STILL NEW YORK-HUNGRY

35. Pizza "Il Vecchietto"

I don't know if you've got it in the US – although the founders say they got inspired by a restaurant in New York – but in Europe we have a pizzeria chain called L'Osteria. Believe it or not, I doesn't taste like "chain food". (And I think I ate – and cooked – enough Italian by now to taste the difference. )

Anyway, the founders of L'Osteria, Friedemann Findeis and Klaus Rader, recently had a cookbook called Grande Amore – Die Geheimnisse unserer Küche (The Secrets of our Kitchen) published. While I browsed it, my gaze stopped at this simple yet very savory pizza.

And immediately I had a scene running before my inner eye between my NaNo-/short story series MMC, Vince Romano and his Nonno Aurelio being in a kitchen, grandpa venting off about something, really letting it rip.

Vince, getting agitated as well, gets some leftover pizza dough out of and raids the fridge, ploughing the dough, chopping the toppings roughly to keep calm, makes the pizza, and serves it his grandfather with the words,

"Sta'zitto, vecchietto, e mangia." – "Hush up and eat, Old Man!"

I guess there's a reason I LOVE Italian food so much beyond it tasting divine and it being slow and soulfood... It's just so friggin' inspiring!




Serve: 2 – 23cm/0.75 ft. – pizzas OR 1 large (about worth a baking sheet)

Prep Time: 18 hrs BUT, including letting the dough rest overnight in the fridge!

Degree of Difficulty: Easy



WE NEED


DOUGH

2,5 g / 0.1 oz. live yeast
250 gr / 8.8 oz. Pasta/Pizza Type 00 Flour OR: 175 gr / 6.2 oz. flour + 75 gr / 2.7 oz. semola
125 ml / 4.2 US fl.oz. lukewarm water NOT over 27°C / 80°F as that kills the yeast!
12.5 ml / 0.45 US fl.oz. Olive Oil extra vergine
6.5 gr / 0.25 oz. sea salt
0.5 tsp sugar for the yeast to "eat"


TOPPING

20 ml / 0.66 US fl.oz. olive oil see above
180 gr / 6.4 oz. Mozzarella
90 gr / 3.25 oz. bacon
100 gr / 3.5 oz. red onions
1 twig rosemary 2, when the twigs are thin
2 eggs
1 pinch black pepper



WE DO


DOUGH

– the NIGHT BEFORE

1. Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water.

2. Fill the flour(s) into a bowl, slowly add the water, and knead with your hands. Okay, I cheated a bit by starting off with the kneading hooks of my electrical hand mixer. When the flour has absorbed the water, add salt, sugar + oil and continue kneading until you have a supple dough.

3. Let rest at least 1 hr. Better, though, is giving it time over night, bowl covered in the fridge.(= 12-16 hrs)



– "Prep Day"


1. Finely dice mozzarella + bacon, and cut the red onions into thin rings. Wash, shake dry + pluck the needles off the rosemary's stem(s), and chop them roughly. So they emit their aroma!


2. Roll out the dough until (23-)30 cm / (0.75-)1 ft. (each) wide OR until it covers a baking sheet. I did the former, and shaped with my hands, so my pizzas looked a little like Dalí clocks.


3. Brush the dough with olive oil. Evenly crumble the mozzarella on top, then bacon cubes, onion rings + rosemary. At last, crack 1 egg on each, or both in the middle on 1 BIG pizza.


4. Bake the pizza.

Okay, they obviously assume you've got a pizza oven, which I don't. So I baked the pizza at 210°C/410°F – otherwise baking paper burns – into the pizza!

Since I had small single pizzas, that took 15-20 minutes, with 20 being too long, and 15 a tat too short.

One BIG pizza takes accordingly longer, but keep in mind that every oven is different and that influences baking time, too. So, yeah... Stay with the bloody thing!


4. At last, season with pepper and


5. SERVE!



Buon Appetito! =>