THE GRANDMA OF BON APPETIT’S GRANDMA-STYLE HOMEMADE PIZZA MUST HAVE BEEN FROM CHICAGO.
When Bon Appetit magazine went full-on Pizza a while ago, I was hooked. Particularly because Grandma’s Homemade Pizzs filled the entire cover. You see I consider Pizza the perfect food. Protein, Dairy, Vegetables, and Carbs all in a slice you can eat with one hand. This pizza is a big, beautiful sheet pan pizza. The crust is almost focaccia-like and notably better than any deep dish pie I’d ever tasted in Chicago or anywhere else. The sheet pan is a great idea. It made the pie so much easier to handle than its pizza stone thin-crusted cousins. The metal of the pan conducts the heat so the pie dough is crisp, crunchy and light. I went to the trouble of getting some 00 Italian flour which is de rigeur with Italian pizza chefs. I found mine at Eataly (https://www.eataly.com/us_en.) Bon Appetit can save you the trip because the recipe calls for using ordinary all-purpose flour for this recipe.
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| “Come in Pizzeria” Flour |
EVERYONE KNOWS CHICAGO’S DEEP DISH PIZZA HAS NOTHING ON NEW YORK-STYLE THIN-CRUST PIZZA ALTHOUGH WE DO ACKNOWLEDGE ITS NAPOLITAN ROOTS.
Many say that pizza was invented by baker Raffaele Esposito in Naples for the royal visit of Queen Margherita in 1889, but these flatbreads had been eaten throughout Italy for centuries before, with the first documented use of the name appearing in the city of Gaeta in 997 C.E. But I have two observations about Grandmas and pizza. The Grandma in this particular recipe was very miserly with her toppings. But then, my own mother once asked me how to order the kind of pizza she’d seen on TV add with the cheese pulling away from a pizza pan. I told her to order extra cheese. Later I asked her if the extra cheese pizza had met with her satisfaction. She informed me that ‘they’ wanted to charge an extra dollar for the extra cheese which my mother refused to pay. So Bon Appetit may be onto something about thrifty grandmothers and not just my own. Alas, Bon Appetit’s HomeMade Pizza Grandma style was the invention of one Francesco (Frank) Pinello, a New York pizzaiolo, who founded the pizzeria Best Pizza in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Frank now has 2 branches in Brooklyn, one in New Paltz, NY and East Rutherford, NJ. You can order the real thing from any of these locations at www.bestpizzawilliamsburg.com (Ordering will also save you the 24-hour rest period for the dough in today’s recipe!)
YES WE CHANGED THE RECIPE TO GIVE US MORE TOPPING
With apologies to both Grandma and Frank Pinello, we were profligate with the toppings, splurging on the cheese, tomato sauce, and spicy Soppressata. We discovered this when we reheated the leftovers and mounded them with all three ingredients. The one thing we lightened up on was the recommended amount of olive oil. One half a cup went onto the sheet pan which left the dough swimming in the stuff. I blotted the top before adding the toppings. So here is the recipe. And after that, more adventures in Pizza. Buon Appetito!
Home-style Pizza that's as rustic as it is easy to make. And you can add an amazing list of toppings to make it your own even without GrandmaRecipe for Bon Appetit’s Homemade Pizza Grandma Style invented by Frank Pinello of Brooklyn’s “Best Pizza”
Ingredients
Directions
