My name is Jason. These are my thoughts.

Masquerading as Life is: Food. Music, film, technology. Maybe a book or two. Very infrequent updates.

Friday, April 30, 2010

Pizza: Stage Three - The Deep End

East Coast brethren, forgive me. I have put things on a pizza that no self respecting East Coaster from 'the tri-state area' would even consider. But I've been in California for fifteen years, and it tastes really good. So suck it.

Here's the skinny on what is what I will call: The Tuna Tumeric Pizza


To begin, I already screwed up the crust. Based on my final tweaks of the perfect crust, I substitute Potato Flour for 1/9th of the flour. It gives the crust a very crisp outer edge, while staying chewy on the inside. Bomb-tastic.
For the sauce, I use a base of a bunch of cheats. I would love to have time to start everything I do from fresh vegitables, but that's just not the reality. So I get a can of stewed tomatoes, puree them, and add a bit of commercially jarred tomato sauce (I like Classico's Tomato n Basil, but whatever). I put in about 2 table spoons of the pre-made sauce to every cup of the stewed tomato puree - this keeps the sauce tasting fresh and light. To offset the tuna concoction that's going on top of the sauce, I mix into the sauce about 2 tablespoons of chunky Blue Cheese dressing - yes, this is yet another cheat. I could sit around and stir broken Gorgonzola into a low simmering saucepan of cream and butter, but there's a point of diminishing returns when you are spending 3-4 hours to make one lousy pizza. The cheats are just part of the game - go with it. So now I've got what, to the eye, resembles a classic Italian pink sauce (tomato/alfredo).
Now onto the tuna prep. Again, in a sick maneuver of cheating, and really out of laziness of not wanting to go tot the store for fish, I open a can of tuna in water, drain, and break it up in a bowl. To this I add a bunch of yellow mustard, the kind they serve in public schools. I don't want to add too many flavors to the tuna within the mustard, just the tang of the mustard seed, and the color of the turmeric. Next, I add some wine vinegar. I have some I got up in Napa that has some italian style herbs in it, so I used that. Lots. I mix all that in, and then add a couple tablespoons of EV olive oil. Now it looks like this:

Then I put it together, using a fork to pull out small bits of the tuna and spread it evenly around the pizza. I don't press or pull the tuna once it's down. just try to get it into small piles. Then I add some mozzarella cheese. Then, just cook it on the Pizza Stone for 9 minutes at 435. (My testing produced the best results when I get the oven right in between 425 and 450). During these 9 minutes, I wonder if this pizza is gonna taste like shit, or not. When it's cut and cooled. I tasted it and thought it was both unique, and good enough to mention here, so there you go. Enjoy.





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