Pizza on the Egg

Billy has been talking about making Pizza on our Egg. I finally went out and bought a Pizza Stone that fits in the egg and a Pizza Peel to remove the cooked Pizza.

We went to Mozza2Go and bought the flour that Nancy uses. Billy made the dough he also made dough using regular flour. He brought the dough and homemade sauce over to our house. I went to Barbrix and purchased some of their custom made Wild Boar Sausage to go on top of some of the Pizza’s.

We started with Pappa al Pomodoro Soup. This is a thick Italian Tomato soup we love to make in the summer when tomatoes are at their best. We use the recipe from the Italian Country Cookbook by Rogers and Gray.

The Egg can get very hot. We heated it up to almost 1000 degrees. The Pizza cooked in about 3 minutes. The bottom of the Pizza was burnt, the top was great. We learned that we were greatly overheating the Egg. In fact the felt gasket burnt off. I must not have been the first person to do that, because they sell replacement gaskets. Live in learn. We then let the Egg cool down and made 4 more Pizza’s at lower temperatures. They kept improving in quality.

For dessert we served Ginger Cookies from The Cheese Store of Silverlake.

We subsequently told our T’ai Chi instructor Michael about our experience. He is a Pizza devote. He directed us towards a web site that is the ultimate site for finding out about Pizza. If you like to make Pizza or are interested in Pizza check this out: Jeff Varasano's Famous New York Pizza Recipe. Billy is inspired by this site and is going to try again!

Repetition makes for perfection!

Pappa al Pomodoro
From: Rogers and Gray: Italian Country Cookbook

Serves 10 (but leftovers are so good, serves 2 - 5 times)

4 garlic cloves, peeled and cut into slivers
¼ cup Olive Oil
9 pounds ripe sweep tomatoes, peeled and seeded, or 4 ½ pounds canned plum tomatoes, drained of most of their juices
Sea Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 loaves stale bread, we use La Brea loaves
1 large bunch fresh basil
extra-virgin olive oil

Put the garlic and olive oil into a heavy saucepan and cook gently for a few minutes. Just before the garlic turns brown, add the tomatoes. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally until the tomatoes become concentrated. Season with salt and pepper, then add 2 ½ cups water and bring to a boil.

Day before, cut most of the crust off of the bread and break or cube in large chunks to allow it to get stale.

When soup is ready, Put the bread into the tomatoes mixture and stir until the bread absorbs most of the liquid, adding more boiling water if the soup is too thick. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly. If the basil leaves are large, tear into pieces. Stir into the soup with ½ to ¾ cups of extra virgin olive oil. Let the soup sit before serving to allow the bread to absorb the flavor of the basil and oil.

Serve in bowls and add a dollop of Extra Virgin Olive Oil on top.