new york vs. chicago round two!

Dear Dennis,

It's really too bad you didn't come with me to visit Kristin. You missed out on some really good eats & some fun times. Yes, we ate a lot, but we did try to burn at least some of it off with a five mile run/walk on Saturday and a kayaking stint on the Chicago River on Sunday. While it might have been tempting to catch our dinner while kayaking, we thought it might be a little unwise to consume something from a river that has been known to catch on fire.

Since pizza is always on the menu when we visit Chicago, we decided to keep the tradition going. However, instead of going to one of our favorite chi-town pizza joints, we decided to stay in and have a nice little kitchen competition instead. Pizza Throw-Down!

Kristin's challenge was to create a Chicago style deep dish/stuffed pizza. My challenge was to come up with a thin, foldable New York style pizza. So, create we did. Kristin's windy city pizza was good, with two crusts surrounding a filling of ricotta, and then topped with peppers, onions & mozzarella. A side of sauce added the finishing touch. The New York style pizza was a thin crust affair, topped with a thin layer of sauce, fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and fresh basil. Cooking the pie on the grill gave the crust an authentic brick-oven type finish.

After the flour settled, we both agreed that the visiting team won this challenge. Go New York! I think we'll continue to work on the stuffed pizza, though, because it definitely shows some promise.

new york style grilled pizza margherita

dough for a 12" pizza
1/2 c. jarred pizza or spaghetti sauce
1 tomato
6 oz. fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced
fresh basil leaves

Preheat grill to 400F.
Remove pulp and seeds from tomato. Slice tomato as thinly as possible. Dry slices on paper toweling to remove excess moisture.
Roll pizza dough on floured surface as thinly as possible, while still being able to move it without tearing.
Place dough a pizza pan that will withstand direct heat from grill.
Prebake crust on grill for approximately 2 to 3 minutes, or until bottom just begins to brown.
Remove crust from grill.
Spread pizza sauce on crust, going all the way to the edges.
Place sliced mozzarella over sauce.
Top pizza with sliced tomatoes.
Carefully slide the pizza from the pizza pan directly onto grill over indirect heat.
Cook pizza over indirect heat for about 2 minutes, or until cheese melts, being careful not to burn the bottom of the crust.
Carefully remove pizza from grill. Top with fresh basil leaves and allow to rest a few minutes before serving.

new york vs. chicago - round one!

Because Comfy & Cosmo got together this weekend in Chi-town we are writing to our respective husbands instead of each other.  What do you expect?  We're sick of each other, we hung out all weekend...  Just kidding!

Dear John,

I miss you!  You've been gone so far away on this business trip for nearly two and a half weeks!  My Mom came to town though this weekend, so at least I've had some one else to keep me company besides the dog.  Lola is great and all, but she really needs to work on her conversational skills!  So you're probably wondering what us two girls have been up to.  Well while she was here we ate, then we ate some more, then we cooked, then ate, and ate.  Needless to say I'm still full and our fridge is stocked with leftovers, its been a good weekend.

For our major cooking extravaganza, we decided to attempt to create a "New York-style" pizza and a "Chicago-style" pizza, and yes, in one night!  This was as much an experiment as it was tasty entertainment, because neither of us had attempted a Chi-town pie or the technique we employed for the NY-style.  For the NY-style we strove for a thin crust, foldable pizza margarhite cooked on the grill, considering that many famed NY-style pizzerias use a coal-fired, wood-fired or brick oven with rather extreme temperatures.  The Chicago-style was a deep dish, stuffed pan-style pie with sausage, peppers and onions.

Who won you ask?  New York, hands down.  I know, I should be ashamed of myself!  I suppose I am no longer allowed to call myself a Chicagoan.  With some work, my Chicago-style pizza will be great, but as of right now the NY-style won because of the grill.  I never thought that grilling my pie would make that much of a difference, but it did!  The dough comes out perfect!  Slightly chewy, lightly crisped on the outside with a smokey note from the light charring, yum!  I'm very excited, and I cannot wait to make it for you!

 Anyway, here is the recipe for the Chicago style with notes for improvement included.  We will revisit this again in the future!

chicago-style deep dish pizza

pizza dough (see notes)
1/2 cup ricotta
1/4 parmesan
1 egg, lightly beaten

1/2 cup jarred pizza sauce (plus extra for dipping)
2 links italian sausage
3/4 cup shredded mozzerella
1/2 cup sliced green pepper
1/2 cup sliced red onion

Preheat the oven to 400.  Divide dough into two pieces and roll thin.  Oil and flour a 8" cake pan with 2" sides.  Push one of the pieces of dough into the bottom of the cake pan, allowing the edges to drape slightly over the sides.  Polk several holes into the dough with a fork.  (I didn't do this, but I would recommend using pie weights to prevent the dough from building up too much along the sides.)  Bake the dough for 7-8 minutes.

Meanwhile, brown the italian sausage and mix the ricotta, parmesan, egg and salt & pepper (to taste) until well combined.  Leaving the par-baked pizza dough in the cake pan, fill the middle of the dough with ricotta and smooth over.  Place the other piece of dough over the ricotta and trim the edges.  Prick again with fork, and bake for anther 7-8 minutes. 

Remove the dough/ricotta combo from the oven, and build as you would a normal pizza.  Add sauce, cheese, sausage and the veggies.  Bake again until the cheese is melted, bubbling and browned.

Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before slicing.

cosmo's cooking notes:  We used Mario Batali's Pizza Dough recipe which yields a soft and workable dough that you can get pretty thin.  This seems to work well, but again its a work-in-progress so there may be a better dough out there for this.