Pizza

I enjoy pizza but only when it's hot and fresh from the oven. Years ago, we'd drive to south side Connie's and bring guests over for their pizzas, until they started popping up everywhere and we lost interest. Just like Pizzeria Uno now it's everywhere. Lou Malnati's was another favorite and then Giordano's and gino's East (because they take IMS Trade) only after I got over the gaak factor when I saw a vat of pizza sauce fall onto their matting during Taste of Chicago and they scooped it out again back into the auuurgh vat. Took me a long long long long time to try them again. But they do ahve good pizza. Tonnelli's and JP MCCarthy's are dreams of the past as both wonderful places have closed down (JP is still around but not like when it was still JP who run it).
My dream pizza comes from memories of old D'Marks back home, and Cucina Italiana. Every now and then I do get a whiff of that long imagined taste left lingering in my memory's taste buds. So I try searching for that particular pizza. Sliced mozzarella with basil and tomatoes, maybe a bit of olive or sardines or anchovies....

Last night was pizza thursday night dinner. Baker Rigo made me 6 full 16" fresh pizza dough. Kylie stretched it and started making 1/2 sheet pizzas. Her first had sliced mozzarella with italian sausage I browned, pepperoni, shredded pizza cheese, and i snipped basil onto it. Parts of it had mushrooms, some had black olives, some had all components. The next pizza had a garlic and olive oil base before the cheese slices, sliced plum tomatoes with basil(ok a margherita). And the pizza sauce was dei fratelli , used sparingly.

It was a pizza orgy as we all wanted a bit of this and that. Nothing beats fresh pizza dough! So we might do this again and start adding more adventurous toppings (I didn't want to bring out my artichokes, anchovies and whatnots) as I wanted us to start with the basics. Even the kids ate the pizzas specially made for them. Who would think that all of us with our picky tastes could have a slice of whatever we want on the same pizza
Of course, there was the chunky meat sauce served with cavatappi and ziti combined as the other dish. I forgot the salad but we were too into the pizza to care.

And today, at work, we had the last piece of dough with just onions, tomatoes, pizza sauce and cheese, oh and lotsa pepperoni. Still as good as the night before!
With all the trepidation I had in doing pizza at home other than the fast food stuff, 450 degrees and 15 minutes does the trick for a bubbly golden pizza. Amazing.