I bought a pizza steel a few months back and to have an excuse for this superfluous purchase I've been making pizza for dinner once a week, on Wednesdays. This is largely facilitated by Safeway's ready made pizza dough, which neatly sidesteps the most onerous part of making pizza: making the dough. I've made pizza dough quite a few times so it's not like I think it's hard, but I hate having to clean my food processor and that's usually how I make pizza dough. Plus there's the whole hassle of freezing it if you're not gonna use it right away and then remembering to take it out in advance early enough to thaw it but not so soon that it's overproofed by the time you're ready to make it. btw the Brits call it "prove" and the etymology of the term is more complicated than I would have assumed.
Today's pizza is me once again falling for a viral tiktok recipe: marinated tomato and burrata pizza by lacebakes. Apparently this one has tens of millions of views so it's in the big leagues as far as viral recipes go. The ingredients seemed pretty simple so I figured what the hell, why not.
So, first step is making a garlic herb butter. I actually saw a pre-made garlic herb butter from Kerrygold at the supermarket but a quick look at online reviews made me steer clear (a lot of the reviews claim it tastes like fish, which like, what??). Like any proud Korean I have things of pre-minced garlic in my freezer so in the pan it went with some olive oil, butter, and minced parsley.
The recipe calls for salted butter but that's illegal in my house so I gave it a generous sprinkle.
Lookin good. I considered browning the butter but decided against it this time. Maybe next time I'll give it a try.
While that was melting down I made the marinaded tomatoes. It's basically what you'd see on a bruschetta if you ordered it at the average Italian-American restaurant. Chopped tomatoes, olive oil, salt and pepper, a little balsamic, and some basil.
One thing I've always found funny about chiffonade is that every single chef I've seen describe it unfailingly drops something along the lines of "imagine you're rolling up a big cigar" and it's like, excuse me? Sir/Ma'am, have you actually rolled a big cigar? Are you expecting that I have? What percentage of your customer base do you expect to hear this and nod and say ah yes, rolling a big cigar, an activity I am exceedingly familiar with
Anyway with those ready I was pretty much set to start putting the pizza together.
I will never be the dude twirling a pizza over his head and I've made my peace with that fact. My stretched dough is unlovely and corpulent, just like my soul
Brush the butter on
Top with grated parm and some mozzarella. I was too lazy to grate the mozz (I also hate washing graters) so I basically chopped it into matchsticks.
Chef's treat, bootleg caprese with the leftover mozz and tomatoes. Honestly really tasty lmao
Into the oven. I've found that the easiest way to go about this process is to put a sheet of parchment paper on the peel and then put the pizza on that. No need to flour the peel, no sticking, and it slides straight into the oven.
The Anova oven is hotter in the back than it is in the front, probably because even with the fan circulating the air, the heating element is in the back. I turned the pizza around a little less than halfway through and slid the parchment paper out while I did it. With the dough cooked the paper slides right out so it's super easy and no cleaning up flour necessary.
I took the pizza out at around seven minutes, a little faster than I normally would, because I was worried that the garlic might burn. You can see here that it's already dark brown, approaching black in places.
Dump that shit on
According to the recipe you just put the ball of burrata right in the center like a particularly unlovely egg in a very colorful nest. When you slice it the ball should also be cut into eight portions.
Wallah, it's done. The verdict: It's pretty good.
I think the burrata ball being in the center kinda took away from it even though it looks better for glamor shots. If I made it again I'd tear it into pieces and sprinkle them on evenly. Still, it was nice! A little like having a caprese, or a bruschetta with a particularly chewy bread. The toppings going on after the bake kept it feeling very bright and light despite there being a lot of cheese and olive oil in there. 7/10 would make again
Here's a picture of my cat holding a toy
