Text Structures: Round 2

Most people have had red pizza, or pizza covered with red sauce, but have you ever had white pizza? White pizza is made in almost the same way as red pizza: the dough rises and is rolled out, toppings are applied, and it is cooked in an oven—but the key difference is that white pizza does not have any tomato sauce on it. Instead, a white pizza may have olive oil or no sauce at all. I like white pizza more than red pizza because you can really taste the ingredients. Adding some fresh tomatoes to a white pizza will give it that tomato flavor without the completely overwhelming taste of the red sauce that covers most pizzas. If you have not had a white pizza, I recommend that you order or make one today.

The foundation of every pizza is the crust, and good crust comes from good dough. You might be surprised to learn that pizza dough is made from nothing more than flour, water, yeast, olive oil, salt, and sometimes sugar. Start by adding your yeast packet to a cup of warm water. Let the yeast activate, and then add two cups of flour, two tablespoons of olive oil, two teaspoons of sugar, and a teaspoon of salt. Mix all of that together and wait half an hour for the dough to rise. Now you’re ready to roll it out!

Cooking the perfect pizza at home can be quite a challenge. You may find that it’s difficult to get your oven to the right temperature. If the oven is too hot the crust will burn, become hard, and taste bad. If your oven isn’t hot enough, the crust may get soggy. Even at the perfect temperature, extra moisture from your ingredients may prevent the bottom of the crust from fully cooking, but don’t let oven temperature stop you from building the pizza of your dreams. Get yourself a pizza stone. A pizza stone will get very hot when preheated and will allow your crust to fully cook without burning it. Then you can pile the ingredients on your pizza and have a crispy crust that isn’t burned. That’s the way to go.

If you ask me, the perfect pizza has a thin crust, but not too thin. Even though I’m from Chicago, I prefer the New York style crust. Your perfect pizza might have tomato sauce on it, but mine has pesto on top of the crust. On the pesto I’d like to see lots of cheese: a full layer of shredded mozzarella and Romano cheese, and on top of the shredded mozzarella, I’d like to see some slices of fresh mozzarella. Now you might think I’m crazy for this one, but I’d really like to see some goat cheese in the crust. To top it all off, I’d like to see it polka-dotted with pepperoni slices. Now that’s what I call a pizza pie.

Pizza is often viewed as a junk food, and it is true that some pizzas are high in salt, fat, and calories, but there may also be some benefit to eating pizza. Some studies have found that lycopene, an antioxidant that exists in tomato products that are often used in pizza, may prevent some forms of cancer. Dr. Silvano Gallus, of the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmaceutical Research in Milan, studied the eating habits of people who developed cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, and colon. He concluded that people who ate pizza at least once a week had significantly less chance of developing these cancers. Here’s to your health.

You’d think that making a frozen pizza would be as easy as rolling out some dough, dropping some ingredients on it, and freezing it, but it’s actually a lot more complicated than that. Some of the challenges in creating a good frozen pizza include the sauce combining with the dough and the crust becoming rigid after it is frozen and reheated. To prevent the sauce from combining with the crust, you can use a layer of modified cornstarch as a moisture barrier between the sauce and the crust. This will prevent the crust from absorbing the sauce. Additionally, partially baking the dough and other ingredients will keep the dough from becoming too rigid after it is frozen and reheated. On second thought, you’re probably better off not trying this at home.

Pizza is so old that its origins are not quite clear to historians, but the word pizza comes from the Latin verb pinsere, meaning to press. It may also be related to the Greek word pitta. In any event the word “pizza” was first documented in Italy in 997 AD. Whatever they were eating back then, however, was quite different from the pizza that we know today. Pizza as we know it could not really have been invented until sometime during the 16th century, when tomatoes were brought to Europe from America. This was big, but in my opinion the greatest development in the history of pizza occurred in 1905, when pizza was first sold in America. The rest, as they say, is history.

Jimmy’s pizzeria is my favorite pizza place in the city, but you wouldn’t be able to tell that just by looking at the outside. It is an inconspicuous brown brick building. It doesn’t even have a sign, just the name of the establishment in three-inch letters on the storefront window. The inside isn’t much to speak of either. There are some chrome swivel stools along a laminate countertop that makes an L shape, separating the register and kitchen area from the dining area. Booth seating lines the eating area of the restaurant area and a few favorable reviews from local publications are framed and displayed on the walls. Yeah, the aesthetics of the place are a little underwhelming, but forget the scenery. I go to Jimmy’s for the pizza.

Getting a free pizza from Mortini’s Pizza Parlor is as easy as pie, pizza pie. You’ll see. Start by placing your order. I suggest that you choose a white, New York style pizza with lots of cheese, but you can get whatever floats your boat. After placing your order, wait until your pizza comes. It may take thirty minutes to an hour (longer on Super Bowl Sunday). When your pizza finally arrives, pay your deliver driver. Don’t forget to tip. Then, eat your pizza, or just throw it away. We’re fine with either. But before you throw it away, grab the coupon off the top of the box and save it in a drawer. Collect ten of these coupons and the next time you place your order from Mortini’s Pizza Parlor, you can redeem them for a free pizza. Now you see, getting a free pizza from Mortini’s is as easy as eating pizza.

Almost everybody loves pizza, but try to get a group of people to agree on a pizza order and you’ll quickly find that not everybody likes their pizza the same way. Perhaps such disagreements led to the many distinct pizza styles that can currently be found in America. These pizza styles are currently categorized by region and three of the most popular pizza styles are the New York-style, the Chicago-style, and the Detroit-style. All of these pizza styles contain dough, sauce, cheese, and other toppings, but it’s the way that these ingredients are utilized that gives them their unique regional flair. The New York-style pizza is thin. New York-style slices are cut into large triangles that can be folded and this pizza is commonly sold by the slice. Chicago-style pizza is marked by its deep dish crust, which can be up to three inches tall at the edge. Toppings are heavily applied to these pizzas, as is characteristic of the style, and they are generally sold as whole pies rather than slices. Then there’s the Detroit-style pizza, which is not circular like the Chicago and New York-style pizzas, but square like the Sicilian-style pizzas. The Detroit-style pizza is similar to the Chicago-style pizza in that these pizzas both have thick crusts, but the Detroit-style pizza is twice-baked, giving it a chewy crust that is crispy around the edges. Pizza styles in America may vary greatly by region, but they are all delicious if you ask me.