I've still been practicing the Napoletan style pizza doughs, and last night we had some more. There were a mixture of straight all-purpose doughs, and doughs with a splash of stone ground rye flour. The early pizzas were made with a Marinara style sauce, with a crushed Tomato Sauce base. The extra elements to the sauce are garlic, oregano, basil, pepper, Red Wine Vinegar and salt. No surprises there. We like using Fire Roasted crushed tomatoes. I needed to make more sauce to have enough for the night and the weekend, so I whipped up another batch. This time I included a small amount of toasted fennel seeds. Once toasted, I busted them up a bit in my blade coffee grinder before mixing them into the sauce. I'm a fennel-loving freak, so I wouldn't always do this, but I did love the subtle licorice-like flavor result blending with the prominent garlic-basil. It would be especially great, I think, with a more substantial Pizza Americana dough with more substantial toppings.
Here are a few shots of the a few results:
Paula's Pesto sauce with sliced potato:
Margherita Pizza (Vegan) - used Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet Mozzarella "cheese". Viva Italia!
I've had a really great time making Napoletana-style pizzas. These pizzas will always have a special place in my heart, and will likely be a household staple. I only wish I had a wood-fired oven. That said, I think I'm going to move foreward with some new styles of dough. Not sure what I'll play with next: Romano, Foccacia, Neo-Neopolitan, New York Style, Americana, Deep Dish, Grilled. I have my favorites in this list, but we'll see where my interest and spontaneity take me next.
I too recently picked up Peter's Pizza book. I've been making pizza every friday for years and getting his book was a great influx of new ideas. I've had a lot of good luck with his doughs and even though I live up in NH I've really been enjoying the deep dish! We can't get that kind of pizza up here and they have been a great change of pace. Simple to make and I can clean up while it bakes. :) Good luck with the pizza making. Since I do it so often it's become second nature to me, but it took me a while before I was really comfotable with the dough.
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