Sigh… this is my last Montreal post! The good news: I can finally start writing about Singapore and Bali. The bad news: I am no longer in Montreal. While there, I was able to slash another key item from my bucket list: pizza from scratch! I was so proud of my novice results that I spontaneously submitted a few photos to Slice’s’ ‘My Pie Monday’ feature. Slice is my favorite website devoted to pizza by far, so I was stoked they ran the photos of my pizzas, which, to be honest, were not really pizzas, but chewy crackers. Flatbread pizzas, if we’re being generous.
But who cares!! I made pizza dough from scratch! Although I debated using Mario Batali’s focaccia recipe, I ended up using the flatbread recipe from the Moro East cookbook, partly because it doesn’t require 1/4 cup of olive oil. I know. While the recipe was freakishly easy, I think think I messed up by rolling the dough out too thinly. The dough, pre-rising:
Given that pizza is my favorite food of all time, I was so excited by how cute and smooth and precious it was that I raced around the house, clutching it to my chest like I had just laid a golden egg. I mean, I made that! What! Who needs kids when creation can be had in just 15 minutes??
The first pizza — grandiosely deemed a ‘potato chip pie’ — was covered with fried discs of baby purple potatoes, garlic slivers, rosemary from the garden, and fruity olive oil. The second pizza — which we agreed was much better — was even simpler: olive oil, flaky sea salt, freshly ground pepper, grape tomatoes (of the $10 variety), and finely minced arugula (brilliant idea! I wish I could take credit for it), all finished with a thick flurry of grated Pecorino. The textures were perfect, the colors intense, the flavor profile spot on — I actually gasped when it came out of the oven.
This summer and fall I am devoting my energy to perfecting the perfect pizza dough. Moro East is not quite what I’m looking for, but for a first attempt, I’m super proud of the results.