Dear Friends, here we are again.
It’s time to bake a new Pizza.
I have been looking at this moment since the last year’s contest. I knew a lot of new contestants, most of them from the Italian board would have entered the competition, so I had a few ideas in mind to improve my pizza.
As always, life derails your plans, so I had to adapt, improvise and overcome. I would say I had two ideas in mind; one of them made to the final pizza, while the other… well, maybe next year!
In brief: I decided to make the same pizza again as last year, detailing a little bit more about the process. As there has been a lot of debate on “what is a pizza”, I decided to propose my very own concept of pizza.
This is my particular interpretation of the concept, and be warned, I am pretty flexible about this. Not everyone is as accommodating as me. You won’t believe how much criticism the cheddar garment is.
Let’s start with the dough.
I used this recipe:
Impasto per pizzaI bet you know all the tricks to translate in your language.
I am posting here only the ingredients:
- Manitoba flour 200 g
- Flour 00 300 g
- Room temperature water 300 ml
- Salt up to 10 g
- Fresh brewer's yeast (or 1.5 if dry) 4 g
No milk, no eggs, nothing but simple ingredients.
I followed the recipe; it’s all detailed on the website with nice pictures.
I let the dough grow for 12 hours.
I the following morning I started working the dough with my minimal abilities.
Please note the hairy wrist and the merit band.
Sadly, no merits were received during the video recording.
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| The dough in his final form | Starting to work on the dough, please note the hairy wrist and the merit band (#meritislife) |
I recorded a video of the process, at least a part of:
Click the above image to enjoy the video of your truly merit rascal pizza baking.
This is the final result for the dough.
It should be done entirely by hand, leaving it a little bit thinner in the centre, and a little bit thicker on the borders. Not sure you can see it from the picture.
I moved onto a wooden plate ready to be transferred to the oven after being filled with ingredients.
First thing, a view of all the toppings: this is what in Italy can be called a Sicilian Pizza, although there is a lot of variation from pizzeria to pizzeria, as the recipes are not exactly coded.
Which other pizza variant could have a member of the
Italian bitcointalk mafia prepared?
- Tomato puree
- Finely chopped mozzarella
- Olives
- capers
- Anchovies
- Oregan
- Basil
Anchovies are from Cantabric Gulf. Olives are actually of a Ligurian variety. This has to do with personal tastes. You are free to use whichever version you prefer.
The most astute readers might have noticed there is something strange.
Now we are ready to start the preparation.
Firstly spread the tomato on the dough. Don't exaggerate with that, or it will dampen the dough too much.
With mozzarella you can go full throttle. If you buy fresh mozzarella remember to let it dry.
Cut it a few hours before letting it lose the water, otherwise, it will ruin the dough as well.
Otherwise, you can buy "mozzarella for pizza", which is already dry.
Hear the Italian's screams in the background | 
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| Spread the tomato puree with a spoon,
Only a thin layer all over the tough.
Leave only a few centimetres to the border. | There is no "too much mozzarella". |
You then go on with olives and capers. There are various kinds of each. The ones I picked are maybe not the most common and are due to my particular taste. Common choices for olives are black ones from Gaeta (with or without pit) or Greek ones. Capers as well have pretty infinite variations: with or without flowers, in salt, in oil, in vinegar.
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| Use a simple bidimensional Sobol sequence
to spread the olives in a pseudorandom distribution.
| Capers are a true delicacy. |
We are not done with toppings. Anchovies are a signature topping of this kind of pizza. You might find more familiar with some type of meat on the pizza, but this is an authentic Italian delicacy.
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Strange anchovies positioning on the pizza.
There is a reason for this, believe me.
| Oregan comes in may forms.
This is the one that guarantees the most perfume. |
We are almost done. Only a finishing touch with a leave of basil. In the meantime, I have been preheating the oven to the maximum temperature, 250°, for a good 20 minutes. I have a cooking slab to cook the pizza on.
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I reckon basil might be really difficult to find outside Italy.
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Sadly, electric oven.
Mine can get to only 250°, which is almost half of the professional ones.
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This is the final result:
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I am pretty satisfied with the result. The crust looks juicy, and the toppings are well-cooked.
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The food of the gods
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The pizza would be ready. My signature speciality for the bitcointalk.org contest is missing: cheddar lettering!
This year I decided to go the extra mile and have a 3d printed Bitcoin logo!
Thank TG:@daniele_zomg, my fellow Telegram printer, I printed a
Bitcoin Logo cookie cutter from thingiverse.
I wouldn’t recommend doing this to anyone in their right mind, as I guess the PETG used to stamp it is not really suitable for edible products.
Anyway, I used it to “print” the central Bitcoin logo. The other letters were instead manually carved. Space for improvement for next year, maybe?
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Cheddar slices and a 3D-printed Bitcoin logo: what can go wrong?
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I had to experiment with different techniques to get an acceptable result.
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Assembling all together:
I hope you liked this little post.
Maybe you will find it helpful to cook your next pizza.
There is no harm in trying, like while looking to have kids. Even trying to bake a pizza can be fun!
Also last but not least, this post can act as a motivation and guide for next year's contest!
