Everyone loves pizza,right? For brothers Thom and James Elliot,it's become an obsession. The British pair ditched their jobs eight years ago to make a food-lovers'pilgrimage to Naples,the home of pizza,where they learnt from the masters.
Back at home,they set up a stall in Soho selling pizza from the back of a van. Their business,Pizza Pilgrims,now runs more than a dozen pizzerias across London and the south-east of Britain.
Along the way,the brothers came up with their own method for making classic Neapolitan pizza using only a frying pan and oven.
Here,they share three recipes from their new cookbook,Pizza:History,Recipes,Stories,People,Places,Love.
Margherita
Where pizza all began … we can still remember the first time we tried a proper Neapolitan margherita in Da Michele in Naples. The mozzarella had been made that day and was perfect. The combination of the light,charred pizza dough,sweet tomatoes,aromatic basil,peppery olive oil,savoury parmesan and the milky white,creamy and slightly acidic mozzarella,just creates the most perfect flavour balance,which is the reason that the margherita is the undisputed heavyweight champion of pizza. It is always the pizza that any pizza chef would order to get the measure of a new pizzeria because there is nothing to hide behind;no snazzy flavours to mask the quality of your ingredients,dough and skill in the oven.
INGREDIENTS
For the pizza
We wanted a pizza on the menu that would be both vegetarian and a real comfort food hit. The one dish that makes all our pizzaioli go weak at the knees,except pizza,is eggplant parmigiana. So,we put it on a pizza.
INGREDIENTS
For theparmigiana
- 2 eggplant,cut into 2cm cubes
- 3 garlic cloves,finely chopped
- 100ml (scant ½ cup) good-quality olive oil
- 50g tomato paste
- 2 x 400g cans quality peeled plum tomatoes
- 100ml (scant ½ cup) water
- a small handful of basil leaves
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Makesenough for 5 pizzas
Prosciutto crudo,rocket and parmesan
OK,so we've had time to think about it. Porchetta is definitely the Humvee of hams,leaving the Rolls Royce spot free for infinitely elegant prosciutto di Parma DOC. We challenge you to add a few thin slices of this amazing cured meat to any pizza and not make it more delicious! We were lucky enough to visit the prosciutto di Parma factory and see the painstaking detail that goes into creating this world-renowned ingredient. This pizza is an ode to the Italian classic flavour combo of these three ingredients.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 ball of Neapolitan pizza dough (seebelow)
- 80g tomato sauce (seebelow)
- 4-5 basil leaves
- parmesan,for grating,plus 15g shavings,to serve
- 1 tbsp good-quality olive oil,plus extra to finish
- 80g fior di latte mozzarella,torn or sliced a small handful of rocket leaves
- 3-4 slices of prosciutto crudo
INGREDIENTS
- 1 x 400g can of San Marzano (or any good-quality Italian) tomatoes
- a good pinch of sea salt
METHOD
- In a large bowl,crush the tomatoes by hand. (This is the old-school way they used to do it in Naples,and for good reason. If you put the tomatoes in a food processor you end up with a depressingly smooth sauce that lacks texture.) Once you've crushed the hell out of your tomatoes,add a pinch of salt to taste and that's it! Pure,unadulterated tomato goodness.
Makes enough for 4 pizzas
This is an edited extract fromPizza:History,Recipes,Stories,People,Places,Love by Thom and James Elliot,published by Hardie Grant Books,RRP$39.99. Photography by Dave Brown.Buy now