“Much less Is Completely Extra”—A Chef Shares Ideas for Making Restaurant-High quality Pizza at House

If you understand the Camille Kinds crew, you understand: we’re pizza-obsessed. From candy toppings (we love our peaches) to savory bites (go the prosciutto pizza, please), there’s one thing for everybody on the subject of this widely-loved dish. And though I’ve made many pizzas myself, I’ve by no means been capable of replicate the pies from my favourite neighborhood joint. However all that’s modified, as a result of I’ve insider tips about how one can craft the proper pizza from Chef Janice Tiefenbach herself.

Montreal is considered one of my favourite cities, and each time I go to, I schedule out time in my itinerary for a meal at Janice’s restaurant, Elena. Together with her new cookbook, Salad Pizza Wine, Janice and the Elena crew share their treasured assortment of the restaurant’s well-loved dishes. Alongside pizza and pasta, the guide highlights ingenious salads, a mortadella sandwich that defines chef’s kiss, and desserts you’ll need to save room for.

Janice Tiefenbach Shares the Secret to Good Pizza

However past the recipes, Salad Pizza Wine offers an in depth however comprehensible strategy to elevating your pizza at house. From selecting the most effective substances to tips about stretching your dough for a cracker-like crust, think about this your one-stop store for perfecting your pizza. And immediately, you’re getting the behind-the-scenes scoop from Janice Tiefenbach herself. Preserve studying to get all the small print on making her stellar Neopolitan Margherita pizza at house.

“My desire is for a pure strategy to cooking. Instinctive, with respect for traditions however a want for freshness and a contemporary sensibility.”

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How would you describe your cooking and meals philosophy? How has it influenced the menu at your restaurant, Elena?

My desire is for a pure strategy to cooking. Instinctive, with respect for traditions however a want for freshness and a contemporary sensibility. I attempt to comply with a rule of simplicity and performance. Each ingredient in a dish must be there for a purpose, and to serve the aim of permitting the featured ingredient to shine as a lot as doable. At Elena, we attempt to discover a stability between respecting Italian culinary custom however utilizing the most effective substances we discover nearer to house.

What makes the Elena Margherita pizza particular?

Our Margherita makes use of the most effective substances we may discover as domestically as doable. We use domestically milled flour (not Italian imported), California natural tomatoes (Bianco di Napoli!), and Quebec Buffalo Mozzarella from an unimaginable native producer (Macioccia). The basil is from a neighborhood vegetable grower or our personal backyard and the olive oil is from our buddies at Pacina.

One other factor that makes our pizza distinctive is the truth that it’s 100% naturally leavened. In addition to the integrity of all the opposite substances, the truth that it’s a pure fermentation makes the dough rather a lot tastier and far simpler to digest. 

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What makes this recipe your go-to?

Margherita pizza is a straight-up basic. For many individuals, I believe it’s the platonic preferrred of what a pizza must be. It satisfies in a really elementary means. The mix of the tangy/candy sauce, the creamy and salty cheese, and the vary of textures within the dough from tender and moist to crispy and charred makes it utterly irresistible. It’s a kind of meals that once I eat it my mind type of shuts down for a second and I don’t must suppose in any respect. I simply take pleasure in each chew.

What kitchen device do you suggest for making this pizza?

I extremely suggest investing in a conveyable pizza oven. My desire is the ooni for its unimaginable design and relative affordability. For those who love Neapolitan-style pizza, you’ll by no means remorse shopping for considered one of these. It’s very simple to make use of and produces an excellent pizza. 

However when you aren’t able to put money into an ooni and nonetheless need to attempt your hand at home made Neapolitan pizza, I like to recommend investing in a pizza stone. It’s arduous to duplicate what we do on the restaurant in our wooden oven in a standard oven, so I typically counsel beginning with al taglio pizza. It lends itself way more to a house oven set-up. 

A pizza peel can be fairly important and isn’t costly in any respect. One of many steps that usually journeys up newbie pizza makers is transferring the uncooked pizza to the oven. Studying how one can use a pizza peel will change the sport.

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Margherita pizza requires only a handful of substances. What makes this recipe particular? 

On the subject of pizza, much less is totally extra. Just a little restraint pays off and permits a couple of substances to work together in a extra direct means with surprisingly efficient outcomes. Sauce, cheese, oil, and basil are good on their very own. However collectively, they resonate and turn out to be way more than the sum of their elements. Investing just a little additional in good-quality tomatoes and cheese is value it. 

What ideas and tips are you able to share for making restaurant-quality pizza?

I counsel newcomers double the dough recipe the primary couple occasions you make pizza. That means, you don’t must stress a lot when you mess up. The true secret to creating good pizza is follow.  Skilled pizza makers have spent actually hundreds of hours studying how one can excellent tiny actions when dealing with the dough. However principally it’s only a pile of dough with some sauce on high, so don’t be so intimidated! 

A few issues to bear in mind:

• Preserve the dough lined till you might be prepared to make use of it. Publicity to the air creates a pores and skin on the floor of the dough which isn’t fascinating.
• Mud your surfaces, dough, and arms with just a little flour. This makes it so the dough isn’t too sticky and is much less prone to stick with the peel or the counter. 
• Let the dough mood a bit earlier than you attempt to work with it. Chilly dough is extra prone to tear. The extra relaxed and heat the dough is the looser it turns into. After that, you don’t actually must do a lot to stretch it out. 

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What recommendation would you give to somebody who is likely to be intimidated by making pizza at house?

1. Double the batch so you’ve got some to fiddle with. That takes a variety of the stress away.
2. Begin with the al taglio dough. It’s a a lot wetter dough that yields means higher ends in a house oven. Everybody like to begin with a win!
3. Don’t overload your pizza with substances. Too many toppings will crush the dough, resulting in issues like holes within the dough or undercooked dough.

What do you hope individuals study once they make your recipes?

I actually love cooking for individuals and making individuals completely satisfied via meals. My hope is that individuals get to share in a little bit of what we do at Elena and it brings them the identical pleasure and happiness at house. I hope individuals use this guide as a information and it helps to offer them instruments to cook dinner the meals that makes them completely satisfied. 

Observe Elena and Espresso Pizza Wine on Instagram and preserve studying to get Janice Tiefenbach‘s recipe for this Margherita pizza.

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Excerpted from Salad Pizza Wine by Janice Tiefenbach, Stephanie Mercier Voyer, Ryan Grey and Marley Sniatowsky. Copyright 2023 Janice Tiefenbach, Stephanie Mercier Voyer, Ryan Grey and Marley Sniatowsky. Pictures by Dominque Lafond. Revealed by Urge for food by Random Home, a division of Penguin Random Home Canada Restricted. Reproduced by association with the Writer. All rights reserved.