 Have you begun traveling online in the realm of homemade pizza? If so, you’re probably finding much holy blather about the most blessed of ingredients of the pizza-making religion.
One such dictate of the blindly righteous is “Thou shalt use only Caputo 00 flour.” While Caputo has its place, that dictate is untrue. It really depends on what kind of pizza you’re trying to make. Other such assertions include wood fire as the only worthy source of BTUs, fresh mozzarella as the only worthy cheese, and DOP San Marzano tomatoes as the only worthy fruit of the vine. Poppycock, codswallop and fiddle faddle! (None of which should ever be used as a pizza topping. Unless, of course, you can find any of them in the proper artisan organic version.)
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 This brief lesson in French literature is connected to pizza, I promise.
You’ve probably seen that little French sponge cake that’s shaped like a seashell and known as a madeleine. In French literature, the madeleine is a metaphor for triggering nostalgia or an involuntary memory. It stems from Marcel Proust’s seven-volume novel, In Search of Lost Time. (It was originally translated in English as Remembrance Of Things Past. You might remember that. Or not.) The story’s narrator has only one memory of his childhood home. But one day, while tasting a madeleine dipped in tea, he is swept up by a nostalgic, childhood memory of having a tea-dipped madeleine with his invalid aunt.  I’m going to get grief for this, and that’s OK. You can believe me or not.
I have a foodie friend who’s eaten about a dozen of my pizzas in recent years. A few weeks ago, she took a bite of a plain cheese pizza I’d just made. She said, “Oh, my. Of all of your pizzas, I think this is my favorite.” I made the same pizza again a week later and she was there. She took a bite and just groaned. Her husband took a bite and said, “This is incredible.” (The actual pizza we're talking about is the one in the photo up top: a 15-inch homemade pizza baked on steel in an old DCS home oven.) As a home pizza maker, one of the smartest things you can do is master the plain cheese pizza. It’s such a simple pizza, some consider it not worth the effort.  Here’s a warning: In this one, we’re going to be talking a lot about men making sausage.
Get all your snickering and Freudian sausage jokes out of the way now. And if you can’t do that, just leave. This is not that kind of blog. (Well not today, anyway. Probably.) Today, the story is about Wayne. He’s been an enthusiastic pizzamaker since the beginning of Free The Pizza. He’s written fan mail about the book. He’s even sent along pizza pics. Clearly, for him, making pizza is a joy. |
AuthorBlaine Parker is the award-winning author of the bestselling, unusual and amusing how-to pizza book, Free The Pizza. Also known as The Pizza Geek and "Hey, Pizza Man!", Blaine is fanatical about the idea that true, pro-quality pizza can be made at home. His home. Your home. Anyone's home. After 20 years of honing his craft and making pizza in standard consumer ovens across the nation, he's sharing what he's learned with home cooks like you. Are you ready to pizza? Archives
August 2024
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