”These people have not only given up on a job, they’ve given up on everything… the kids suffer the most.”

On the way back to my pizzeria, I listened to two pundits talk about the balance of wealth in the United States and felt my blood pressure rising. It remided my about a story I had just read from La Bonne Table, written by Ludwig Bemelmans in 1953.

The Spaghetti Train

I came into the dining car late. Patrizzi was finished with his breakfast- that is, with the orange juice, toast, coffee and egg part of it. The other passengers had left. The crew seated at the end of the car had faces like wax figures in the bright sunlight.

Patrizzi lifted his nose and sniffed. “Spaghetti,” he said. ”Real Spaghetti?”

“Yes, said the steward, “we are eating now. Back there the cooks are from Napoli.”

“I’d very much like some of your spaghetti,” said Patrizzi. “Enough for me and my friend here.”

The steward said the cooks would be delighted.

The spaghetti came, cooked with butter and garlic and with a handful of chopped parsley strewn over it.

“Some people condemn the Italian kitchen,” said Patrizzi, “and also the French. They say they can’t eat the food on account of the garlic. Now there is no good cooking except with garlic-but in the hands of a bad cook it is poisonous. It must be used with extrreme care. The most reckless are the English; once they take to cooking with garlic they use it so freely it’s impossible even for an Italian to eat it. For example, Somerset Maugham once served truffles wrapped in bacon, a very good dish. The truffles profit by the flavor of the bacon, the bacon is enhanced by the truffles, and I like it. But at the luncheon I bit into a truffle and inside wis a whole clove of garlic. Both the truffle and bacon were ruined. And the garlic, which, incidentally, was also in the chicken we were served and on the toast that came with the cheese and in the salad- it was so predominant that the whole meal was ruined. Now take this spaghetti-simple, ultra-simple- but with a bouquet like the finest wine.”

The train had stopped at a small station to wait for a clear track. Outside the window were cars of a freight train. The boxcar doors were open, and inside were benches on which sat people most of whom had no shoes and all of whose eyes were fixed on the spaghetti and the bottle of wine on our table. I said that it seemed to me that in Italy there was a belief that God had made some people rich and others poor, and that the tragedy was that not only the rich but the poor also believed it, and consequently it would never change.

Patrizzi answered, “And don’t you think this is as it should be and a very good arrangement? Have you ever seen an Italian peasant envious of those who have fine cares, or horses, or jewels? No, they admire those things, knowing they can never have them for themselves. They adopt a detachment, like people who go to the theater, or to an art gallery to admire priceless paintings. They are glad to know that these things exist, but they also know they never can own them. Just from looking at these things they devrive a pleasure that possession never brings, because possession means worry.” He snapped his finger. “More,” he shouted back to the steward.

“Vive la difference!” Want a breath of fresh pizza air-go to Co. Pane in New York City.

Last weekend, I dragged my wife south along the crowded streets of Manhatten to a destination that I had been waiting to visit for a few years now- Sullivan Street Bakery. We almost walked by the small storefront in Hells Kitchen that, (my baker-hero) Jim Lahey owns and operates and after opening the door we were rewarded with a face-to-face introduction with a beautiful long Pizza Bianca, Jim’s famous Pizza Potate, Pizza Funghi and a very fresh Pizza Pomodoro, not to mention the breads, OHHHHHH the breads!

My wife would have waylaid my idea to come down to Hells Kitchen if I hadn’t mentioned the fact that Jim Lahey is the “inceptor,” or “proprietor”, so to speak, of the “No Knead Bread Recipe.” Now, annoying as it is to me, it must be a thorn in Jims side to have this recipe referred to as “Frank Bruni’s no knead recipe.”  Dianne Rehm (on National Public Radio,) reffered to it this way whilst interviewing the guy who wrote that book about 52 loaves. The guy, who is not a professional baker, pompously blasted Mr. Lahey’s recipe as misguided. My wife did indeed follow Jim’s recipe to the letter and I have since enjoyed some of the best loaves I’ve ever had.

Now, back to Sullivan Street…I am somewhat egotistical about my Pizza Bianca prowess, AND I hate to admit when other bakers/pizza guys make something better than me. So, I’ll say it now, Sullivan Streets pizza bianca was the best I’ve ever tasted AND better than I’ve ever made. My wife fell in love with the potato pie and we wanted to spend the whole day there but move on we did after I bought a t-shirt.

After heading south, we  past a corner restuarant and my wife alerted me to the fact that it was a pizza place. “Oh my god Debra, it’s “Co.”, Jim Lahey’s pizza place.” So, after rolling her eyes and saying, ”Here we go again…”,  we went in and had a great pie called the “Popeye” (fresh spinach, pecorino, gruyere, mozzarella, cracked black pepper and some bodacious garlic.) It was cooked to perfection- not the usual “You should only do pizza this way” perfection, but MY perfection- a perfect amalgam of toppings up to the edge of a light, airy and blistered crust. No pretentions, just a fabulous pizza made with the diner in mind, not just the pizza maker.

No, thats not an artsy attempt to show the “Popeye.” Black truffle oil damage, low light and sticky steam from a future blog entry about sorghum has killed my camera. This pizza rocked our world!

I was then lucky enough to get introduced to the staff and the chef at Co Pane. His name was Matthew Aita and he gladly let me film a pie being cooked. Jim must be doing something right because all the guys in his kitchen have been with him for years and hold the same amount of respect I have for this great guy. Most have graduated up from dishwasher to stalwart pizza guys. Matt was obviously dedicated to fulfill Mr. Lahey’s vision of making pizza that he had experienced in Italy and is determined, as he put it, to “Use the pizza as a landscape and use the toppings to dress it with flavor.” One thing struck me as telling about Matt was his admission that great pizza had “Become his obsession.” Now that’s a pizza guy that I like!

Here ya go with a fabulous Boscaiola pie with sausage, red onion, chili, mozzarella and mushroom made by guys who are making thier own rules, thinking outstide the pizza box and turning everyone on to some fabulous pies. Thank you everyone at Co., Matt Aita and Jim Lahey! 

This is my tuna and sauteed shiitake pizza with raw yellowfin, ricotta, mascarpone, basil, late season shiso atop a crust made “Shaobing” style with pork drippings, (i.e. lard-yea, yea just calm down.) and sesame.

Please forgive the pictures in this post. They are hazy because I accidently dumped a half bottle of truffle oil all over my camera while making pizza. (Best smelling camera around)

Well, I’ll be first to admit it, I was blindsided last March when, after three grueling days at the International Pizza Expo making pizzas for demonstrations and competitions, I tasted one of the best pizzas in the world. I hate to admit it, but this pizza wasn’t at the show, or in the competition, or even made by a pizza guy. It was made by….gulp…a chef at the Bellagio Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. (Okay, all  you pizza dudes, throw those eggs and rotton cabbage, I can take it!) 

Who was this guy? I had to find out; then steal his recipe, butcher it, and make it my own!

        Akira Back slicing and dicing (left) and (right) with some other older-looking chef named Robert, or Bob..something.

After investigation, I found that this was no ordinary chef. It was Akira Back, the professional snowboarder who’s talents propelled him to win “Rising Star,” from Restaurants and Hospitality Magazine, “Best Chef in Las Vegas,” and appeared on Iron Chef with Bobby Flay. He’s worked as Executive Chef under at Nobu and with Masaharu Morimoto and Bryan Nagao and appeares regularly on the Food Network. His Restaurant Yellowtail is a AAA 5-diamond award-winning place that features Akira’s unique combination of rare and exotic ingredients paired with natural, sustainable fare….Oh and a killer pizza that I came face to face with just last year.

My General Manager and I took a strole to the Bellagio Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip and (after donating a major amount of money to the damned roulette table,) had a few drinks at Yellowtail. This restaurant has the coolest interior, especially the glittering wall fitted with shiny discs mimicing fish scales. Sitting next to us in the lounge were three woman from Tennnesee.

“Y’all just gotta try the big eye tuna pizza!” One woman said in here southern accent.

“What’s so great about it?” I giggled like the pompous pizza know-it-all that I am.

“It’s just the most fabulous pizza you will ever have, that’s all!” Her tablemate chuckled. They left and after I had another beer I ordered this pizza. The tortilla crust was so thin and crisp that it seemed as though it was wafer. The beatuful red tuna lay atop a luscious sauce accented by tastes of lemon, cream and red onion. The real kicker was the white truffle oil that was drizzled atop the tuna and further accenuated by the sharp micro shiso.

“Canya beleive it? A freakin’ chef made that pie?” Was all I muttered the rest of the night. I flirted with the idea of getting one to go and entering it in the pizza contest as I continued to lose copious amounts of cash. Luckily, Joel stopped me and my stupid idea.

 This a picture from Lasplash.com, it is the Yellowtail Big Eye Pizza made famous by Akira Back. The pic does not do it justice.

I made a “Note to Self” to try to make this pizza and have put it off until just a week ago, Matt Starline of Starline Organics brought over numerous shiitake logs that we had innoculated the previous summer. (I have a blog post about a shiitake pizza and the way we innoculated the Amish hardwood logs.)

“I think these babies are ready to pop soon.” He said after we hefted these heavy hardwoods into place under my huge dawn redwood that resides in my back yard. I only saw one shiitake then and decided to wait. Two days later I knew I was in for a blast of shiitake. The little bulbs seemed to pop everywhere and looked like little marbles, then after a few days they grew…and grew…

And grew.

And grew, and are still popping and growing at this time.

So I decided to make my version of the Chef Back pizza that I so adored. I paired it with the shiitake that I grew. I made some Shaobing flatbread once using the croissant method of folding. Only I didn’t use butter, just bacon, guanciale and salt pork drippings and sesame oil and seeds.

I hope Chef Back will forgive me for veering from his recipe but this pizza goonish behavior is in my DNA.

here we go.

For the Shaobing: Preheat oven to 475 degrees.

Three types of pork at four ounces each- Salt pork, smoked bacon and smoked guanciale (pork cheek or jowl.)

One seven ounce dough ball from the easy dough recipe

One tablespoon toasted sesame oil

Sesame seeds for sprinkling

Sea salt

Roast the fatty pork; Salt pork, guanciale (pork cheek) and bacon. Roast in a 450 degree oven until the fat melts away from the meat. Cool the pan and pour the fat into a container. Add one tablespoon of toasted sesame oil to the fat. Eat the meat. (yum)

Using a seven ounce dough ball from the Easy Dough Recipe, lay it out on a table and cut in half.  You will have two 3.5 ounce dough balls.Reserve one and stretch one out to an oblong shape. Brush with oil and sprinkle sesame seeds on top then fold over.

Turn vertiaclly on the table and brush and sprinkle again, then fold again and pick up and form into a aball. Brush the ball with with the oil then sprinkle with sesame seeds and press down again.

Continue this process again. When you get to the ball stage, you are finished brushing the oil. You will have achieved several layers.   

Using a rolling pin, roll out the shoubing into an eight-inch round. Do not make a raised crust. The disc should have the same thickness all over.

Place on parchment paper and insert into your oven for 8 to 14 minutes or until golden brown. (Yea, truffle oil photo again.)

Slice One to three shiitake mushrooms, (depending on size-here I just used one that was portabello sized) and saute over medium-hight heat with a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Slice a fresh raw piece of tuna thinly. (you know that eating raw stuff can cause an immeasurable amount of distress if…bla, bla, bla.)

Mix two tablespoons of mascarpone cheese an two tablespoons of ricotta together. Add salt and pepper to taste and spread on the cracker, add chopped basil leaf and thinly sliced onion that has been rinsed under cold water.

Arrange the tuna then shiitake atop the cheese and drizzle white truffle oil  over all.

Place small shisto leaf on top of the pizza and eat with abandon

Thanks chef  Back for this inspiration and we’ll see you at Yellowtail in March…and tell that roulette table to be nicer next time.