Pizza Ingredients
The most important thing you can know about the ingredients for making pizza is that you should use the highest quality ingredients you can. Higher quality usually does not cost much more, and you will notice the difference in taste. Beyond that tip, I want to pass on to you some of the things I have learned about various ingredients.
You might think that flour is just flour; however, not all flours are created equal. You can use almost any type of flour to make a pizza, but the type of flour you use can make a difference.
Different flours have different amounts of gluten. This is the protein in wheat that helps hold in the bubbles of gas produced by the yeast. It also allows the dough to stretch as you shape the pizza. Different flours with varying amounts of gluten will behave differently; you can see and feel the difference in the dough as you mix it.
My favorite flour to use for making pizza is a mix of half All Purpose Unbleached Flour and Bread Flour. This mix provides a good balance between the extra strength of the Bread Flour with the ease of use that comes from All Purpose Unbleached Flour.
Yeast is amazing stuff. It is a single-cell organism. It gives off carbon dioxide gas and alcohol as it multiplies. When allowed to grow inside dough that has gluten in it (as most pizza dough does), the gas is trapped in the gluten and the dough "rises." Yeast exists in many different strains. Some are wild and others are cultivated for specific purposes and sold commercially. Brewer’s yeast and baker’s yeast are two such strains. Sourdough starters capture and cultivate wild yeast. Both baker’s yeast and sourdough starter are excellent sources of yeast for making pizza.
Spiedies are cubes of marinated meat that are cooked over a grill on skewers. Spiedies originated in the "Southern Tier" of New York near Binghamton. For those individuals who grew up in that area, Spiedies are food of the Gods. The marinade gives the meat a flavorful moistness that is unique and wonderful.
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