I swear, when I get to Florence I'm eating the hell out of Tuscany. :yeah:

That's actually an area I'm looking at for a short break :sunny:

If some look at food as just something to eat then you're probably right. It will always taste better if someone else cooks it. BUT if you have a passion for cooking and look upon it as an art and see the food as your creation. I tellya, there isn't nothing like tasting the finished product of your masterpiece and sharing it with others.

Me, I love baking breads, cooking steaks to perfection. And yes I've even tried pizza, though nothing compares to what I've seen Skybird create.

I like pizza, but pizza don't like me. :wah:

Do you guys have your own monogrammed frilly aprons too? You don't want to get those nice dresses dirty! :yep: :O:

Seriously I must admit that the "foods taste better when they're cooked by someone else" statement is actually my wifes sentiment to which I agree.

She is a most excellent Chef (as I believe several people in this forum can personally attest) whose "creations" :DL I would proudly stand up against anyone's. But she doesn't like to cook. Absolutely hates it. Weird huh?

You lucky son of a gun... my ex managed to BURN the salad :damn:

Very weird, as the cooking at your place was excellent August! :up:

Edit: Betonov, get off my mental wavelength! aaagghh!

Oh you lucky ones! Blessed art though that the flying pizza monster is hovering amongst you and soaring above your kitchen roofs, knowing of your hungers and reading your craving tongues' most desperate desires! Your beloved pizza master today gives you -

Pizza Margherita!

(Roman Legions applauding while marching down the Via Appia, one hand on their stomachs, tongues hanging out)

This one's a hit, if done right, and this is the way how to get it right.

http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/6975/img1219t.jpg

Did I earlier say no parmesan on my pizza? I feel like an idiot these days... :haha:

Take the dough recipee from earlier. Per one 30 cm pizza, you need

3-4 tomatoes
fresh Basil
Salt
black Pepper
a bit Oregano
1 marble of Mozarella (around 125 gr)
a small ammount of cheese mixture I described earlier (Tilst, Edam, dry Mozarella)
Parmesan

The tomatoes you ijust check,m in this recipe they really will be tasted intensely and thus should taste good and have a nice arome. Do not use canned tomatoes, I tried four different types, and all tasted inferior to frsshly smashed tomatoes.

Also, the covering will be very wet, due to the fresh cheese and the tomatoes - you need to work fast once you started, and get that thing into the vwery hot oven as fast as possible, else the moisture turns the risen dough into a greasy mess. If you work fast, it will nevertheless will become probably one of the finest pizzas you know. Since I have put together this recipee, it is my favourite of all pizza recipees.

First, the tomatoes. You must not skin them like they often write, but you cut them into quarters, and with your fingers you work the wet core out, leaving you with essentially the fleshy shell of the fruit. Work the watery parts out as good as you can. The fruit you are left with you then smash with a mixer, using a bit of salt also. But do not turn it into cream or a liquid, but smash it shortly only, leaving you with many small pieces and a paste alike. Use a colander (or is it sieve?) to put the tomatoes into it and filtrate the water. The water you do not need anymore.

Assuming you have bought cow-milk mozarella, a marble of around 120-150 gr, cut seven slices of it. Put them one by one into a cup with parmnesan, and cover them from both sides. Use plenty of parmesan on them!

Cover the pizza disc with the smashed tomatoes. Use a very little bit of Oregano and then black pepper, then use the Mozarella slices to bild a 6er-star with the seventh in the centre. Yiou can strew even more Parmesan on them, too. The areas of the pizza not covered by the Mozarella, you strew with the ordinary Edam-Tilsit cheese mixture, but only a bit, do not use as much of this cheese as in the earlier recipes! Again some pepper on top -

http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/4653/img1209w.jpg

- and into the oven. Stone, 250°+, around 5 minutes, it depends on how the dough is doing.

When done, get it out at put plenty of basil leafs on it, twice as many as on the photo, else you do not get sufficient arome from it. Do not press them into the hot cheese, because they will become dark and start to crumple then.

The dough on the bottom should be crispy, but since the covering is very wet, it nevertheless becomes soft sooner or later, so do not waste time when eating! You should have just an occasional wave of basil arome on your tongue, and also just an occasional taste of pepper. Ther arome from the tomatoes should be always present, though, making this a very freshly tasting pizza, like springtime in pizza-format. I personally love it. As I said, it now is my favourite.

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/4815/img1221r.jpg

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/7449/img1214ge.jpg


Could be even darker, but I forgot to switch off the fan, and to save the copvering I had to take ther pizza out a bit early.

Am currently enjoying a pizza with jalapeño, sour cream, Tabasco, Bearnaise sauce, ham, and the usual stuff (tomato, cheese). Great to be alive! :D

You should go. Florence rocks. We're renting an apartment on the other side of the Arno for a week and then heading up to Bologna for a few nights. This is our fourth time in Florence I think. I don't know it as well as Rome but I really like the place. If you go, take a wonder up to Piazzale Michaelangelo and see one of the great views of the world.

Are these actual photos of your own creations Sky?

There's a big difference between the powdered parmesan that comes in cans and the real shredded kind (but you already knew that). I'm not much of a cook, so I usually buy a self-rising store-bought pizza and add the stuff I like (mainly ham and mushrooms). I re-top it with a bag of cheese labelled "Six-Cheese Italian Blend" - Mozzarella, Provolone, Parmesan, Romano, Fontina and Asiago.

Yes. :sunny:

Actually I currently put together an illustrated step-by-step guide of how to make the perfect pizza dough, with plenty of pictures for every step, which will be posted in some or several German cooking websites. Call it Skybird's Little Pizza-Almanach. :DL Or think of it as the Steel Beasts Review of Pizza Recipees. :lol:

It is in German, of course. But everybody wanting it could get it. I need to re-do two more pizzas (Thuna, and Tre Stagioni), for the pictures, then it is finished and will be posted. The rest of the document is already done.

Parmesan needs to be pulverised freshly. Also, it is quite a health hazard in long-stored powder form, because some chemical reaction of oxygene with some of the ingredients, that'S why it is better to pulverise it freshly. It also tastes better.

I am impressed sir :salute: