Pizza Party

Pizza posts are getting old, but the evening recorded here was about more than dough, sauce and cheese.  The images you see below represent not just a tasty meal, but also the realization of a vision: the make-your-own-pizza-party.  The concept is pretty self-explanatory.  Dough and ingredients are provided; attendees create their own pie.  Although the model can be improved (and expanded) this was a remarkably smooth pioneering effort.

Here are the ingredients: eight dough balls, homemade tomato sauce, danish bacon, onion caramelized in bacon fat, raw red onion, grilled peppers and onion, spinach, prosciutto, some kind of Ukrainian sausage, sauteed crimini mushrooms.  Not pictured are the cheeses: fresh mozzarella, aged provolone and cheddar.

This is actually the second pie, made by Czar Champignon but no record exists of the first.  Those mushrooms look really good.

 

King Boletus' first contribution.  Can't go wrong with bacon, prosciutto, mushrooms and lard-saturated onions.

I like red onions, but personally I feel that caramelized works a bit better than raw.  First use of the zucchini and first and only use of the spinach.

 

This kind of looks the same, but I promise it's different.  It's like that game.

This one is unmistakable.  Chiles and tomatillo bring a whole different game.  Shit wasn't even on the menu.

 

Second go for King Boletus, probably my favorite.  Can't get over those caramelized onions.  And the zucchini was a nice touch - it's got to be really thin though.  Also, you can see the new and improved stone in action below.

Kind of a throw everything you've got left effort, this pie was delicious, and quite good-looking, nonetheless.

Pictured the following morning after a breakfast slice had been removed, this pie literally contained all of the leftover ingredients, except for spinach and zucchini.  Note the Cheerios-cum-pizza box.

Before I wrote this post, a concerned reader wondered whether these pies were, by and large, "undercooked."  Let me assure you that they were all fully cooked and quite crisp.  I will say, though, that some more charring would not have been unwelcome.  The lack thereof is the result of two factors.  First, making eight pizzas in a relatively brief window with one pizza stone and one peel means that there is some pressure to get pizzas out.  Second, the oven was only set to 495 and the stone was placed toward the middle to make sure that it wouldn't break.  I think it's safe to crank it back up next time, and I'll be sure to share the results, in a more modest post.