When we walked in, there were probably about 20 of Steve and his wife's friends (most were his fraternity brothers from college, it seemed) and half of them were jammed into the kitchen. There was Steve, flour covering his face, working like a dervish rolling out pizza dough. Apparently, his "Christmas party" is his annual Pizza Party. He planned on making 9, count 'em, 9 different pizzas from scratch.
His oven was cranked up to 465 and his first pizza dough was tossed on to the pizza stone. It was a pretty interesting concept -- each dough was the same....flour, yeast, water, and some 4th ingredient. Then each pizza is topped with different toppings and finished with the same mozzarella cheese. Each pizza was baked for only 8 minutes or so.
First up was Buffalo Chicken. This pizza was a good opener -- it kind of had an appetizer feel.
Next up was a Garlic Shrimp in Wine Sauce pizza. It was a simple design but full of flavor.
The third pizza was perhaps our mutual favorite pizza -- a Pear Bacon pizza. Steve rendered some bacon and reserved the fat. He carmelized some pears in brown sugar and then drizzled the bacon fat over the pears and bacon placed on the dough. What is it about Pears and Bacon that make them match up so well?
The pizzas kept rolling out every 10 minutes or so. Next up was a Barbecue Ranch Chicken pizza that had just enough BBQ sauce, but not too much to overwhelm the seasonings.
The fifth pizza was a real artisinal treat -- a Wonton pizza with wontons that Steve made from scratch and topped on to the pizza. The Asian flavors on the wonton, coupled with the mozzarella, were very tasty and just not the type of pizza you typically taste.
Steve's 6th pizza was a Veggie pizza (he called it a Sellout pizza, I think) with red peppers, mushrooms, and other veggies. With all the chicken and BBQ and meat-ish flavors, it was good for DB~ to have a veggie choice.
Just as we were leaving, Steve unveiled a 7th pizza called Chicken Fried Steak with Sausage Gravy. I just had a tiny square, but the Sausage Gravy was an inspired choice to put on a pizza.
It was a tremendous amount of work for Steve, but this was something that he obviously loves doing and everyone in attendance was a huge fan of the pizzas. It's hard to eat a pizza on a Boboli crust now, that's for sure. It kind of inspired me to try and make my own pizza dough in the future.
This is the first I've actually read this. Thanks a lot for writing it but I guess you left before the secret of the sausage gravy was revealed. There was no meat in it. The gravy and the steak were vegetarian. I did use cream, and real cheese so it wasn't vegan, but it was damn close.
ReplyDeleteYeah, you killed it, Steve. I undersold the Garlic Shrimp Pizza in this post, but it was fantastic too.
ReplyDelete