PIZZA NIGHT

Pizza with Parma, Radicchio, and Goat Feta

Entertaining

I recently had a Pizza Night party for a friend departing for the island life which turned out to be great fun with everyone getting into the act in the kitchen; stretching pizza rounds, topping the pizzas, and baking with amazing efficiency and some spectacular results!

Of course, in the home kitchen, churning out pizzas is limited to baking one pizza at a time, unless you happen to have your own wood fired brick oven, so the party took on a very different format than the usual sit down supper. But with ample wine on hand and a continuous flow of stellar pizzas coming out of the oven throughout the evening made the party a roaring success.

With a detailed plan, what might seem to be an insurmountable undertaking is transformed into a relaxed and incredibly fun casual evening that everyone can join in on and add their personalized spin to pizzas with attitude!

The key to success is careful planning and timing!  Research your recipes, create  a menu, compile a shopping list, set up a preparation schedule, a timetable for pr-perpetration , a cooking schedule leading up to your guest’s arrival, and having everything ready to turn out pizzas throughout the evening as though there was nothing to it!

Of course not everyone is familiar with pizza making so it’s best you be the director of this production!  Enlisting a willing “sous chef” from your  guests for various tasks will make all the difference and avert chaos and confusion in the process. Stretching pizza dough and getting the pizza into the oven does take some know how, so either do it yourself, or enlist  your “sous chef” who may have had some experience in stretching and baking pizzas to help you out.  With that covered you are pretty much home free. Topping the pizzas is easy enough to let everyone  try their hand at it, with success nearly assured.

The following is a PIZZA NIGHT party scheme, inspired by a peruse through Nancy Silverton’s Mozza Cookbook, which I encourage you to reference for recipes. Included is  a walk through  of every step involved  in putting a Pizza Night party together from  your own kitchen and  being ready to bake  pizzas on demand with the confidence of a pro.

PIZZA NIGHT:  makes  8-10 pizzas for a party of 12

  STARTER:

Bagna Cauda with assorted vegetables and crostoni 

PIZZAS:

all pizzas are topped with Pomodora red tomato sauce 

Margherita; with fresh sweet basil leaves and Mozzarella

Parma Ham with radicchio, goat feta, and rosemary 

Chorizo with roasted jalapenos, red chilies, and smoked mozzarella 

Roasted Bell Peppers with marinated anchovies, fontina, and arugula

SALAD:

Antipasti Salad with Romaine, Iceberg, Small Sweet Vine Ripe Tomatoes, Red Onion, Salami, Smoked Mozzarella, and Oregano Vinaigrette

Shopping List:

PRODUCE:

• 1 young broccoli
• 1 cauliflower 
• 1 fresh snow peas
• 1-2 heads of radicchio
• 1 arugula
• 4-6 romaine
• 2 iceberg
• 1 pound small vine ripe tomatoes
• 1 bunch fresh basil
• 1 bunch fresh oregano
• 1 bunch fresh Italian parsley 
• 1 bunch fresh rosemary
• 2 heads garlic 
• 1 brown onion
• 1 red onion
• 2 lemons

FLOURS and SPICES:

• 1 unbleached bread flour
• 1 dark rye flour
• 1 wheat germ
• 1 semolina
• 1 active dry yeast 
• dried oregano
• flaky sea salt
• black peppercorns

PANTRY:

• 4 28oz cans Italian plum tomatoes
• 2 tins anchovies in olive oil
• 1 extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tin chick peas

MEATS:

• 8 oz thinly sliced Parma ham
• 12 oz thinly sliced salami
• 6 oz thinly sliced chorizo

CHEESES and DAIRY:

• 1 pound firm low moisture mozzarella
• 12 oz smoked mozzarella
• 12 oz Fontina
• 12 oz goat feta 
• 8oz unsalted butter 

 Preparation Schedule: Do your shopping two days before the party. 

Pre-preparation: Best to get a head start the day before the party and prepare what you can ahead including:

• bagna cauda
• pomodora sauce
• marinated anchovies
• oregano vinaigrette
• roasted and peeled bell peppers and chiles in olive oil

Final preparations: Day of the party.

• First thing in the morning get your pizza dough started which will need intermittent attention throughout the day.
• Steam the Bagna Cauda vegetables for 1 minute, refresh in ice water, air dry, and refrigerate
• costini baked, cooled, and stored in an airtight container
• salad greens and other salad ingredients prepared, bagged, and refrigerated
• meats and cheeses prepared for pizzas and salad, bagged, and refrigerated
• pizza cheeses cut into ½ inch cubes, stored in bowls, and refrigerated
• pizza dough portioned into 7-8oz balls, covered and refrigerated

Toss all of the antipasti salad ingredients together and refrigerate until just before your first pizza comes out of the oven. Dress the salad and serve along with the pizzas throughout the evening.

Antipasti Salad

Pizzas and Baking:

Remove the portioned pizza dough from the refrigerator 1 hour before you intend to start baking the pizzas. Cover with a slightly damp dish towel to keep the dough moist.

Place a pizza stone on an oven rack in the lowest position. Preheat the oven 45 minutes before you intend to bake to the highest temperature possible.

Set up a station where the pizzas will be assembled and have all the components in separate bowls ready to go, including flour and semolina for dusting, olive oil for brushing the outer edges of the pizza, and salt for seasoning. 

You will have no time to be running around looking for items once the pizzas are being readied for the oven and baking is in progress.

making pizza

Working with one pizza at a time, gently pat the dough into a disc and then place the dough over both fists and begin to turn the dough clockwise allowing the dough to stretch downward as your turn the dough, stretching it into a 10-12 inch round. Don’t worry too much about the shape! You can adjust the shape once it is placed on the work surface. Have one of your “sous chefs” dust your work surface evenly with flour and a dusting of semolina over the flour before placing the dough down on the work surface. You want to be certain the dough doesn’t stick to the work surface while you top the pizza with ingredients, and that the pizza can be easily transferred to a pizza peel.

Once the pizza is stretched place it on your work surface and adjust the shape. Lightly salt the pizza round and add about 1/3 cup of pomodora tomato sauce to the center of the pizza and spread it out evenly in a circular motion to within about ¾ of an inch of the edge of the round.  Brush the edge of the pizza with olive oil and call on one of your  guests to top the pizza with the desired ingredients, working with some haste so the pizza doesn’t get weighted down and soft and begin to stick to the work surface. Transfer the pizza to a pizza peel dusted with semolina, being sure that it will slide easily on the peel with a backward forward motion before you attempt to slide it onto the pizza stone. Throw some additional semolina under the pizza if there are any sticking points.

Transfer the pizza to the hot pizza stone with a quick forward and backward jerk and bake for 8-12 minutes, or until the crust has risen and is nicely blistered, and the cheese has melted and is just beginning to bubble.

Remove the pizza from the oven immediately, slice, and serve along with the antipasti salad!

It’s all in the team work and once you get a rhythm going you will be able to relax and keep the pizzas coming out of the oven without a hitch for the rest of the evening!