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    Genuine Pizza: Better Pizza at Home
    Genuine Pizza: Better Pizza at Home
    Genuine Pizza: Better Pizza at Home
    Ebook379 pages2 hours

    Genuine Pizza: Better Pizza at Home

    By Michael Schwartz, Wolfgang Puck and Olga Massov

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    About this ebook

    “Homemade pizza has never been as good as restaurant pizza—until now” —thanks to recipes from the James Beard Award-winning celebrity chef (Tom Colicchio).

    Throughout his acclaimed career, chef Michael Schwartz has been celebrated for his skilled use of quality ingredients, and with his pizzas, this talent is on full display. Genuine Pizza is Schwartz’s vibrantly illustrated guidebook for creating unforgettable pies at home. His cookbook makes the pizza process approachable and fun, giving the reader the tools they need to make better pizza and then run with them. First providing a clear and simple view of the fundamentals—with detailed step-by-step methods for making the best pizza doughs—Schwartz then empowers home cooks to mix and match ingredients, playing with different sauces, cheeses, meats, vegetables, and more, to build pies both classic and innovative. Pizza is just the beginning—it’s a jumping off point to colorful, delicious meals.

    “To put it simply, every recipe in this book makes my mouth water.” —Wolfgang Puck, from the Foreword

    “With Michael Schwartz’s culinary brilliance as our North Star, we can all impress our loved ones as true pizzaiolos!” —Andrew Zimmern
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherABRAMS
    Release dateMay 14, 2019
    ISBN9781683355045
    Genuine Pizza: Better Pizza at Home
    Author

    Michael Schwartz

    Michael Schwartz is Distinguished Teaching Professor of Sociology Emeritus at Stony Brook University.

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      Book preview

      Genuine Pizza - Michael Schwartz

      INTRODUCTION

      let’s make pizza at home

      We’re currently experiencing something of an artisanal pizza renaissance, with more excellent pizzerias dedicated to perfecting the craft of pizza-making popping up now than ever before. More and more people are paying attention not just to the quality of their dough, but also to the toppings, sourcing everything with great care. They’re building customized pizza ovens, curing their own charcuterie, using wild fermentation for their dough, and obsessing over every detail—all in order to deliver pizza perfection to you. The craft of pizza has never been more advanced.

      That said, even though one’s life work can easily be dedicated to perfecting pizza, I firmly believe that you, the home cook reading this, can make truly excellent pizza in your own kitchen. While you may lack the specialty oven that cooks your pizza in mere minutes, blasting heat of somewhere around 900°F (482°C), you can still wind up with wonderful results using the oven in your kitchen. In addition to eating well, you’ll have a lot of fun making it. My goal with this book is to convince you that not only can you make excellent pizza at home, but that you should, and you’ll enjoy doing it.

      I’ve always believed that good food starts with good ingredients, and that the secret to good food is good food. Few things in my mind exemplify this philosophy as much as pizza. With so few ingredients, pizza is both simple and complex, pedestrian and highbrow. Its universal appeal lies in its accessibility, and while it’s essentially dough with toppings, pizza happens to be a food just about everyone likes. It can be as humble as you want or as luxurious as you want—there’s no limit to the craft.

      I also love pizza for its convivial nature: Pizza is meant to be shared, it invites a crowd, it fosters conversation. It’s the beginning of—or part of—a delicious meal, and as you read through the book, you will see that I believe in pairing pizza with other dishes to balance out the spread. One can’t live on pizza alone, and so I also share some of the dishes we offer to our patrons at Genuine Pizza: starters, soups, salads—and even desserts and drinks.

      But how did I get into cooking and, more specifically, become so obsessed with pizza?

      I grew up in Philadelphia eating shitty pizza, and my thoughts on pizza were not particularly profound. It was there. I ate it. My dad owned an auto supply shop, and as a teen I would spend my summers stocking shelves. At some point when I was in high school, my dad decided that it was time for me to get a real job. We got in the car and he drove me to one of the fanciest restaurants in Philly, DiLullo, known for serving progressive Italian food (which was unusual, as most places serving Italian food were red sauce joints). I wore a shirt and tie, and went in to ask for a job. To my surprise, they gave me one on the spot—I started as a busboy that night. I worked my way up the ranks, and eventually became their lead line cook.

      Working in the kitchen appealed to me in so many ways. I loved the pace, the environment, the high pressure of it all. As a teen, I loved being part of this adult world, and I realized I was actually good at cooking—it came naturally to me, and it gave me focus. When you’re an adolescent, realizing that you’re good at something is an immensely empowering thing. I felt capable and I wanted to learn more.

      Early on, I realized that college wasn’t for me. I didn’t get into the cooking apprenticeship program at my local community college, and after taking a few business classes (and being incredibly bored), I dropped out altogether. I never did wind up going to cooking school.

      Eventually, I found myself working for Wolfgang Puck at Chinois in Santa Monica, California. Wolfgang and his approach to cooking—fresh and vibrant—made me think about flavors in a whole different way; it opened my mind to so many different possibilities. Wolfgang was one of the pioneers of California cuisine, teaching us, his cooks, to think about local in-season produce, and coaxing flavor out of what was around us.

      I had been working at Chinois for about a year, and the Japanese chefs I was working with there connected me with some chefs who were opening a California-style restaurant in Japan. Those chefs invited me to come to Japan and do a consultation on what a California-style restaurant should be—part of which was to teach a pizza class. I had zero idea what that meant; I had never made a pizza from scratch at that time. But Wolfgang had a Spago in Tokyo and I figured maybe I could pick up a few pointers while there. The night before I had to teach that class I got a quick pizza-making tutorial from a Tokyo-based Spago chef, Serge: the dough, the toppings, the baking. I showed up, and pretending to be a pizza expert, taught the class on the fly, acting like I was born slinging pies. Much to my surprise—and relief—the class went very well. Everyone seemed to think that I knew what I was talking about. I must’ve looked pretty authoritative.

      Though I was new to the whole pizza thing, I was instantly hooked: I loved the process of making the dough. I loved how it felt in my hands—how it changed with time as I allowed it to rise and bubble up. That the dough was alive, growing, and changing before my eyes, fascinated me. I was amazed that while it was relatively easy to make a decent pizza from scratch, you could keep working at it and working at it, perfecting the craft, your whole life.

      Eventually, a little while after I had my first restaurant, Michael’s Genuine Food and Drink, in Miami, we started thinking about opening another one that specialized in pizza. We had a pizza program at the restaurant, and it was quite popular. But we wanted to dedicate more resources to it. We wanted a place that served great pizza, using quality ingredients, where everything—from the crust to the garnishes—was carefully considered.

      From the time I taught that class in Japan, I had been in love with pizza making, but now I wanted to explore the art of it more seriously. After some planning and working on the dough recipe, we finally had a formula we were happy with. And in 2011, our original pizzeria, Harry’s (named for my son), opened its doors. It became a popular, beloved neighborhood spot, and eventually we grew the concept bigger, expanding to open several locations of a new restaurant, Genuine Pizza, around the Miami area. We were able to scale up our method to carefully consider every ingredient and part of the process, and I’m so proud of what the team and I created.

      In the process of sharing recipes in this book, I am also highlighting my cooking philosophy: In my restaurants, using one single dish or preparation in as many different recipes as possible allows for running a more efficient kitchen, and nowhere is this resourcefulness more desired, I think, than in the kitchens of busy home cooks. Another term for this is batch cooking, which allows you to create building blocks for the week in order to put meals together in a short amount of time. Success in the kitchen is partially dependent on stocking an arsenal of pantry staples, and learning simple preparations that will do the work of building and rounding out your meals. Sauces, dressings, pickled things—these can be applied across many types of dishes, so any time you can make a bigger batch of something and use it several ways, you’ll be rewarded in spades. Slow roast some short ribs (see this page) for dinner one night, throw some leftover ribs in the soup (see this page) the following evening, and on the third night, take a few bits of that leftover beef to make pizza (see this page).

      My promise to you is simple: If you follow the recipes in this book, you will become a better cook. And you’ll eat some delicious things in the process. That’s my guarantee.

      PART I

      THE BASICS

      THE BUILDING BLOCKS AND WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE YOU START

      EQUIPMENT

      To make pizza, you need a few tools to help you along the way. There’s a good chance you already own most of the tools listed here, but I wanted to mention them to be thorough and complete. Who knows, maybe you own pizza peels but not a kitchen scale? Most of the items are not costly and shouldn’t set you back much. They are also utilitarian and, with proper care, will last you a lifetime.

      Bench scraper—These inexpensive tools present in every professional kitchen are useful for cutting dough and scraping its remains off your counter. They are also handy when transporting large amounts of chopped ingredients from one place (say, your cutting board) to another (a pan).

      Blender—If you have a standing blender, great—it is a workhorse and will effortlessly puree larger batches of soup, salad dressing, and tomato sauce. If you’ve got the funds, spring for a professional-strength blender, such as a Vitamix, which will last you a lifetime and will be a good investment. Otherwise, an immersion blender (this page) will serve you beautifully.

      Box grater—Essential when you need to coarsely grate cheese or vegetables, box graters are inexpensive and last forever.

      Deli containers in quart (L) and pint (480 ml) sizes—Incredibly useful for storing food. No chef can go without them, and I’m on a mission to make them a must-have in your kitchen, as well. You can either collect take-out containers, or you can purchase a bunch, for next to nothing, online. They come in pint (L) and quart (480 ml) sizes and are simply great. Clear, so you can see what’s inside them, and stackable. You can also get them at restaurant supply stores.

      Deli container labels (e.g. blue painter’s tape and a Sharpie permanent marker)—How else are you going to label your deli containers? Label the container with the date and what’s inside it, and you will never again wonder about the contents and how long it’s been in there.

      Digital scale—If you’re still on the fence about whether or not you really need a kitchen scale, let me be emphatic—you do. In pizza making, particularly when it comes to dough, precise measurements are important to help you get to a great result. Of course, there are other outside factors that will affect the outcome of the recipe—experience will help you perfect the practice—but whereas a measurement of flour using the scoop-and-sweep method will vary vastly depending on how compacted your flour is, weight in grams is weight in grams, and will stay precise. You can get a great digital scale for under $30 and it will truly transform how you cook. They don’t require much space for storage, and I’ve never met anyone who regretted adding it to their kitchen arsenal.

      Food mill—On the one hand, it might seem silly to suggest having something as singularly focused as a food mill, but I’ve yet to find a better way to process whole canned tomatoes into a smooth sauce with some texture. You can use the mill for apple sauce or butter, mashed potatoes, and much, much more.

      Grill and/or pizza oven—I’ve used Lynx grills and pizza ovens for years, and they make, by far, the most excellent equipment. However, they are quite an investment, and at the end of the day, you can make excellent pizza using any grill or pizza oven.

      Immersion blender—Every kitchen should have an immersion blender. They’re cheap, quick, easy, and effective. They’re also not as much of a commitment space-wise as standing blenders, and are easy to clean and store. They’re useful for making soups, vinaigrettes, sauces, mayonnaise, and more.

      Mandoline—Even if your knife skills are exceptional, to get consistently perfect paper-thin slices of zucchini (see this page) or evenly sliced pear

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