ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, July 24, 1996 TAG: 9607240004
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALMENA HUGHES FOOD EDITOR
A recent Pizza Hut ad promotes the restaurant's new chicken-topped pie as daring. Hah! Chicken is just the iceberg's tip of endless toppings pizzabilities.
Helene Siegel, author of "Totally Pizza Cookbook" ($4.95, Celestial Arts), says there are only two requirements for making and serving excellent pizza at home: Always serve it piping hot right out of the oven, and skip the silverware; it tastes better that way.
You have to wonder how Siegel would manage sans silverware some of the recipes in her cute little pizza anthology. Among her interesting offerings are a pesto with goat cheese, roasted potatoes and sausage, a breakfast pizza with eggs and several cheeseless variations. Siegel is not always super clear in her instructions - for example, should the chicken in the barbecue chicken la dou be cooked first or just marinated? And even though the book is less than 100 pages, an index or more extensive table of contents would have been nice. Still, the diverse recipes definitely supply some food for thought.
Siegel says that a pizza stone and paddle make home pizza-making more fun. The hot surface of the stone, made of concrete or unglazed tiles, draws out the moisture for a crisper crust. Stones are readily available at retail outlets or through home consultants, such as The Pampered Chef.
In her invaluable reference guide "The Food Lover's Tiptionary" ($15, Hearst Books), Sharon Tyler Herbst says you can prevent a homemade pizza crust from getting soggy by lightly sauteing high-moisture vegetables such as mushrooms, bell peppers, onions and spinach before using them as toppings. For the crispest crust, Herbst suggests putting a thin layer of cheese under the sauce and toppings, then topping with more cheese if desired. The bottom cheese layer provides a buffer between toppings and crust.
Other hints for pizza success include having all toppings ready before rolling out the dough; limiting toppings to three or four; and shredding or grating cheese for better meltability.
If you like unique pizzas but don't necessarily want to make your own, the Pizza-of-the-Month Club will deliver three 12-inch gourmet specialty pizzas right to your door. Membership, which includes a newsletter, costs $25.95 per month plus shipping and can be purchased for any number of months. Call (800) MAMA-MIA.
To get a free leaflet of pizzability recipes, send a self-addressed business-size envelope to: The Mushroom Council, Mushroom Pizza Pizzaz, 2200-B Douglas Blvd., Suite 220, Roseville, Calif. 95661.
Or if you think you've got a winning pizzability of your own, enter it in Bolla wine's Ultimate Pizza Party Contest. You might win a trip for four to Italy to share pizza with the Bolla family.
To enter, submit your original recipe along with a description in 50 words or less of the perfect casual evening with pizza and Bolla. The categories are most creative, most traditional, best use of cheese, best use of sauce, best vegetarian, best thin crust and best deep dish. Entries must be postmarked by Aug. 15. For complete rules, call (800) BOLLA-03 or visit the website at http://www.bolla.com. To enter the contest and receive Bolla's free recipe booklet of several very good pizzabilities, write to Bolla Recipe Contest, P.O. Box 39101, Chicago, Ill. 60639.
recipes for:
SMOKED SALMON PIZZA WITH FRESH DILL
VEAL & ROASTED VEGETABLE PIZZA
DEEP-DISH MEDITERRANEAN TURKEY PIZZA
BLT PIZZA
MUSHROOM HOISIN PIZZA WITH MUSHROOM CRUST
QUICK MUSHROOM CRUST
SUMMER FRUIT PIZZA
CRUNCHY STRAWBERRIES 'N' CREAM PIZZA
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Veal & Roasted Vegetable Pizza is merely oneby CNBalternative to the ordinary pepperoni-and-mushroom pizza. color