went easy on toppings (but it's demanded by that kind of pizza).
Ok. so 1 pizza for you and 3 for me. 1 thin small pizza is enough to become hungrier!

Oh, without cheese there's the grandfather of all pizzas: marinara. Just tomato puree, evo and garlic. Yeah, it's so good and even better with some fresh pods! And no bp needed!

 

[swellcat]

Not your best pies.

 
The worst he ever had was wonderful.
 

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[The Hot Pepper]

Why do you put that gray line in all your posts? lol

If you like that line so much you can put it in your sig so you don't have to type it every time.

 

[swellcat]

Why do you put that gray line in all your posts? lol

 
Because I can't find the purple one?
 

Quail pizza
 
Toppings: Brined, wood-fired quail, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic in olive oil (Essegi technique) and Tabasco Sauce®, catarina, chenzo, and not-a-Broome/not-a-serrano chiles, Asiago cheese, and fresh basil and oregano.
 
Crust: Whole-wheat.  Ambient-yeast supplemented with some commercial just sprinkled into the dough.  Shaped in warm, iron skillet, and cooking started there, too; then turned out on rack to brown.

Sauce: Guajillo/pulla pizza-cue and garlic-olive oil-Tabasco® marinade.
 

 

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