Pizza as light, healthy food? Pizza that is easy-to-make-at-home yet upscale and gourmet? You bet. There is a new cookbook that delivers all this in 240 gorgeous pages.
Suzanne Lenzer has been working behind the scenes for years with Mark Bittman at the New York Times and with various food magazines. "Truly Madly Pizza" is her first solo cookbook and it is terrific.
Suzanne Lenzer has been working behind the scenes for years with Mark Bittman at the New York Times and with various food magazines. "Truly Madly Pizza" is her first solo cookbook and it is terrific.
As mentioned, the photography in this book is gorgeous. Suzanne not only is a professionally trained chef but also a food stylist and the images throughout the book are mouth watering and luscious. Unlike some cookbooks that present cuisine in a pretentious and lofty manner, these images illustrate down-to-earth, simple, wholesome food. Every ingredient is essential and allowed to shine just as it should in the food.
And the food is divine. Unlike some pizzas that end up more like casseroles, Lenzer has stripped the recipes down to the minimal essentials. This keeps the pizzas light, healthy and fresh. Her pizza recipes often follow a three-flavor profile such as "Pancetta with shaved brussels sprouts and teleggio", "Pears, maple-glazed pecans and pecorino" or "Summer squash with lemon zest and ricotta". By simplifying the recipes to 3-4 toppings, each ingredient is essential and offers balance. For example, in "Broccoli rabe, soppressata and an egg" we see how the bitter earthy greens balance the sweet rich egg and the salty meat.
Her dough recipe is not complicated either. Unlike some authors who dictate specific countries for flour and mandate long fermentation periods for the dough, Ms. Lenzer is more relaxed in her approach. I suspect this is intended to be non-threatening to home cooks unfamiliar with the craft of the pizzaiolo. When you read the text she certainly recommends using weights instead of volume for measuring ingredients and allowing the dough time to fully develop, but the master dough recipe does not come across as pedantic. For all her efforts to keep things easy, I was surprised she did not emphasize the no-knead/autolyze approach to dough development which favors allowing the dough to sit instead of kneading by hand or with a machine. Perhaps she wants to appeal to the time conscious cook who doesn't want to wait so long for the dough. The dough recipe can be described as thin crust neo-neopolitan as it includes olive oil (unlike neopolitan pizza which usually does not have olive oil) and a fairly stiff 60% hydration. To make pizzas a regular event at home, she even recommends freezing the dough balls for a quick weeknight meal.
The book is divided into eight main sections: "Pizza dough", "Sauces, spreads and smears", "Fruit and vegetable pizzas", Charcuterie and meat pizzas", "Poultry and seafood pizzas", "Sticks and other snacks", "Salad thoughts" and "Master recipes".
The book is divided into eight main sections: "Pizza dough", "Sauces, spreads and smears", "Fruit and vegetable pizzas", Charcuterie and meat pizzas", "Poultry and seafood pizzas", "Sticks and other snacks", "Salad thoughts" and "Master recipes".
These are not traditional pizzas. With combinations like "Old bay shrimp, pickled red onions, sweet corn and heirloom tomatoes" or "Curried cauliflower with tomatoes and cilantro" we know these are pairings are the result of many tests and sleepless nights thinking of how to balance one ingredient off another. You won't find these pairings in any other pizza cookbook that I know of.
While all the pizza sections are excellent, the snacks and salads should not be overlooked. In typical Mediterranean fashion, these parts of the meal are simple, elegant and understated. "Marinated gigante beans" is a good example of this; these are nothing more than large creamy flat beans marinated in olive oil, lemon and herbs. I sometimes kick myself that it takes a cookbook author to remind me that great cooking can be this simple. In this same vein, recipes like "Grilled peaches with prosciutto and mint" or "Endive, celery, apple and fennel salad" really shine for both their tastiness and simplicity.
If I had a complaint about this book, it would be the lack of more photos. Each of the 40 color photos is so rich and inviting, we are left wanting more. Many recipes exist in text only and it would be helpful to see how they look in finished form. Case in point: some people may not be familiar with 2/3 of the toppings in "Peaches, bresaola and burrata" and certainly unfamiliar with how peaches might look on a pizza. That said, there is not a photo in the book that disappoints.
While not an encyclopedic book on pizza, this is the best cookbook I have seen on the fresh California style pizzas first popularized by Ed LaDou, Alice Waters and Wolfgang Puck. Ms. Lenzer has brought her own vision for where this style can go in a book well balanced between offering meat and vegetarian pizzas, salads and snacks. Her warm, funny voice remains encouraging and innovative and this book will be treasured by both novice and experienced cooks alike.
Truly Madly Pizza, Rodale Books, ISBN 978-1623362188, MSRP $27.50
RSS Feed