I grew up about an hour and a half from NYC. It was a very rural area and not a lot of anything. Of course, there was a grocery store, a couple of bars, The Library,(which saved me), and right up the road a pizza place. It was called Pepe and Eddy’s. Owned by two Italian brothers. Pepe’s son, Johhny was my constant friend, although older by a couple of years. Later, that became an issue when hormones start surging. ( Just saying). Anyway, Pepe and Eddy’s was and is the quintessential New york Pizza. Thin, foldable and delicious. I still have dreams about it. At least twice a month we ordered pizza, and someone (me alot) walked up the hill to Pepe’s and got the pizza. Geez, I’d love to remember how much but I don’t but remember this would have been the sixties. Anyway, since my cooking days many years ago, this last two years I’ve had the goal to perfect home pizza. To be like a New York pizza. Not Chicago, or Naples but NY pizza. so when I found out about being able to review this book I was pretty jazzed. I have read many many books on making the best pizza.
The book is ” The Elements of Pizza” by Ken Forkish.
He starts out with the history of pizza in Naples. He describes many types of pizzas and the beginnings of it NYC, Chicago, and even New Haven Conn, which I did not know about. He goes into minute detail about ingredients, tools to use and what works best. I was impressed with his summation especially about using a pizza steel since that was the conclusion I finally came to last year. Yes, folks, ditch the pizza stone and get a steel. He also discusses amounts and using a digital scale. Yes, I bought one too and in fact it is way more accurate when dealing with flour quantities.
Then he goes int the basic doughs for the pizza. I like he gave options for a slow rise in the refrigerator but also one you want to use for Saturday night that you start that morning. He gives lots of different pizza recipes, some basic and some gourmet. I like he also gives pan pizza recipes, which I’m definitely going to try. I also like that he gives a couple of different tomato sauces to try. The one I’m trying tonight is just tomatoes blended with salt.
The Pizza came out great. The dough was very easy to stretch and shape. I like the simple sauce too. We had cheese and pepperoni. I’m going to try and freeze the other dough and then test how well it cooks after that.
I would highly recommend this book for anyone serious about perfecting pizza at home.
I received this book from Blogging for Books program at no cost in exchange for a review. The opinions are my own.
