Chef J. Looney

Now, truth be told, the Italians didn’t invent pizza. In fact, it’s kinda hard to say who really did. There’s evidence of flat bread loaded with different toppings found in just about every culture and corner of the world, and some of the findings date back as far as 3,000 years.

But as far as we’re concerned, the Italian incarnation is the one that matters today.

According to Wikipedia, Pizza Margherita was invented in 1889, when  ”during a visit to Naples, Queen Margherita of Italy was served a pizza resembling the colors of the Italian flag, red (tomato), white (mozzarella) and green (basil).”

So, sounds easy enough, right? It really is. Here goes:

Pizza dough recipe
4 cups flour
2 cups milk
1 packet active dry yeast
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 tsp salt

Place a pizza or baking stone on the center rack of your oven and preheat to 500.
Combine all dry ingredients in a stand mixer and mix on low until incorporated. Slowly add the milk. Once the milk is fully incorporated, turn mixer on high for 2 minutes. Cover the dough and let it rest for 30 minutes or so. After the dough has rested, roll it out to the desired thickness. place it on the heated stone for 1-3 minutes, or until the bottom layer is slightly crispy. remove the par baked pizza crust from the oven and add the sauce and toppings before returning it to the oven to finish baking.

Marinara sauce recipe
12-14 roma tomatoes
fresh oregano
fresh basil
garlic

peel and seed the tomatoes, and place in a large skillet. If you’re using canned tomatoes, simply empty the cans into the pan. Place over medium heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce reaches the desired consistency and the tomatoes have broken down into a lumpy sauce. Add fresh chopped oregano, basil and garlic to taste, and simmer for 20-30 minutes over low heat. I recommend at least 2 tablespoons of the herbs and 2-3 cloves of garlic as a standard. If the sauce is too acidic, add a little sugar, 1/2 tablespoon at a time, until the desired flavor is achieved.

Pizza Margherita
Top the par baked crust with the sauce, fresh mozzarella and torn fresh basil leaves. Bake for 4-5 minutes at 500, or until cheese is bubbly and melted and crust is golden brown.

It’s that easy. You want a barbecue chicken pizza? Cool, top your crust with Sweet baby Ray’s BBQ sauce and some grilled chicken chunks and cheddar cheese. Hawaiian? Fresh cut pineapple and brown sugar ham with shredded mozzarella. Pepperoni? Hey, you get the idea…

Now go make yourself some pizza.

Go on, I mean it.

For real.

Gelato is different than Ice Cream in several ways, most notably the difference in butter fat content. Most ice cream ranges (depending on quality) from around 12%-16%, while gelato, with it’s higher milk-to-cream ratio usually comes in somewhere around 3%-8%.

This is the recipe I use when I make gelato. I’m a fan of the fruit flavors, and lemon in particular. I found this recipe at Bellalimento, and it’s always worked beautifully in my Cuisinart ice cream maker.

Ingredients:
6 lemons – zested & juiced (approx 1/2 cup lemon zest & 1 cup lemon juice)
6 egg yolks
1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream
2 1/2 cups half and half
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sugar

Method:
Whisk your egg yolks, heavy cream together into a bowl & set aside. Into a large sauce pan add half and half, lemon zest and sugar. Heat over medium heat stirring frequently until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat. Add some of the warm half and half mixture to the egg yolk mixture into order to temper. GRADUALLY add the egg yolk mixture into the half and half mixture and stir well to combine. Return to medium heat and cook until mixture thickens. Remove from heat stir in vanilla extract.

Allow pan to cool slightly cover with saran wrap and place into the fridge to cool completely. When you’re ready to make your gelato stir in the lemon juice and follow instructions on your gelato maker!