Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Get a pizza stone.

If you want to be a sage, a highly respected person who imparts the wisdom of the ages, remember this. When anyone asks you about the meaning of life, just give a warm smile and tell the asker, get a pizza stone. That's right, that is the best advice that you can ever give anyone.
I got home a bit early today and being that I hadn't had a thing to eat today, I was ready to eat the south end off of a north bound skunk. I had a tube of Pillsbury pizza dough so I sprinkled some cornmeal on my pizza peel.
A pizza peel is the wooden shovel-like paddle that has a handle shaped on it. It's that thing that you insert and retract your pizza in and out of the oven. It doesn't hurt to get one of those either if you want to make good pizza. I unrolled the dough and let it rise for a bit. You stingily spread some sauce on the dough and then I made a pizza version of the Italian flag. The green was a little pesto in the middle, the white was some Alfredo sauce and the right hand side was plain sauce with some motz naturally. The trick here is the stone. Mine in my little sailboat gally oven is 13" X 15" rectangular. I guess the round ones are OK, but I'll bet once you get into this you will be getting a square/rectangular one. I leave it my oven and never take it out. While the dough is rising a bit, turn the oven up to full tilt and let everything get very hot. Sprinkle a bit more cornmeal on the stone, pop it in and break into a chorus, or two, of Oh Solo Mio. The stone is so great that you can, if your feeling particularly lazy, come on I know I'm not the only person who gets a bit lazy now and then, pop a cheap-ass supermarket frozen pizza in and, guess what? It's not too bad. All because of the stone. Alton Brown, don't ask who the hell is Alton Brown, if you don't know who Alton Brown is, go open a box of Kraft mac & cheese. Alton Brown says to just go to the local Home Cheepo and get a large 16" unglazed terra cotta garden tile. It could work.

No comments:

Post a Comment