Building a Better Pizza - The Crust

The crust is to a pizza as a foundation is to a house. If your foundation is faulty, no matter how much care you put into the rest of the building, it will suffer from a weak foundation. The same is true for the crust of your pizza. I'm not necessarily referring to the crust's ability to hold the pizza together. I'm a huge fan of the thin style of crust associated with a New York-style crust. And that definitely is not 'sturdy' in terms of stability.

Great pizza dough has to be able to stand alone. Apart from sauce. Without toppings. A great pizza dough needs to be a great bread dough. It needs to have flavor. Texture. It needs to be more than an edible plate. We're not talking talking about little party pizzas on english muffins/bagels/french bread. Those are all fine and dandy. And even if you made those breads from from scratch, they are just not a true pizza crust.

 Everybody has opinions on what type of crust they like. Heck, ordering a pizza in my house tantamount to starting a war. But basically, crusts can be broken down into three main types: Thin, regular, and pan. Each of these have their own characteristics and bring a little something different to the table.

Thin: Not that cracker style crust that Domino's serves up as "thin". What we are looking for here is a very basic dough. Nothing fancy. Back to Naples, the home of pizza. And a basic Neapolitan crust is made of just flour, water, salt, and yeast. Mix it up and let it sit in the fridge for 3- 5 days for a long, cold ferment. And then heat. A lot of heat. The grill would be your best source. If not, your oven at it's highest setting. And don't over load it. A little sauce. A bit of cheese. And maybe a few fresh herbs and spices. This is unpretentious. You don't over do this pizza. You want the flavor of the crust to meld and mingle with the sauce and cheese at high heat. It lets the crust rise and set quickly without drying.

Regular: The crust has a bit of chew. There's texture. And there's flavor. Done right, this type of dough can be baked into a loaf of bread. Take the Neapolitan dough, add some oil and sugar and you've got a standard bread dough ready to become the perfect crust. If you want to add a bit more depth of flavor, start this dough off as a sponge.

A regular pizza dough will stand up to a bit more abuse. You can add a bit more toppings on it. Don't go crazy or anything. Believe it or not, you can overload a pizza. You can take it out of balance, but, that's another blog post. You'll typically bake this at a lower temp. 400-450. Use an unglazed quarry tile for best results. It'll set you back about two bucks and is worth every penny.

Pan/Deep Dish: This tends to be a bit more hotly debated as to the difference between the two. Regardless of how you top it (which, I think, is where the difference lies) the way you make the dough and how you cook it is what makes for a good pan-style pizza.

The basic dough for a pan pizza should be made very much like foccacia. It's best cooked in cast iron or in a thick pan that holds on to heat. You're essentially going to be frying the dough. You'll want to oil the sides of the pan and then leave a little oil in the bottom. Let the dough rise in the pan. And don't do what Domino's likes to do and add spices to the oil. They just burn and leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth. Just don't. Trust me. How you top it after that? That's up to you. Go all Chicagoian on it. Or just top it as you would any other pizza. 

Just remember, pizza is a symbiotic creature. All elements of a good pizza must live in harmony with they other. The crust needs to have depth of flavor. Cardboard does not a good crust make. Don't crowd or overload your crust with cheese and toppings. Let them all work in harmony with the crust and you will be rewarded with deliciousness.