Sunday, August 21, 2005


wracked with envy

if you'd like to see some cookbook-perfect pizza pix, fortify yourself with your favorite anti-envy ritual, and then click on over to mary beth's awesome pizza page. i am particularly salivating over the only simply entitled "crust," which i nominate for food porn shot of the week.

if looking at that doesn't make you wanna run out a get yourself a pie, you need to consider whether you have an eating disorder. m.b. says she prefers her pizza crust made with higher-protein bread flour.

and you see, her results are excellent. however, mr. right prefers the crispier crust from all-purpose flour -- but to try to equal the chew m.b. has obviously achieved there, i was motivated this morning to fold my dough 5 times!

the st. hamelman recipe calls for only 1 fold, but hey! why not experiment!?!

i also have to compliment m.b. on the beautiful shape of her pizze, which are nice and round, but not overly perfect. they look charmingly hand-made, rustic, appetizing, and professional all at once.

just a very appealing shape; no way they could have been machine-stamped. and the baked pix show a gorgeous light-golden brown crust color.

finally -- i think this is a very important point -- m.b. doesn't appear to be overloading her pies with too much sauce or cheese. less is more here, and quite authentic to the neapolitan style.

in short, i think m.b. needs to consider a career change. she easily could charge US$14 for one of hers, just as mario batali does at otto.

i'm not a big fan of the ultra-thin, ultra-crispy "cracker" pizza mario makes, but i think i'd be happy with one of m.b.'s. . . .comparing the pix, actually m.b.'s may look more yummy than his, which seem a tad too blonde to me. . .

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