Pizza Blog from pizzatherapy.com

Checking Out Pizza with Chicago Pizza Tours Chicago Pizza Tours Will Take Care of it for You! Chicago’s Hottest New Pizza Tour Allows Participants to See Chicago One Slice at a Time! Chicago, IL, May 21, 2010 -- The Windy City. Wrigley Field. The Bears. The Magnificent Mile. Chicago has its share of icons, but one of its most famous attractions – delicious world-famous pizza – is receiving special attention with the launch of Chicago Pizza Tours, LLC. The brainchild of Chicagoland native Jon Porter, the concept for Chicago Pizza Tours began with a gourmet foods walking tour his wife participated in with coworkers. While the group sampled a number of items from the city’s various neighborhoods there was one specialty missing from the list: pizza. Porter quickly got the ball rolling, surveying dozens of friends, family and even strangers to identify their favorite pizza venues.  “I felt it was important to get a wide array of feedback in order to provide a good variety o...

Say it Ain't So... Recent news out of Naples allege that some pizzerias in that city are using coffin wood to fuel their pizza ovens. This was reported in Il Giornale, a local Italian daily. Police have been investigating reports that some of the smaller pizzerias may have used stolen coffin wood to keep their wood fired ovens going. In recent years there has been a rash of grave robbers in the city of Naples. According to reports last year 50,000 flower pots were stolen. As a pizza maker, I am in utter shock and disbelief. All of the pizzas made in Naples that are DOC certified are made to exact specifications.  For more information check out this resource: Associazione Verace Pizza Neapolitan .   Another pizza organization is:  Verace Pizza Napoletana Americas The idea that pizza made under such stringent conditions would get woods from coffins to me is outrageous. I find it hard to believe that anyone would willingly violate the trust placed in these...

Pizza Vending Machines Come and Go...But the Pie-O-Matic will live forever... Marty sent me the following article from the New York Times about Pizza Vending Machines in Italy. "Is Europe bringing back the automat? Claudio Torghele hopes so. Over the last decade, Mr. Torghele, 56, an entrepreneur in this northern Italian city who first made money selling pasta in California, has developed a vending machine that cooks pizza. The machine does not just slip a frozen pizza into a microwave. It actually whips up flour, water, tomato sauce and fresh ingredients to produce a piping hot pizza in about three minutes..." The article goes on to explain how through various testing different devices the developers of Let's Pizza  were able to create a viable machine that will actually make pizzas... You can read the entire article here . According to the Let's Pizza Website : Let's Pizza is the only machine able to create pizza by kneading it on the spot and add...

Noted pizzaiolo Dick Cami shares the following pizza tale, exclusively for The Pizza Therapy Pizza Blog : Hiya Albert...here's a story that happened to me when there were only about four or five pizzeria's in the Bronx...that's going way back: White Pie We opened the Daiquiri Palace about twenty two years ago in Palma, Majorca and my partner's son Gil Davis runs it now as a seasonal business, besides daiquiri’s we serve fresh made pizza’s on the beach. I'm a transplanted New Yorker that moved to Miami in '59 and I've been in the nightclub and restaurant business all my life, I now live Portland, Oregon My grandfather was a chef who came over from Faenza, Italy to work at the Ritz Hotel in New York City in the early 1900’s and when he retired he still kept his hand in the business by making sauces for local restaurants in the upper Bronx and he also made a lot of specialties for Mercurio's market in Mount Vernon, an Italian specialty store. A...

How about this for a crazy idea. Fry some hot Italian sausage, drain it. Make some dough, put on a little tomato sauce and then put the sausage on the pizza. Put the pan in an oven and cook. Then add some perfectly good, fresh eggs to the mix. Gently add the eggs to the top of the pizza and cook. Hmmm . Believe it or not...it works! You can watch Chef John as he goes step by step through the entire process. This pizza looks simply incredible. This could my new personal favorite breakfast pizza. Or anytime pizza. Watch, learn and get hungry for a pizza. Now that's a pizza! Simply amazing! Thanks Chef John. You can discover more of Chef John's Recipes at his Blog . Chef John is also known as The Denver Food Guy. He also features a whole library of step by step videos at his YouTube Channel called Food Wishes. pizza and sausage on earth, albert grande The Pizza Promoter at Legends of Pizza This looks like the kind of pizza pan used by Chef John:

In honor of Earth Day , let's spread some pizza re-cycling awareness...What follows is the answer to recycling pizza boxes. Introducing the reusable pizza box. My thanks to William Betz , who unraveled the mystery of re-using pizza boxes... Here's what Bill told me: Americans consume 3 billion, yes, 3 BILLION with a B, cardboard pizza boxes every year...in the 2 minutes you've spent reading this message...12,000 have been used...and they are NOT recyclable as they are contaminated w/ grease and foodstuffs... My response: Three Billion Bill? What can be done about the pizza box problem? Reusable Pizza Boxes explained Bill... Bill pointed me to Mombo's pizza in Santa Rosa, California as a prime example. He said they are using reusable pizza boxes. And this concept has been very successful for the business, their customers and the planet. Chris Smith a Press Democrat Columnist, wrote the following: " Mombo's has introduced the first Re-usable p...

This dish was often served when we would visit Auntie Anna. Whenever we would eat at her house there would be many different types of Italian food. Lots of food. And you were always expected to eat it. All of it. If you didn't eat, you were in trouble. She always served this dish as an appetizer. It was always the first thing on the table. She would serve this dish with a loaf of Italian bread. She explains: "I thought you might like my Famous Sausage and Pepper Special! This recipe can be made into a casserole and baked also." Ingredients 1 lb. of Italian sausage 2 medium potatoes, thickly sliced 1 large red or green pepper, cut in strips 1 can of mushrooms onion to taste pinch of salt and pepper corn oil or olive oil Directions Sprinkle or spray olive oil on to surface of frying pan. (I use corn oil) Sauté sausage very slowly. When sausage is half cooked, add potatoes, salt and pepper. When potatoes are semi-cooked add peppers, mushrooms and oni...

                             Steve Lieber is an incredible pizziolo. He is a member of the World Pizza Champions . He has an incredible story to tell. In the following interview he tells his pizza story. He explains how he got into the pizza business. He learned how to make pizza. He worked in a number of restaurants and decided he wanted to become a master pizziolo. According to his bio: Over the years, Lieber established himself working in high volume restaurants that posed many challenges and soon found great success…A self-described “pizza fanatic,” Steve regularly travels the globe to attend conventions and further his knowledge of the industry to perfect techniques and capitalize on the latest in pizza trends. In the following interview, he explains how he: •learned to make pizza •how his passion for pizza led him to try to ...

Rebecca Woodland is an unusual person. She loves to cook and she loves sharing her food with others. But that is not what makes Rebecca unusual. Rebecca Woodland is a survivor. She battled cancer and won. With victory in hand she decided to share her favorite recipes with her new cookbook, The Blond Vegetarian.. She discovered that a big part of her recovery was proper eating. Her cookbook is more than just a collection of recipes. Rebecca puts her heart and soul into her cooking. She dicovered a secret: make the foods that you are supposed to eat taste really good. All of her recipes (over 200) can be made with local ingredients including local vegetables, fruits and herbs. Most of the recipes are vey low in cholesterol and very low fat. The recipes contained are easy to prepare, delicious as well as beautiful. The tastes appeal to children as well as those who may not be fans of vegetarian cooking. You can see my interview, here: You can claim your own copy of Rebe...

This pizza was the result of having the right kind of ingredients. It truly just made itself. Simple, yet oh so tasty! You can ramp up the taste, if you use buffalo mozzarella. If not available, any whole milk or regular mozzarella will do. Ingredients: Dough for 1 pizza (Dough recipe will make 2 regular sized pizzas or 4 thin Neapolitan pizzas) 4-6 oz. of buffalo mozzarella (whole milk mozzarella is fine) 2-3 cloves of garlic minced 2-4 oz . of parmesan cheese 1 16 oz. can of stewed tomatoes or pizza sauce (One can is enough for 2 pizzas) 4-6 slices of cappicolla (thinly sliced Italian ham) ¼ cup fresh basil or more (if available) olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste Directions: Roll out dough to desired size. Drizzle olive oil on dough. Spread evenly. Drain and crush tomatoes with a fork and then spread evenly on pizza Mince garlic and spread on tomatoes or sauce Slice mozzarella and spread over dough Spread the parmesan on the pizza Cover pizza with th...

I never doubted it for a second! Our own Gail J. Churinetz, a long time member of the Pizza Therapy Ohana  won the The Ultimate Recipe Challenge on The Food Network . A huge congratulations goes out to Gail and her family. Gail has been a dedicated foodie and pizza fanatic for many years. As a matter of fact I still have a bunch of her recipes on a CD she made for me a number of years ago. As an aside, Gail is such a pizza purist, she has all of the water she uses for he pizzas, imported straight from New Haven ! And as I understand it, The Water for her award winning pizza, came right from the tap at Sally's Apizza on Wooster Street . The award winning pizza: a Crawfish and Andouille Sausage Pizza . Gail's recipe was up against some very stiff competition. In the end, her recipe won over the judges. While, I do not have permission to share her pizza recipe, you can get copy of the recipe at this link . Also, here is the link for Gail's Award Winni...

An Original: The B, S and T (Bacon, Spinach and Tomato Pizza!) I am always trying to come up with new tastes for my guests. This was a recipe that evolved out of having some friends bring different ingredients for pizza. The result was a real crowd pleaser and a wonderful marriage of different tastes. Ingredients: • Dough for 1 pizza • 1/4 to 1/2 lb. of bacon, cooked • 1 cup of fresh spinach, washed and drained • 1/2 to one whole tomato thinly sliced • 4-6 oz. of mozzarella cheese • 2-4 oz. of parmesan or provolone cheese • 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced • basil, oregano, salt and pepper to taste • olive oil Directions: 1. Wash and rinse spinach. Drain and set aside. 2. Cook bacon, and drain on paper towel. 3. Roll out dough to desired size. 4. Drizzle olive oil on dough. Spread evenly. 5. Spread remaining minced garlic on dough. 6. Evenly spread spinach on dough. Add desired spices. Reserve a pinch or two. 7. Sprinkle mozzarella and parmesan chees...