Peter Reinhart - Perfect Pan Pizza

Text copyright 2019 by Peter Reinhart

Photographs copyright 2019 by Johnny Autry

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

www.crownpublishing.com

www.tenspeed.com

Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Reinhart, Peter, author.

Title: Perfect pan pizza : square pies to make at home, from Roman, Sicilian, and Detroit, to grandma pies and focaccia / Peter Reinhart.

Description: New York : Ten Speed Press, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018054093

Subjects: LCSH: Pizza. | Cooking, Italian. | LCGFT: Cookbooks.

Classification: LCC TX770.P58 .R46 2019 | DDC 641.82/48dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018054093

ISBN9780399581953

Ebook ISBN9780399581960

Cover design by Kara Plikaitis

Food and prop styling by Charlotte Autry

v5.4

prh

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Why This Book and Why Now?

This book is a celebration of pizzas made in pans, perennial classics that are now being reinvented by those who know how to evoke their full flavor potential. Pizza, I would risk saying, is the most popular food in the world. There are many forms and variations of pizza, but in the end pizza is simply dough with something on it. And yet, in its simplicity, it is amazingly delicious. Something magical happens when dough is combined with a topping; making pizza the perfect flavor-delivery system. Dough with something on it just works.

In the United States and in a number of other countries, many pizza permutations have come and gone. There are, however, some styles that have earned perennial popularity, like the Neapolitan-inspired round pizza with sauce and cheese, which has come to be regarded, by many (but not all), as the prototype on which all other pizzas are based. Other configurations with different names have, from time to time, attempted to capture some of that dough-with-something-on-it cach, such as focaccia, schiacciata, flatbreads, quesadillas, tostadas, and even grilled cheese sandwiches (albeit, a sandwich is more of a dough with something in it). All of these are spokes of the same wheel, all of them simply variations on a theme but one dominated by the word pizza. For example, some of the best-tasting pizzas at this moment are actually, in the strictest sense of the word, focaccia, but are marketed as pizza because the public (outside of Genoa) loves and trusts the term pizza more than it does focaccia.

Some of the types of pizza that fall within this pan-pizza subcategory include focaccia (the pizza of Northern Italy, most notably associated with Genoa in Liguria), schiacciata (the Tuscan version of focaccia), Sicilian-style (perhaps inspired by, though different from, the original sfingiuni of Sicily but now a designated style of its own), and the two currently hottest subcategories of them all, Roman-style al taglio (baked in a pan) and Detroit-style deep-pan pizza, revered for its crispy, cheesy frico edge (more on this later) and its crackly, buttery undercrust. Detroit-style deep-pan pizza is not a new idea or style, having been invented almost eighty years ago by former autoworker Gus Guerra. Now you can find it under other names in many cities other than Detroit. What is surprising is that it has taken so long for it to become so popular. Well get into the specifics in chapter 4.

Until recently, few knew about Detroits unique square pizza, and even those who were from Detroit didnt call it Detroit-style. Then, after sixty years of regional obscurity and cultish secrecy, this newly named Detroit-style, long in Chicagos shadow, finally became an idea whose time had come, and now to our great benefit its popping up everywhere.

We have arrived at a unique, paradigm-changing moment in which artisan pizza masters are turning out the best versions of these styles that have ever been produced. As a result, the hidden gems, not just the sexy wood-fired and coal-fired classics but the more homey pan-style versionsthe deep square-pan and sheet-pan styles (the focaccia, Sicilian, and Grandma pies) and now even the newly emerging Roman-style al taglio cut-with-a-scissors pizzasare transcending their old neighborhood standbys and are being given newer expression. Todays artisans are pushing the envelope and redefining the realm of the possible in this paradoxically simple-yet-complex perfect flavor-delivery system called pizza.

Culinary artisanship is meeting global archetype, and we, the public, are the beneficiaries of a new golden age of pizza expression. The purpose of this book is to show you, the home cook, how to replicate the artisan techniques that have brought about this pan-pizza renaissance and thereby create pizzas equal to anything you will find at a pan-style pizzeria. This is not a tribute book about the many landmark pan-pizza establishments doing great work, though many of them, like Buddys in Detroit, Brown Dog in Telluride, Liguria Bakery in San Francisco, Pizzarium in Rome and Chicago, Triple Beam in Los Angeles, and many others, have provided inspiration. It is a book about how you can make your own pan pizzas with the same explosive flavor perfection as the pies from those iconic places. To help you achieve that goal, I have included techniques that Ive discovered or developed during my thirty years as an artisan baker, pizza maker, and educator. Happily, Ive been able to combine them all in an easy method so that whether you are an experienced or a novice cook, you will soon be making not just good but truly memorable pizzas for your friends and family.

As I discuss the different styles, Ill explain more about the methodology and supplemental ingredients and provide recipes not only for the dough but also for the toppings. Ive met many pizza masters through my research and my ongoing website PizzaQuest.com, and based on the information they have shared with me, I have been able to distill the essential secrets of their successes and methods. The pizza world is a generous community, so there are very few secrets. This is because the truly great pizzaioli know that the real secret is in the craft itself, which is acquired only through relentless practice. As the great American pizza master Chris Bianco told me, I can teach people my techniques, but I cant teach them to care as much as I care. This observation is probably the most important takeaway from all my research and inquiry into what separates good from great: it boils down to how much you care.

As you achieve success through these very accessible formulas and pan-pizza recipes, I hope you will be inspired to care as much as those artisans who bring honor to their craft. Even if you never become a professional pizza maker (only a very few will ever choose to work that hard), I believe that by tapping into a level of greatness through these pan pizzas, you will experience the sought-after, memorable sound of crust and all that comes with it. When you experience greatness in anything, even pizza, it spills over into the rest of your life and changes you forever.