February 6

Don't let the sterile-ness of this photo scare you away. This was a fabulous taste of traditional margherita pizza. This morning, I had the pleaaaasure of attending my first Current Trends in Italian Cuisine class. The sweet professor welcomed us with ricotta and chocolate muffins she prepared at home and brought to class. The lesson of the day was about pizza: the history, the preparation, the consumption, the art. Pizza was developed in the 1500s when some brave soul of a taste tester convinced everyone that tomatoes were not in fact a poison from the New World, but a delicious, edible fruit ideal for sauce. The first pizza was prepared in Napoli for Queen Margherita. Basil, mozzarella, and red sauce to represent the flag of Italy. The rest, you could say, is history. There was so much science involved in the preparation. I loved learning how each small element of a recipe can affect the outcome of the pizza. Add salt to the dough before kneading? You'll kill the yeast. Feel really thirsty after eating at a pizzeria? They used too much yeast. Want a very crispy dough? Step away from filtered water, the calcium in hard water contributes to the crunchy crust. Cheese left a watery layer on top of the pie? Your oven isn't hot enough (ideal temperature is 800 degrees F). Cube cow's mozzarella and slice buffalo mozzarella for an ideal cheese topping.