playing with pizza

Last week I made my first pizza, courtesy of Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi at La Cucina Caldesi cookery school. I’d been there a year before, to witness Giancarlo demonstrate all the different dishes you can make with a certain pasta sauce from a jar. Unfortunately, by the time I’d eaten five dishes made with the stuff, I never wanted to taste its synthetic flavour again. In fact, it put me off jars of sauce for life. So it was with trepidation that I made my way back there.

It was a totally different experience. All the ingredients were fresh, Italian and full of flavour. The light, bubbly dough, made with Birra Moretti, icing sugar-fine flour and yeast, was incredibly soft and satisfying to handle.

My prosciutto, olive and basil baby: light, crisp, fluffy and flavoursome.

Concentration is needed for contemplating pizza…

…and cold Moretti.

I learnt a few pizza facts:
1) Always relax the dough overnight in the fridge.
2) Deep crust doesn’t have to be heavy.
3) Don’t put too many toppings on. I’m not really sure about this one though. I always think the more topping the better, but I guess tomato sauce might make the base soggy.