Category Pizza

Pizza: Pesto sauce with fig jam and goat cheese

Anthony Panariello Leave a comment

This one is a crowd favorite.

Maybe 15 years ago someone gifted me a food basket and it had some fig jam in it. I tried some on crackers and it was pretty good but it was a big jar and I was wondering what I could possibly do to use up all this fig jam.

I was having some friends over for some pizza in a few weeks and I started to brainstorm how I could integrate the jam into a pizza. I knew the jam was really sweet so I needed a savory counterpart so that was the goat cheese and I didn’t think a tomato sauce would mesh well with the jam so I made a savory pesto sauce to use as the base.

here’s the fun part – I didn’t test it out. I ran out of time and just made the pizzas and watched people for their reactions. Fortunately for me almost everyone had the same reaction ‘This in interesting let me try it and see.. ohhhh my GOD give me more!’

This is a pizza that stays in the rotation and when people come over for pizza nights they almost always request it so I keep a jar of fig jam in the fridge next to the peso on the off chance I want to make one of these pizzas on short notice!

Pizza: Grandpa Mike’s ‘Affogatz’

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This is an odd one. My grandfather Mike was a NY Italian and I’m pretty sure this is his NY accent butchering ‘a foccacia’ – but that’s what he called it and it was a central part of every holiday held in their house. He would grow his own tomatoes and then make a bunch of these pizzas then freeze them for the holidays. They held up in the freezer surprisingly well and it was one of the things I most looked forward to when visiting them for the holidays. I would also steal big slices of it and smuggle it out wrapped tinfoil so I could eat it like a cave troll later in the privacy of my room and not have to share it

Now – we all loved this pizza and when I was in my early teens he showed me how to make it (since I was the only one that showed any interest in cooking he felt I was worthy). I remember him patiently walking me through the steps and me paying close attention but NOT TAKING NOTES. So when he passed a few years later my grandmother asked me if I could make some ‘affogatz’ for her and I panicked because I barely remembered what he taught me at all.

That began the trip down the rabbit hole of trying to recreate a taste from memory. I knew he often bought pizza dough from the store so I started there but it didn’t really match the texture of the pizza so I turned to making a quick 2 hour rise dough that fit the flavor profile (it wasn’t a long proofed dough – it has a more bready consistency). I knew plum tomatoes were the answer because other tomatoes were too wet. I remember him walking me through crushing the tomatoes after they are cut and that helps ensure it cooked a bit more evenly but the texture was off.

The spice profile was pretty easy to nail – salt, lots of pepper, and a proprietary blend of seasonings were easy to isolate as I knew he had a very limited spice cabinet so it wasn’t hard to deduce what he used.

So I had the pizza, I had the flavors but the texture just wasn’t what I remembered. It took me a few years but I was making some other dish when it clicked in my mind that he cooked the tomatoes and drained them before he put them on the pizza.

The last piece of the puzzle was solved and now I can reliably recreate this unique dish for my family and hopefully inspire one of my future grand-kids to take up the torch and keep the tradition alive (the recipe is in the family cookbook now so it’s safe and preserved for the future)

Tony’s White Pie

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I came into the white pie lifestyle later in life. I was a read sauce kinda guy then one day there was a meetup with friends and someone insisted I try the white pie. It was revelatory but I thought to myself I could improve this.

How did I improve it? Garlic. a LOT of garlic. I made a quick bechamel but infused it with a ton of crushed garlic then added in a slight bit of red pepper flakes for something to cut through the richness of the sauce, the mozzarella, the ricotta, and the Parmesan cheese.

It seems like it would be too much but somehow it works and the flavors all meld together to make something special. I’s my wife’s favorite pizza and whenever I have company over for some pizzas it’s usually one of the ones I break out to impress the crowd.

Fried Zucchini Pizza

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Not every brainchild is going to succeed. I had plenty of fresh zucchini and was looking for ways to integrate it into a pizza. In the past I’ve shaved some onto a pizza as a finisher.. but I wondered how I could find a new use for them. I thought maybe if I fried them like chips I could maybe add a crunchy element to a pizza. However, I couldn’t get the zucchini to be crunchy they were either burned in the oil or soggy.. and when I put them on the pizza they ended up burning. After all that the flavor of the zucchini was almost non existent. Time go back to the zucchini drawing board.

Pesto, cherry tomato and ricotta pizza

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It was the end of summer and there were garden fresh tomatoes everywhere – a perfect opportunity to try to integrate some into a pizza. Since the tomatoes were so sweet I knew I wanted a savory base so I opted for pesto (basil and tomatoes go together forever) to round out the flavors I tried adding dollops of fresh ricotta after the pizza was fired. I wasn’t sure about this one but it turned out amazing – the salty pesto helped cut through the creamy ricotta and the sweet tomato pops brought it all together. The wife asked that I add this one to the regular rotation which I count as a win!

Meatball Pizza

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Pretty standard local pizzeria joint meatball pie. Due to a shortage of time, I used frozen premade meatballs for this and some canned sauce. Yes, I know.. but sometimes you want pizza and simply don’t have time to make everything by hand. Now, that being said.. the sauce really tasted like canned sauce so it wasn’t a great experience and the meatballs dried out a bit since they were full of stabilizers and whatnot. Still – I ate a bunch of slices because.. well meatballs.

NY Pizza (Brian Langerstrom Version)

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In my never ending quest to perfect a NY pie I sometimes try popular Youtube / Instagram recipes that have gone viral in order to test them against my standard Pie (Tony Gemingnani NY pizza dough). This pizza dough wasn’t too finicky and was easy to open but I found the flavor lacking – the dough just didn’t have the flavor I expect with a NY pie. It might have been the flour I used or some other step in the process but the tried and true dough I use for NY pie is a rock star and it will be hard to top it (Always open to trying!)

The sauce wasn’t very tangy and the flavors were muddled (I used good tomatoes) – sticking to just milled tomatoes is hard to beat – I know it’s missing.. something.. and one day I’ll find it.

Overall, a respectable entry but not enough to move my standard NY Pie formula off it’s perch as #1

Pizza with vodka sauce

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This one is pretty standard pizzeria fare but one that I haven’t tried before. I cooked up some vodka sauce, used a standard NY pizza dough, finished with dry and fresh mozzarella and a dusting of Sicilian oregano. It was actually really good – the only note I have is the sauce has a ton of cream and cheese in it so next time use a light hand on the cheese to ensure it doesn’t get too heavy.

Spanish Tapas Pizza

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This idea came from one of the many pizza cookbooks I own (I have a problem) – I tinkered with it a bit but the essentials are thin crust with spicy tomato sauce, chorizo, chunks of fresh mozzarella, and finished with a healthy grating of manchego. It really came together nice – the super thin chorizo I got from the deli crisped up nice and the manchego cheese added a nutty finish that really paired with the spicy pizza. Fired in the Ooni at 750.

I liked this combo – the flavors melded well – I think a good variation would be to replace the chorizo next time with jamon iberico added after the firing (no sense killing the delicate taste by cooking it!)

Pan Pizza (Pizza Hut Clone)

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I’ve always had a special place in my stomach for Pizza Hut Pizza. It was a focal part of my childhood. We’d go a couple of time a month to the one the next town over and get some delicious bread sticks and pizzas with the family and it was always a great time full of laughter and great pizza (I swear to you, in the 80’s the pizza there was fire). Sometimes if there was a wait my brother and I would drop a quarter or two into the ninja turtles game in the lobby until our table is ready. It’s a core memory from my childhood and one I’d like to replicate (food wise at least – I have the ninja turtles game in my arcade cabinet so I can play that whenever I want!)

The problem is Pizza Hut has gone downhill. The last few times I tried the pizza there is was a pan full of disappointment. They changed the dough recipe and the sauce and are using some weird cheese and the entire texture and taste is way off from what it used to be. So that’s why I’m determined to crack the code on replicating that 80’s Pizza Hut pie.

All that being said – this wasn’t it. I mean.. it was still a good pizza and the dough was flaky and buttery but the sauce and cheese just didn’t hit like I expected. Time to go back to the drawing board – one day I’ll recreate that 80’s nostalgia bomb – and when I do I’ll fire up a game of ninja turtles first to complete the experience.