Working with yeast dough can be a little intimidating.  You have seen a pizza chef stretching out pizza dough and throwing it around as if it is no big deal, but you may have thought, "I could never do that!"  Well, I am here to tell you that you can make a great pizza.  It is not difficult and my Passionate About Pizza Cookbook describes just how to do it.

The book describes:

• Mixing & Kneading Dough
• Letting Dough Rise & Making a Dough Ball
• Stretching, Rolling, and Pressing Pizza into Shape
• Assembling Pizza & Pizza Peel Technique
• Baking, Serving, Storing, & Reheating Pizza

Pizza on the High Seas

My father has been one of my pizza-making students for many years. He is on a cruise and sent me this note. That’s the way to spread your passion for pizza, Dad!

Hi PizzaMan,

These two couples are the ones that we gave your books too. They all profess to try making some of the recipes when they get home.

Here is a picture from the ship on the day this pizza was made:

Pizza near Antarctica

Apparently engineers make great chefs! The author has an engineering background that comes through clearly in this book. It is clear that the author has systematically examined what makes good pizza in every aspect and from every angle, and has assembled that knowledge in a clear and organized manner in this book.  It’s easy to read, too!

The result is that not only does the book provide fantastic recipes to follow, but it provides you with the principles and techniques that you can use to customize the recipes to produce pizzas that are ideal for your personal taste. The ideas are presented in such an orderly and logical manner that it is easy to do. 

The pizzas are so good and the process of designing them and making them is so fun that making pizzas using the book is a fun family event that occurs about once a week in our household. The pizzas we make using the recipes and principles in Passionate About Pizza are so much better than any other pizzas we have ever bought or made that it doesn’t even seem right to use the same word to refer to the bland, circular chewy things that we used to eat before we bought Passionate About Pizza.

I am a divorced dad of 2 teenagers that has limited skill in the kitchen. This book is so well written and put together that it was simple for me to on the first attempt have success.

I made a batch of the basic sauce and dough exactly how it was described in the book. I was expecting to fill a trash can with my first few attempts but to my surprise the first was as good as the sixth. My kids and their friends eat every bite and one even said it was the best pizza he had ever had. This book is a life saver it will allow me to serve my teenagers pizza when they want it now because before it was out of my budget. I can’t wait to work my way thru and learn as I go trying the different types.

Thank You for a remarkable book!

Clay

I am making the sour dough starter sponge. After leaving it out for a couple of days, can I put in a closed jar in the refrigerator. (Well it expand and break the glass?)

Also, on page 140ish, Calif sour dough pizza and the next style, do not state how much sour dough starter to use in the recipe. Can you please clarify.

P.S.: I bought 3 books and everyone loves them.

PizzaMan replies:

The wild yeast in the sourdough starter will slow down when you refrigerate the starter but it will NOT stop entirely.  If you place it in a closed jar it may very well explode.  Virtually everyone recommends that you use a loose-fitting cover for any sourdough starter.

The California-style Sourdough recipe was written to use the entire quantity of the Sourdough Starter Sponge recipe on the prior page; in other words, a cup of water, a cup of flour, and 1/2 teaspoon yeast.  That works out to be something like 1 1/4 cup of sourdough starter if you already have one made.  Depending on the consistency of your sourdough starter you might need to adjust the amount of flour you use when making dough to reach the consistency you prefer.

Evidently, the name Spiedie comes from the Italian word for the "spit" or skewer on which the meat is cooked.  Spiedies are something like Greek Suvlaki or a form of meat-only kebob.  If you live in or around Binghamton, NY you can probably buy marinated spiedie meat in the local grocery store or meat market.  For the rest of us, you can buy Spiedie Marinade (sometimes called Spiedie Sauce) from a few places on the Internet to make your own spiedies. 

In a surprising twist of fate, you can sometimes find spiedies on the menu or spiedie marinade in stores in the Charlotte, NC area.  In the late 70′s, IBM transferred 300+ families from the Endicott, NY facility to Charlotte, NC.  The fact that spiedie lovers brought their food choices with them shows just how much people love spiedies!  I have served spiedies to many people over the 25 years since I moved away from Endwell, NY and almost everyone that tries them likes (or loves) them.

There are two spiedie marinades that I can heartily recommend.  I have used both many times and can vouch for their quality and tastiness.  The Original New York State Fair Spiedie Sauce can be purchased from www.spiedie.com.  Lupo’s Char Pit bottles their spiedie marinade and sells it at www.spiedies.com. 

So, buy some spiedie marinade, make some spiedies, and make a Spiedie Pizza.  You won’t regret it!

Kamodos can be used to make pizza if you prepare it properly.  Here are some tips:

Remember that pizza cooks from both the top and bottom at the same time.  Therefore, to bake pizza properly in a Kamodo, you need to move the pizza up toward the top of the cooker so that radiated heat from the Kamodo’s top cooks the top of the pizza.  Most people do this using the "plate setter" accessory that comes with the grill (or is purchased separately).  The plate setter has three legs and a flat surface.  Place the plate setter on the grill’s cooking grate and then put a round pizza stone on top of the plate setter.  You can adjust the height of the pizza stone by putting plates, fire bricks, or other spacers under the stone until you get even cooking on the top and bottom of the pizza.

The other important factor in baking pizza on a Kamodo is temperature.  For most pizza recipes, you need to set the dampers on the Kamodo such that the internal temperature of Kamodo stays constant in the 500-600 degrees F range.  Below that temperature, the pizza cooks too slowly and will become tough or dry.  Above that temperature range, the pizza will cook very quickly and may burn.

Some people want to make Neapolitan style pizza.  This pizza requires special preparation because it bakes at 650-800 degrees F.  A Kamodo is one of the least expensive ovens that can consistently reach that baking temperature.  At this temperature, you need to use the right dough recipe (no added sugar), specially formulated flour (browns at higher temperature), and very short baking times (30-120 seconds).  These temperatures can more rapidly age your Kamodo so just be aware of that.

All in all, a Kamodo is a fun way to make pizza but it does require a little bit of practice and some special techniques to get the best out of it.

Hope this helps, Gordon!