With the bread about to run out, I decided to try this pizza again:
I wanted to try taking D up on the suggestion of thickening the red pepper puree before spreading it on, to reduce the sogginess of the center crust. I made two changes, so it’s not clear exactly which helped – perhaps both. First, after grill-roasting and self-steaming the peppers, I stemmed and seeded them, and then dried the segments between paper towels to reduce the wetness. This did make a difference in the viscosity of the puree, so I didn’t try cooking it down or anything else this time. However, I also had gotten a sourdough crust dough (0.78 lb) at Cheese Board, which makes a tougher, more resilient crust than my usual Chez P. one, so that may also have contributed to the greater dryness of this crust over the previous one.
I wasn’t impressed by the contribution of the sourdough to the taste of this particular pizza, though there are many combinations of ingredients for which that crust is quite important. I used the same pseudo-fresh-mozz from the Bowl this time, for a couple of reasons. One, it’s a lot less watery than real fresh mozz. I just bought it last time b/c it was the only fresh mozz left when I got there, but this time I noticed that (two,) it’s seriously cheap – $3.99 for two pizzas-worth, when, say, Gustosella bufalo mozz would be more like $13 for one. Ok, so that’s seriously cheaper, and probably appropriate for this pizza.I put a ton of basil over the top again after the pizza was cooked, and D said this time he thought there should be less. I didn’t particularly think so, but will try it. Oh, interesting… I wonder if the less-enticing taste of this pizza was b/c of the lack of prosciutto. I didn’t think it was that much to my liking, but it may have contributed some pizzazz that was lacking this time.
We had two leftover wines (from the previous two nights) with the pizza, both of which were good. A note on the place setting: all non-conventional arrangements are by D 😉
I actually went to the CB to for the purpose of getting Gustosella for caprese this weekend, given how good the Miyashita Odorikos are, so if we don’t have that for lunch instead, they will turn up here within a couple of days.
A Dinner Blog 