Custom Pizza
Authentic Neapolitan pizzas are baked in a 905° stone oven with an oak-wood fire. My tiny apartment kitchen isn’t equipped with one of those, so we’re just going to make do with good ingredients and a couple of tricks.
Wheat flour crust, San Marzano tomatoes, mozzarella, fresh pork sausage, red onions, black garlic, fresh basil and oregano, olive oil, black sea salt and seasonings.
To make the sauce, mince black garlic with black sea salt and sauté in olive oil until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes, breaking them up with the back of a wooden spoon. Cook slowly until most of the water has evaporated, about 10 minutes. Add fresh oregano and roasted red bell pepper. The black garlic and salt will turn the sauce a deep mahogany color, but you can use regular garlic and coarse salt if you prefer. In either case, add a pinch of oak wood-smoked black pepper to the sauce and set aside.
Cook fresh pork sausage with seasonings (rosemary, fennel, red pepper) until all the fat has rendered. Drain and set aside.
Slice the cheese and tear the basil. Set both aside.
Place a large cast iron skillet (as big as the pizza crust) upside down on the middle rack of your oven and heat both to 500 degrees. You can use a pizza stone if you don’t have a large skillet, but the cast iron is better for this.
You need to work very quickly at this point, so be sure that you have everything in place.
Turn on the exhaust fan and remove the skillet from the oven and set (still upside down) on a fire proof surface (I used a Dutch oven as a platform). Dust lightly with corn meal, then place pizza crust directly on the bottom (not the inside) of the skillet.
Go fan the now-screaming smoke detector(s).
Mist the crust with olive oil.
Spoon the sauce onto the middle of the crust, then use a swirling motion to spread it to within a 1/2 inch or so of the edge.
Scatter crumbled sausage and mozzarella slices here and there. Top with torn basil.
Place pizza and still hot skillet back into the 500 degree oven and watch it closely- mine only took about 5 minutes.
Carefully remove from oven and slide pizza onto a cutting board. Dress with a few pieces of reserved tomatoes.
Rating ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ +
Dink said,
March 5, 2009 at 5:55 am
Great looking pizza. Did you make or buy the crust? Also, how do you separate the yogurt into it’s components
Ren said,
March 5, 2009 at 7:11 am
Line a large strainer or colander with cheesecloth. Place this over a bowl and then pour in the yogurt. Let it drain overnight covered with plastic wrap. Empty the whey from the bowl.
Fill a strong plastic storage bag with some water, seal and place over the cheese to weigh it down. Let the cheese stand another 8 hours after which it is ready to use.
The flavor is similar to a sour cream with a texture of a soft cream cheese. A pint of yogurt will yield approximately 1/4 lb. of cheese. The yogurt cheese has a shelf life of approximately 7-14 days when wrapped and placed in the refrigerator and kept at less than 40°F.