Adam and I had a lot of fancy food when we were in Provence, so it figures that one our most memorable meals was actually a cheap wood-fired pizza made in the back of a truck. It was inspired by the Savoyan “tartiflette,” a creamy, rich gratin made with potatoes, lardons, Reblochon cheese, and crème fraîche. If only I could find thin-crust pizza this good in Montreal! Read my report at Serious Eats’ Slice here.
Posted in baking, cheese, outdoors, restaurants, writers
Tagged creme fraiche, pizza truck, provence, serious eats, slice, tartiflette, wood fired pizza
My hunt for the best Montreal pizza continues! This time, my quest took me to Via Ristorante, a tiny restaurant in Montréal-Nord. Adam brought me to Via for my birthday lunch, and it was perfect. Read the full review here.
Posted in lunch, pizza, writers
Tagged montreal pizza, pizza, serious eats, slice, via ristorante
Even though I’ve written for Serious Eats a few times in the past, this week marked my first contribution to my all-time favorite pizza website, Slice, the sister site of Serious Eats. Even better, the comments section has been super helpful — I have so many new spots to try!
Read the whole piece here.
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.
Posted in color, food, home, snack, summer
Tagged arugula, crackers, flatbreads, moro east, my pie monday, pizza, potato chip pie, serious eats, slice