pizza

There are some things that I've wanted to make, that I've been told are really quite simple but that have always intimidated me. Making fresh pasta is one of those things. Homemade bread. Pizza dough. Are there foods you've been too intimidated to try?

I plan to conquer these fears, starting with pizza. I first made a pizza dough while at home but it was a no-rise recipe off the back of a special pizza yeast (the only yeast the grocery store had.) Here in Berkeley I got a packet of regular yeast, and Partner-in-Crime and I tried again. We followed a recipe for dough from Epicurious that involved a step where you slightly fry the dough. Definitely got a nice char taste that my oven alone couldn't impart. I used my trusty cast iron and it all went smoothly. The biggest thing I learned is you can never roll the dough too thin.

[My first attempt at hand forming the crust. Switched to rolling after this one.]

[Partner-in-Crime prepping the fennel and onions]

[Fresh heirloom tomatoes roasted and then added to olive oil and mozz pizza. Sort of sauce on top]

[The most succesful- sausage, fennel and onion]

[Potato, bacon and fontina. Sadly the bacon burned. I picked it off when the pizza was hot but the burned bacon actually tasted great on the cold leftovers the next day.]

pizza and beer party

Last weekend a group of "foodie" beer-loving friends joined together to have tasting of beer that turned into a combo pizza and beer party. A classic pairing. We made multiple pizzas, mostly vegetarian, and enjoyed both home brewed and purchased bottles of beer. In addition, we sampled Bubble Vodka, a bubblegum vodka that made a pretty good martini when cut with lots of fresh squeezed lemon and lime juice, with orange garnish.

[Pizza toppings...]

[turned into pizza!]


[An assortment of tasting glasses]

[Gouden Carolus Cuvee Van De Keizer Blauw]
The most expensive beer I've ever bought, but also the most delicious. A Belgian Dark Ale that I picked up at Olio, I will have to get one of the smaller sizes they have so I can drink it in my non-beer drinking house. I'll also have to try other Carolus brews.

sister dinner date

Lately Richmond has exploded with woodfired pizza places. For the full breakdown, check out RVAFoodie's pizza quest. Of course, the day before he posts, I end up with my little sister at Stuzzi. Pizza just seemed like the perfect sisters meal and I wanted a place to sit down, relax and have a glass of wine. We split an appetizer, salad, pizza and dessert. Overall we had a great meal, though with the burst of new pizza joints Stuzzi will have to work to shine above the rest (and I do plan to visit the rest!)

[Potato and proscutto croquettes]
My sister decided it tasted like "fried mashed potatoes with proscutto" which is pretty accurate, and accurately describes the deliciousness. However, at $6 for 4, they are rather pricey and the proscutto is not well destributed. My first bite was full of a giant piece but the rest of the croquettes had only one or two very small pieces.

[Arugula with shaved Parmesan]
Solid salad, but missing something. It may have just been fresh ground pepper or a bit more balsamic in the dressing but lacked the pop of an excellent basic salad.

[Cotto ham pizza]
This is where Stuzzi shined. Great woodfired crust, excellent cheese. The ham was good though could have used a bit more (or maybe I was just sad not to have a spicy pepperoni.) The pizza is very soft on bottom so we sort of folded it in half, but perpendicular to New York syle.

[Tartufo]

Best Italian dessert ever? Possibly. This isn't the style of tartufo my grandmother insisted we eat in Rome, but it was quite tasty. My sister and I avoided the cherry and enjoyed the ice cream and chocolate crust.

olios blogger meetup

I'm just getting into blogging and also still feeling really new to Richmond, so I was super thrilled and honored to be invited to a Richmond area food bloggers meetup. I had enjoyed checking out some of the blogs ahead of time but wasn't expecting anyone to have read mine. Embarrassing story: I had just gotten a beer (Olio comped our first drink, so nice of them!) and was pouring it into a frosty glass when a woman I introduced myself to said "oh! you're percentblog!" I was so shocked I didn't realize my beer was super foamy and spilling out of the glass. But I had a great time and met amazing people so you'll see the Richmond blogroll over to the right grow quickly.

But on to the food. Obviously the foodie who chose the place did so because of the wonderful food and atmosphere, but you would think that a room full of self-proclaimed foodies would have critiques. The whole evening I didn't hear one. What's not to love about a market that does food excellently and sells beer and wine at retail prices? I had the Sopresatta Suzanna Pizza with tomato vodka sauce, fortina and provolone, and sopresatta salami. A friend and I sat in wonder as we ate the salami. No full review here but go try Olio yourself.