The pizza, on the other hand, was mama-slappin' hot! I'm so impressed and inspired to rededicate myself to pizza making now.
We tried four different variations on two pans. On one side of the first pan he made a margherita pizza with an uncooked tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, salt, and fresh basil. The second side of the first pan had slices of fresh tomato, fresh mozzarella, salt and basil.
What I was particularly impressed with was the uncooked tomato sauce. What a revelation! I usually make my pizza by reducing canned whole tomatoes for about 5 hours over low heat. It results in a highly flavored and sweet sauce. It's thick, too - edging onto pasty. I've always been happy with it and gotten lots of compliments, but Fabrizio's uncooked sauce has converted me. He took a can of crushed tomatoes and added to it a bunch of quartered onion pieces. He didn't do anything with the onions other than let them infuse the tomatoes. And the flavor of the resulting sauce was wonderful - tangy and fresh and a perfect balance for the richness of the cheese. The crust was delicious, too -- who says you need a pizza stone? Fabrizio used two metal sheet pans slathered with olive oil.
In the second pan Fabrizio made one pizza with the uncooked tomato sauce, mozarella, red onion, and butter and another pizza with fresh mozzarella and mustard greens sautéed in red pepper and bacon.Here's a surprise: I liked the red onion pizza the best! Who would have thought to drizzle butter on a pizza?! It was perfect. The richness of the butter brought out the cheese's milkiness and balanced the tang of the onion and tomato sauce. Cheers to Fabrizio! The mustard green pizza was very good, too - but Fabrizio was worried it was a little too salty. It was very hearty and the greens were perfect after cooking for about 30 minutes. So good! I had seconds rather than strawberry ice cream for dessert....
