this is an up date based on the quality of marlons extended rise dough and a trip to Pittsburgh. i wanted to visit il pizzaiolo and had set up an appointment to visit Ron the owner of the pizzeria.i also wanted to visit a new pizzeria that just opened in the city called mercurios their training was done at keste's by roberto.
the day started at mercurios their dough regiment was the same as amano 2 hour bulk 6 to 8 hour room temp in balls overnight refrigeration and two to three hours to get the dough warm. this joint nailed the pizza! it was keste- amano in taste absolutely Delicious. they had a beautiful acunto oven that roberto arranged to have delivered to them. the dough looked like keste proofed to where the seperation of balls is now square. the pizza maker a female owner. flour the puck was roberto gentle with the stretch and assembly and into the acunto. it was awesome the flavor of that long proofed dough adds a whole new dimension to the pie. the only thing they did different was they hand diced their cheese which i loved.it melted but was not runny. pictures included.
in the afternoon i sat with Ron for a couple of hours and got a real schooling on neapolitan pizza.hi preferred dough method is 18 hours at 65 degrees. with his lunch dough being cold proofed from the night before. that is what my first pie was made from. this dough had a very different texture and taste. his toppings are what stand out on his pie. the evoo, grated cheese and mozzarella are well thought out for how they taste together. later he made a marinara style with his 18 hour dough and it was light and very flavorful. he had the oven to 930 degrees on the floor and the pie had a perfect bake top and bottom, he has one of marcos ovens.
like marco he raves about pizzeria salvo and its great pizza makers. he had herd that the new salvo that marco talked about uses caputo cake flour for their dough. any way the guy is a encyclopedia of all styles of pizza.very nice man who is a pioneer of neapolitan pizza . he was doing it before caputo was available in the states.
ron is opening a new restaurant in the city in november. the oven is being built on premise with all of the materials being shipped in.
the last part of this post is about a portable oven event friday my dough didn't get proper proofing because of the cold weather and to me the pizza was very disappointing.they brought me back a pie . i could not run the event as fridays at my brick and mortar joint can be trying to my employees.i need to feel the dough watch the dough to determine how to handle it. you cannot make good pizza with cold dough!!!! i was pissed at myself not my employees.
i was to attend a Halloween party the next night at a friends house that had a wood oven. i gave him 35 dough balls and told him to leave them in his wine making room which he keeps at 65 degrees. so it had about 24 hours on it when i got there.i felt much better after cooking pizza with dough that had enough fermentation and was warm enough to cook thru at high temperature.i will put pictures in the next post.in closing this wood oven cooking can be a challenge, such an easy recipe.
