Topic: Pizza from scratch

[JerryM]

George,

we only go for sit downs - Casa Italia Liverpool is the place for us http://www.thecasaitalia.co.uk/. local to us there is also a very good place in swinton near manchester.

for TA i can't believe how much places charge and never really been impressed with the quality.

toppings got to be pepperoni and red onion. i want to try smoked salmon but have never plucked up enough courage to give it a go.

[Domi]

http://www.orlandosrestaurant.com/ for me....and it's within walking distance from our house ;D though we rarely ever buy pizza...their costoletto starter followed by bistecco dijonnaise is to die for!

BTW they do magic tricks at your table too if you have kids......I taught them the balloon swallowing trick - my husband's a very happy man pmsl ;D

[George]

for TA i can't believe how much places charge and never really been impressed with the quality.

I couldn't agree more. Some people must have money to burn. When I look at takeaway menus shoved through the letterbox, I'm shocked at the prices, like a pizza charged at something like ?12 when it probably wouldn't cost much more than about 50p to make at home. They're mean with the quantities of ingredients, too, like half a mushroom, etc.

[Willyeckerslike]

If we go out to n Italian I have never eaten Pizza there, I usually go for the Seafood dishes & I haven't ordered a TA pizza for a long time, think it was from Pizza Express in the early 90's, I much prefer to make my own now,  I use Jamie Olivers pizza dough & tomato sauce then I usually get a pack of Italian meats from Asda along with mushrooms, but really you can do whatever you want. 
When I do make the trip to Morrisons I do like there Chicken Tikka Pizza but don't tell anyone

[martinr1000]

martinr1000,

many thanks. was thinking i could do with joining a pizza forum.

ps have registered - looks good

it's a fascinating site. they have had dudes who worked at pizza hut etc. on there and although they all say that the dough is shipped in frozen the method they use to cook them is not what i expected.
for example a deep pan pizza is made by chucking a cup of oil into a pan then putting the dough on top and putting it in a prover to rise until it is ready to be cooked.

[George]

they have had dudes who worked at pizza hut etc. on there and although they all say that...

The shame of it must be that we don't have any dudes on here who worked at BIRs.

[JerryM]

martinr1000,

loving the site. my knowledge is all based on trial and error. it's uncanny though reading some of the information as i can relate to it from direct experience. there is a lot of info though - thought BIR was complicated.

for anyone wanting a quick guide to propper pizza the pizza forum put me onto this site:

http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm

on the deep pan we used to make all the time. we put 1 tbsp olive oil in the pan "tin", then dough and tomato and proved in hand warm bottom oven for 10mins before adding rest of ingredients and into the top oven for real. we switched to thin based a while ago as there is more flexibility on toppings before you get too full.

[martinr1000]

damn they look good.

wish i had a pizza oven and wasn't on a diet.

[Peripatetic Phil]

for anyone wanting a quick guide to proper pizza the pizza forum put me onto this site:

http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm

OMG : I thought we were a bit obsessive, trying to re-create the authentic BIR flavour, but I never thought I'd ever read quite so much on pizza in just one place.  I started reading about 1H30 ago, and my scroll bar is still only about 1/5 of the way down.  It's a truly amazing document, and may well improve my bread-making technique as a side-effect !

[Secret Santa]

we switched to thin based a while ago as there is more flexibility on toppings before you get too full.

Jerry do you have any tips for a thin base that is floppy when cooked. You know, one that doesn't stay like cardboard like most of the supermarket pizzas?

I know I should read around the subject but unlike curries I just don't have the same passsion for pizza and would appreciate a short cut to my desired type of base.