... is not that it is such a great dish, but that it seems to have been so brilliantly marketed that
people will quite willingly pay relatively high prices for what is basically not much more than
Welsh rarebit with tomato sauce added. This phenomenon has spread all over the world, thanks in no
small part to the pax americana, and no doubt one of the benefits the Iraqi people will soon be able
to enjoy will be take-home pizza.
The phenomenal international success of pizza is all the more when you think how suprised you would
be to find international chains of welsh rarebit takeouts and Welsh rarebit multimillionaires.
My first experience with pizza was not until I was 19 years old. (I must have had a sheltered life.)
On a midwinter hitchhike to freezing Milan to see an art exhibition (which turned out to be closed
over the Xmas holidays!) I had my first slice of pizza in a Milanese pizza shop. Offered various
types of pizza, I chose a slice of the Neapolitano, not having a clue what that meant, but
apparently it meant 'with anchovies', which turned out to be a good choice, as I love the flavor of
anchovies.
My interest in pizza then lay dormant for about 10 years until I first came to the United States and
somehow found myself buying pizza, though I don't remember the circumstances. I was asked what
topping I wanted, so I asked what was available. The girl (or was it a boy?) said that they had
everything, so I asked for anchovies, which, of course, were not available--and hardly ever are in
pizza places in the US, though it is a different story in Italian restaurants in the US.
Recently I decided to make some pizza. Actually I think I made some a few years ago, but it turned
out less than stellar as the crust was too doughy. So I looked for some recipes, and it struck me
that it might be better to go with a batter-based dough recipe than a yeast dough-based one, as this
should produce a crisper crust.
I found this recipe for the crust on the Internet and made up the batter. Apparently it is called
'Krazy Crust' and is attributed to B. Crocker, so I guess it is more or less in the public domain.
1-1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. salt
2/8 tsp. pepper
3/3 cup milk 2 eggs, beaten
I also added a tablespoon of chopped garlic.
I olive oiled a 14" chef's pan that I have, and poured in the batter. (The chef's pan is about $14
from Wal*Mart and is indispensible, in my opinion.)
With the oven at 425 degrees, I set the pan at the top of the oven, and withdrew it after 12
minutes, when the crust was a light gold color. So far, so good.
Then for the top part I took a jar of Bertolli Mediterranean Olive pasta sauce with Sundried
Tomatoes and spread about 1/3 of the 26 oz jar on the dough.
This looked OK, so I then grated up a piece of leftover aged Cheddar cheese (Black Diamond from
Sam's Club, I believe) and scattered that on top of the tomato stuff. I know that pizza usually
uses a lot of mozzarella cheese, but I didn't have any, and anyway that stuff always seems pretty
tasteless to me. Then I looked in the cupboard to see what else I could add, and found some
Parmesan cheese, which had probably never been anywhere near Parma, but added a bit of an
Italianesque ambience to the dish. Then I ground some pepper onto the top, and after a last look
around the kitchen, I had a sense that perhaps some oregano would not go amiss, so I shook some of
that onto it too.
Now I put the whole lot into the oven at the same temperature and left it there 10 minutes, until
all the cheese was melted.
Results? Pretty depressing, because this ad hoc concoction turned out to be about as good as any
pizza I had ever had, and certainly much better than what you would get from Domino's or one of the
other pizza franchises. It had a great aroma, zesty flavor, and the crust was excellent--nice and
crisp, but not hard to chew, and not soggy in the middle like those pizzas you buy at pizza places.
Opportunities for improvement? Next time I will add some anchovy paste to the crust batter, or
perhaps some Thai fish sauce will do the trick. Possibly I will make the pasta sauce from scratch,
though I am not sure that this would make it taste any better. I don't know whether toppings will
improve it much. Some nice juicy black olives might give it more plate appeal, but I would think
that mushrooms and things would just be overwhelmed by the flavor of the cheese and tomatoes.
Pepperoni? No, no, NO!
The jar of pasta sauce cost $1.80, and it will make 3 pizzas, so that is pretty good value. I
probably put $1 worth of cheese into it too. You can figure out the cost of the crust yourself, but
I suppose the whole thing cost less than $2.50 (plus electricity).