bite-sized pizza
last night we consumed Lou Malnati's pizza, sent frozen and packed in dry ice by my wonderful and caring mother. At the very same moment, 2500 miles away, my parents and my brother were also eating a Lou Malnati's pizza (probably with sausage and onions, maybe garlic). Image that. What synergy!I had a few friends over and we all enjoyed our bite-sized slices. Because I'm a selfish bastard, I ate two pieces, the second while hidden away in the kitchen, away from everyone else. Its just that there was one extra piece and, well, dividing it up would have been nonsense. And leaving it would have been unacceptable. So, what could a girl do? A girl who regularly pines for and is so painfully denied the crispy cheesy perfection of Malnati's? I had no other option.
The frozen malnati's pizza is a far cry from a fresh, steaming hot pizza right out of the malnati's oven. Mmm...pizza that you have to cut a piece at a time because the cheese will melt across the pieces, essentially gluing them together. and perfectly crispy crust that must have cornmeal in it. I must figure out how to make Malnati-style pizza. The first thing I need, no doubt, is a 40 year old deep dish pizza pan, perfectly seasoned from decades of use. If you have one, I'll buy it from you. But, you know, I'm confident that with time, equipment and thoughtfulness, i could recreate most dishes. Not easily, necessarily, but eventually. But, I am fairly certain that no matter how hard I tried, I could never actually make a deep dish pizza that tastes like Malnati's. It just doesn't seem doable. Malnati himself is a second generation Chicago pizza man, being the son of Uno Pizzaria's original chef, Rudy Malnati. Sigh. Has anyone ever made a good, realistic deep dish pizza.
p.s. I am currently having a big fight with my friend about Chicago style thin crust pizza. He insists that Chicago can't claim both deep-dish and thin crust. He's from Iowa. He's just jealous.
posted by Deepfry @ 12:23
5 Comments:
have you ever considered that living in chicago gives you the wonderful advantage of getting fresh malnati's whenever -- and never so often that the joy would wear off! who could have sent this comment -- i wonder!
You need to come to New Haven to learn what "thin crust" really means. New Haven sneers at Chicago's thin crust!
I made a deep dish pizza that was surprisingly good, had cornmeal in the crust, and you only needed a 9 in cake pan (not a specially cured pizza pan) for. I found the recipe (it's the only deep dish crust recipe in this book -- don't worry though, the thin crusts are good too)"American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza" by Peter Reinhart.
Mmmm. It was tasty, especially when we used the full-fat mozzarella instead of the part skim. So much gooey and cheeseier.
hey mger, i am inspired by your story. i should probably give it a go. in fact, gosh, if i could pull off a decent version of the deep dish pizza, i'd be the toast of the town!
oh and "mrs. delicious," your love for New Haven foods is obviously obscuring your ability to accurately judge thin crust pizza quality. New Haven doesn't stand a chance against Barnaby's thin crust pizza. You need to get out of Connecticut! It's corrupting you!!
Living on the south side of Chicago, I didn't know there was anything other than thin crust pizza until after my family moved north in 1968. Much as I love Gino's East and Malnat's, I could still go for the Bob & Jack's of my childhood.
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