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Sabroso - Winter2008
TRADITIONS
By Felipa Solis
Photo by Marty Snortum Studio
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Pizza
By Jeff Becker
I learned pizza from Italians. Real Italians. The kind that not only thought less of people that didn't make their own tomato sauce (much, much less), but were so thoroughly repulsed by the idea that to do so was to cause them intense physical pain. It was summer, and I was interning in the North End of Boston. A friend had generously offered to let me stay with her Italian-Armenian family, and that is where I met Noni. All four-feet-something of her, with white hair, sharp eyes and a no nonsense attitude. "Noni," in Italian, means grandmother and when this Noni saw me--a tall and skinny dope from New Mexico--she made it her personal mission to fatten me up to a respectable size. Of all the women that have taken on this challenge--she was the most successful. Every time she showed up, she had at least three or four full meals under tinfoil in the backseat of her car --all that had been made earlier that day. Pasta dough seemed to fit perfectly into the crook of her palm. From what I could tell she just cooked all day, and I loved her for it. She was everything a grandmother should be--and lived up to the name "Noni" well.
Serves 2 to 3
Pizza is simple. Here's what Noni taught me: Don't roll out your dough, and (for the love of your mother) use your own sauce. Easier said than done right? Here's my advice, first, make a dough. Let it rest overnight. Take it out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature when you are ready to use it. Flour your hands and pull off a ball slightly larger than a baseball. Slap it from palm to palm to shape it into a disk, stretching it out from the center as you go. Stretch, do not roll, because rolling toughens the dough. Once it is too large to handle, throw the dough onto a pizza sheet and, using your finger tips, poke, press and stretch the dough until from the center out until it is as thin as possible. Put some homemade sauce on it, cover with slices of fresh buffalo mozzarella and cut basil leaves and you are in business. Bake it for about 10 to 15 minutes, or until the crust is nicely browned and crispy. Serve with garlic powder and crushed red pepper. Trust me, though, no matter what you do to it, your pizza will never be as good as Noni's.
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