As I mentioned in my Bermuda Pizza blog, I was going to do some more research on making great homemade pizza. I did a little research and found Chef Ruth Gresser, owner and chef at Pizzeria Paradiso in Washington, DC.

Chef Gresser is considered by many to be one of the best pizza makers around. She gets high praises from The Washington Post and The Washington Business Journal as well as Zaget’s Guide. As a graduate of Madeleine Kamman’s Classical and Modern French Cooking School in Glen, NH, Ruth has been a chef demonstrator for The Smithsonian Institution as well as a guest chef at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California.

Chef Gresser has put together a series of cooking videos on making pizza that I will be posting on my web site. You can see the first three on making pizza dough by hand and with a mixer here.

When I emailed Ruth about my Bermuda Pizza experience and asked her some general questions about preparing a great pizza, she wrote back and gave me some great advice that I would like to share with you. We also talked about doing a Novice2Pro interview and I’m hoping as I experiment making pizza in our wood-burning oven, Ruth can guide me to success.

Here is Chef Gresser’s response to my email. There is a lot of great information in it for anyone who enjoys making pizza at home.

“I can’t tell you the reasons you preferred your friend’s pizza over your own, I will give you some general thoughts on pizza making and the wood-burning oven.

I find that the three main factors contributing to the final pizza you make are

The discussions proceed from there to the variations due to the different ingredients used, the rising times and temperatures, and the cooking methods used.

I believe that the dough should be soft, supple and well hydrated. This kind of dough requires less movement to stretch and results in a nice oven spring and an open structure in the crust. Because the dough is easy to work, you can stretch the dough using either a rolling pin, or your hands, or a combination of the two.

Dough worked solely by hand will produce a more varied crumb, but not necessarily a better crumb. The main thing to remember is that if you use a rolling pin, do not treat the dough aggressively or roughly. If you work the dough too roughly, it will loose more of the structure you have created during the rising than is necessary, and it may not recover in the oven.

Finally, there is a wide temperature range to be discussed, with the minimum temperature needed to make a pizza of the quality I believe you are looking for being 600-650 degrees. The range goes from there to 800 or 900 degrees. We cook our pizza at 650 degrees, and the pizzas take about 5 minutes to cook.

The higher the temperature, the less time the top of the pizza will take to cook. This obviously means that the crust needs to be completely cooked that same timeframe. We keep our temperature on the lower side because the pizza we make is not too thin in the center and has a corona that is bready in style of crumb and texture. By cooking it at a relatively lower temperature, the crust is given time to cook thoroughly without scorching excessively.

As I said earlier the conversation continues from here. I would suggest you focus on these three areas first and develop a pizza that you find appealing. If you still think that your pizza can use improvement, start experimenting with different flours, leavens and risings.

Hope this is helpful and I look forward to hearing back regarding your results.

Have fun and Eat Your Pizza,
Ruth “

We just returned from a wonderful visit to our friends Will, Linda and their two sons, Jonathan and Stephen on the island of Bermuda. It is one of those incredible places you just don’t want to leave especially when hanging out with friends like Will & Linda.

The food was amazing and we never once went out for dinner. Not only are Will and Linda fantastic cooks, Will is a 5th generation family member running Miles Market, Bermuda’s Famous World of Fine Food started in 1862. Will continuously surprised us with delicious local ingredients plus some of the finest products imported from Europe.
Like his father Harry before him, Will has continued to transform Miles Market into one of the premier gourmet markets in the world. If you visit Bermuda and are looking for the best the island has to offer in food and wine, you must visit Miles Market on The Waterfront at Pitts Bay. It is a foodie’s paradise.

Making Pizza In Bermuda

If you have been following my blog, you have seen posts talking about our new outdoor wood-burning oven. I still have a lot to learn when it comes to cooking with logs in a very hot environment but thought I was getting pretty good at cooking pizza. After spending just one night with Will, who also recently build a wood-burning oven in his back yard, I realized I have a lot to learn.

The biggest difference was his technique to shape the pizza. He does the stretching and shaping all by hand where I was starting with a rolling pin and finishing by hand. I have read that either technique is ok but Will explained the rolling pin compresses the gluten in the dough where stretching by hand pulls it apart. I’m not sure of the science of pizza dough (and I will do some more research and report back) but I have to admit his pizzas had thinner, crispier crusts and tasted much better than mine.

Although both Will and I usually prepare our own pizza dough, we have both taken shortcuts with our pizza making effort by buying the dough commercially. He sometimes gets it from a local pizza restaurant while I have purchased it from one of our local supermarkets. Yes, it is typically better to make it yourself but when making pizza for 20 to 30 people, it is sometimes easier to get some help.

Basic Pizza Dough Recipe

Yields 6-8 individual 8-10” pizzas.

Pizza dough is basically flour, yeast, water and a little oil, sugar and salt but you are going to find a lot of variations if you spend any time looking in your cookbooks or on the Internet.

Here is a basic recipe I have used but will be adding more recipes in the future. I might even create a page on my web site for pizza dough variations so if you would like to share one of your own favorite recipes, please do so in the comments below.

Ingredients:
4 cups high gluten flour
1 1/2 cups warm water
1-teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons yeast, dissolved in ¼ - cup warm water

Mix the flour and salt together in a mixing bowl, add water and dissolved yeast. Be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl to get all the flour into the mix. Keep mixing until the dough batter looks thick.

Lightly flour your work surface and transfer the dough to it. Knead the dough for about 8 minutes until it is smooth and elastic but not sticky. Transfer to a bowl that has been slightly oiled so the dough doesn’t stick. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and let it sit (rest) in a warm location for a couple of hours.

Note: The dough is going to rise to double the size so pick your bowl appropriately.

Transfer the dough back to a floured work surface and divide into 6 to 8 pieces that you will gently roll into tight little balls. If using the same day, put the individual dough balls onto a floured surface, cover with kitchen towel and let them rest for at least 1 hour.

We like to put them on a cookie tray, cover them with plastic and let them rest in the refrigerator overnight. Just be sure to let the dough come to room temperature before making your pizza crusts.

You are now ready to make pizza at home in your own oven. I highly recommend using a pizza stone if you don’t have access to an outdoor wood-burning oven like ours.

Many Thanks To Will & Linda

There are many more culinary adventures I can share with you from this trip to Bermuda. I will try to post a traditional Bermuda recipe in upcoming days and I really hope to get Will to participate in an interview about his family’s history at Miles Market. It is really a fascinating history.

Saturday we celebrated my birthday by inviting a bunch of good friends over to make pizza in our new outdoor wood-burning oven. Everyone was asked to bring his or her favorite topping while we supplied the pizza dough, sauces and cheese. In total, I must have cooked over 24 pizzas before we were done.

Everyone got creative and came up with some interesting combinations. We tried artichokes, anchovies, pepperoni, pineapple, sausage, prosciutto (Italian ham), an assortment of olives, peppers, mushrooms, fresh tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes and I’m sure I’m forgetting some.

For cheese we tried mozzarella, goat, pecorino, Parmesan and fresh buffalo mozzarella. There was tomato sauce, pesto sauce, garlic and olive oil. Each pie was unique and a delight to sample.

The wood-burning oven ranges from 700 to 800 F when cooking pizza. The pies are thin crusted and only about 8 inches in diameter so they cook fast, about 3 to 4 minutes per pie.

Unfortunately it was about 95 outside on Saturday so standing in front of the oven for over 2 hours was a test of endurance. I’m reminded how uncomfortable it must be for professional chefs working in a hot kitchen 8 to 10 hours per day. I was fortunate to have an ice bucket filled with beer next to me so I could grab ice to cool off and replenish my liquids.

There are so many great pizza recipes but I wanted to share with you this one from Wolfgang Puck’s cookbook, Pizza, Pasta, and More! I am a big fan of Chef Puck and find his recipes easy to follow, to the point and most enjoyable. Here is his recipe for Prosciutto and Goat Cheese Pizza.

Prosciutto and Goat Cheese Pizza
Makes two 8-inch pies

Ingredients:
12 ounces pizza dough
¼ cup of pesto – we used store bought, but I have a good recipe for pesto here
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1 cup grated Fontina cheese
2 Roma tomatoes, cut into thin slices
2 ounces of prosciutto (Italian ham), cut into thin strips
2 ounces o of goat cheese, cut into small pieces
¼ teaspoon fresh oregano, minced
¼ teaspoon fresh thyme, minced
4 teaspoons grated Parmesan cheese

How to Make a Prosciutto and Goat Cheese Pizza

Chef Puck suggests using a pizza stone placed on the middle rack of your oven that has been preheated to 500 F. Before we had this wood-burning oven, I would use a pizza stone and can highly recommend them if you like to make pizza at home or ever bread for that matter. They really make a difference when trying to get the crust nice and crisp.

Divide the dough in half for two pizzas. Stretch and roll the dough out on a floured surface to make 8-inch rounds. I like thin-crusted pizza so the roundness isn’t as important to me as the thickness. The thinner the pizza, the faster and crisper they cook.

Brush each pizza round with Pesto and a layer of mozzarella, Fontina, tomatoes, prosciutto, goat cheese, oregano, thyme and Parmesan cheese.

Bake the pies until the crusts are lightly browned. In the oven this will take about 10 to 12 minutes. In our wood burning oven, about 4 minutes.

When the pie is done, remove it from the oven and place it onto a large cutting board or pizza pan and cut into slices with a pizza cutter. Delicious!!!