February 10 – February 16, 2025

    

Monday:                               Chicken Quesadillas

Tuesday:                               Manicotti w/ Spinach & Ricotta, Snap Pea Salad

Wednesday:                       Zucchini & Parmigiano-Reggiano Soup, Parmesan Toast

Thursday:                             Black Pepper Steak and Caesar Salad

Friday:                                   Miso-Glazed Salmon with Figs, Rice, Asparagus

Saturday:                              Tavern Style Pizza with Sausage and Giardiniera

Sunday:                                 Roasted Chicken with Lemon Potatoes

da Pizza eaten by fans of da Bulls and da Bears

There are few foods as important in my life as pizza.  The absolute joy of digging into a pizza delivered to your dorm with your friends in the middle of the week is etched into my memory of college.  (There was also the illicit feeling of getting a slice of pizza from Village Pizza in Shadyside after a night of illegal drinking in Frick Park – did I mention that you are not to show this post to your under-age children?)  And the fun of experimenting with different toppings and sauces every Saturday with Beez and, occasionally, the boys, is one of the highlights of my week.

And I will never forget the mingled joy and frustration (it was always seriously crowded) of picking up a pizza from Mineo’s, driving in from the airport after a long week on the road, and bringing it home to the boys and SWMBO who were not always as anxious to see me as I was to see them.  Or the sheer pleasure of sharing a small Margherita at Mercurio’s in Shadyside, having lunch with Beez.

But the single best pizza I ever had was another Margherita which the boys, Beez and I shared in a restaurant in a parking lot in Pompeii.  (The restaurant was air-conditioned – a welcome relief from a hot day of touring the ruins.)  That pizza, washed down with one of those great lemon sodas you get in Italy, was a revelation.  It was one of the reasons (along with restaurants in Rome, Sienna and Positano) that I made cooking such an important part of my life. 

In this post I am going to merge that parking lot pizza with my affection for Chicago, an absolutely great food town.  I’ve been a big fan of Chicago-style hot dogs and Italian beef sandwiches and sport peppers and giardiniera for some time.  But I’ve dismissed Chicago pizza, thinking it was all deep-dish and okay but not exciting.  However, looking over some lists of the top pizzas in the country, I came across a new obsession:  Chicago Tavern-Style Pizza. 

This pizza begins with a savory tomato sauce into which you set dollops of your favorite sausage (Frankie’s mild), topped by the kind of shredded, low-moisture mozzarella that Sargento, Kraft, et. al. offer in the refrigerated dairy section of your supermarket, topped with a generous amount of giardiniera and dusted with a nice amount of grated parmigiano.

I think you’ll agree with me and with whoever concocted that list I’ve been following, that this is one of the great pizzas from one of the great towns in the country.

Chicago Tavern-Style Pizza

(adapted from John Carruthers in Food & Wine)

Timing:                     

If you have dough ready, and use my suggestion for tomato pizza sauce, 12-20 minutes.  Add time for a cooked tomato sauce and making and proofing dough, Here is My Tomato Pizza Sauce:

Mix a good, bottled tomato purée or imported passata (I like Mutti, Pomi and Cento) with dried Italian seasoning (or oregano, basil, and thyme – oregano by itself is just fine), salt and pepper until it tastes good.  Note:  add whatever you think tastes good – garlic power, MSG, etc.

Ingredients:

Tomato sauce (see above)

Raw Italian Sausage (we like Frankie’s Mild) – you’ll need up to 2/3 lb. for a large pizza dough

Grated Parmigiano Reggiano (about ½ cup)

Shredded Low-Moisture Mozzarella (about 1 ½ cups)

Chicago-style chopped giardiniera (about ¾ cup, drained)

Prep and assemble and cook:

Preheat your oven to 500F.

Roll out dough, place it on a sheet pan* and let it rest while you assemble the other ingredients and make the tomato sauce.

Finish shaping and stretching the dough.

(I like to push the outer edge into a small ridge, thicker than the rest of the dough.  I then brush it with olive oil and sprinkle it with just a bit of sea salt.)

Spread the tomato sauce on the pizza, then break the sausage into little lumps and place it on the sauce.

Now sprinkle the shredded mozzarella over the whole deal, then sprinkle on the giardiniera and then dust with the parmigiano.

Put the pizza into the oven, reverse the pan after 4 minutes to get an even cook and start checking at 7 minutes until you like the way it looks.

To serve, let the pizza rest for a few minutes and then transfer it to a cutting board and have at it.  As they might say in Chicago, “It’s da bomb.”

*If you are a pizza stone or pizza steel user, forget the sheet pan.