They say that variety is the spice of life. As owner of Avalanche Pizza for the past fifteen years I’ve surrounded myself with variety, (almost 60 toppings), forty specialty pizza, pizza oddities and combinations that no sane person would try. This definitely keeps us hopping but each day I still need something different to make my day complete. Call it a voice from the dark side or just a loose marble bouncing around this egg-shaped cranium of mine. Either way, it is an itch that has to be scratched.
A few weeks ago, we had just rolled out our fabulous Chicken and Waffle Pizza to great applause from our pizza-loving fans. This pizza has it all; a béchamel cream, bacon, mozzarella, aged provolone, Belgium waffles and real fried chicken all baked at 500 loving degrees and then slathered with local maple syrup. It was on that same day that I was cleaning my pasta machine and decided to make the next little ditty.
After all, as John Cleese always says, “And now, for something completely different!
I took a cold small dough ball, flattened and cut small strips, then sent it through my pasta machine thinking I would make a monkey-bread type of pizza. This would alleviate any bragging about cell structure or how high the cornicione got or the lack of gumline, just a cool pizza that had the mouth feel of a plate of pasta! The key to making this pizza was the temperature of the dough. Warm, proofed dough would never go through properly. This dough is about 60 percent hydrated and rolled out fabulously. I then put into an oiled ten inch pan to proof.
I cooked the dough for nine minutes until it was just cooked through to the center. Then I flipped it over to reveal a wonderfully golden crust.
Then I topped it with the traditionals: San Marzano tomatoes atop fresh basil and that arranged atop aged mozzarella instead of fresh, (to keep the pizza together). I then slathered the pie with Sicilian olive oil and Trapani sea salt.
The pizza stayed together and was amazing with the strands popping here and there. It was quite the hit with my staff also who gobbled it all up in minutes except for the piece I had. As I bit into this wondrous slice, I realized that this was definitely one of the best pizzas I’ve ever tasted!
