Get a pizza the action
It’s not just the stuff from Naples that’s a slice of pizza heaven, writes Dan Stock
You don’t have to be Italian to appreciate pizza and now it’s apparent that you can have less of a connection to the Mother Country than former Resources Minister Matt Canavan to produce it. The French, Hungarians, Lebanese, Turks, Americans and even the Japanese are getting a slice of the action. Discover new ways of preparing an old favourite with different shapes, toppings and breads on the menu.
WE have world-beating pizzaioli who are helping us to speak increasingly fluent Napoletana-style pizza.
We know the correct temperature – 400C – and the time – 90 seconds – it takes to cook an authentic pizza in the manner prescribed by the Associazione Vera Pizza Napoletana.
We know our San Marzano tomato and our mozzarella di buffalo.
But that’s not the only pizza around.
Whether a Turkish lahmacun or New York-style “pie”, a Georgian khachapuri or even a “sushizza”, there’s a world of pizza out there.
FRENCH PERFECTION
Who knew the French did pizza? But up near the GermanSwiss borders in Alsace, there it is, though here called tarte flambee.
This ultra-thin crisp dough base is – in true French style – lightly covered in a creamy sauce and topped, Italian-style, with a few judicious ingredients.
“Tarte flambee has its own cultural identity, far removed from the pizza of faraway Naples” says Dan Xerri, who has opened Australia’s first restaurant dedicated to the Alsatian delicacy.
“It’s very much a French dish.”
“With each tarte flambee having only a few key ingredients, the quality and freshness of each of these is paramount, there’s nowhere to hide.”
To make at home, roll a simple pizza dough very thin. Top with the cream sauce made from fromage frais seasoned with salt, pepper and nutmeg (fromage frais can be substituted with 50/50 mix of creme fraiche and cream).
Add your choice of topping, and cook on an oven stone in a hot oven.
DO GO HUNGARY
While it’s more akin to a savoury doughnut or fried bread, langos (pronounced LAHN-gosh) are sometimes referred to as Hungarian pizza.
Traditionally served at markets, festivals and bars, it’s a favourite street/fair food that’s made of a yeasted potato-flour dough that’s fried and topped with sour cream and grated cheese.
Sandor from the Hungarian Street Food market stall says while his mother cooked langos in lard in the traditional manner for him as a child, he uses ghee when cooking them at a market and that, because of the yeast in the dough, the langos absorb less oil than one might expect.
There are many langos dough recipes online – or you can cheat and use pizza dough. Top your crunchy fried creation with tastes ranging from simple crushed garlic and salt flakes, garlic and grated cheese, smoked salmon with dill sour cream, or – for a truly traditional taste – with sour cream and eros pista, a salty, chilli paste that’s the Hungarian version of sambal olek.
INAUTHENTICALLY DELICIOUS
The Moor’s Head in Thornbury is famous for serving “inauthentic pizza”. “We call our pizzas inauthentic because they are not quite Lebanese or Turkish or Italian,” owner Joseph Abboud says.
“The round pizzas are based on the Lebanese manoushe and the long pizzas are based on the Turkish pide, but we use an Italian dough and serve them in a contemporary restaurant environment.”
Lebanese pizzas differ from Italian pizzas in many ways, he says.
The toppings are different, the dough is softer and the shapes can be round, triangle, half moon or rectangle.
“I think probably the biggest difference is that Lebanese pizzas are mostly eaten as a breakfast or daytime snack, normally on the go,” he says.
Joseph says their most popular pizzas are the Bosphorus (prawns, black chilli, coriander and lemon), the pumpkin-onion-yoghurt Istanbuli and the classic Golden
Terrace of minced beef, parsley and fresh chilli, which can be recreated at home.
Make a simple pizza dough (“whatever recipe you’re comfortable with”) – or use a good ready-made base. For the mince mix, Joseph suggests the following recipe: 200g minced beef, 100g minced onion, 200g minced tomatoes, a pinch of ground pimento, cinnamon and cumin, and salt to taste.
Mix with hands until thoroughly combined with a soft consistency.
Cover the base with a thin layer of the mix, and cook on a pizza stone in a hot oven. Serve with a sprinkle of dried chilli flakes and a squeeze of lemon.
“That’s what makes this pizza,” he says.
YUMMY OKONOMIYAKI
“Okonomi means ‘how you like’ while yaki means ‘grill’,” explains Yutaka “Matsu” Matsuda of the Japanese savoury pancake that’s a staple in his home town of Osaka.
Often called Japanese pizza, okonomiyaki is traditionally made with shredded cabbage and meat bound in an egg-flour mix, panfried and topped with mayonnaise and okonomiyaki sauce – which can be made at home from a mix of ketchup, Worcestershire, oyster sauce and honey.
“I guess some people love packaged okonomiyaki sauce, but the homemade sauce is not dominated by artificial flavours and they don’t overpower the vegetarian version,” Matsu says.
To create okonomiyaki at home, Matsu cautions against making it a batter-dense pancake, but instead using the simple flour, water and egg batter to bind the other ingredients. “If there’s too much flour, it will be too heavy,” he says. Mix in shredded cabbage, a protein – pork, prawn or squid – and sweet potato.
Serve the okonomiyaki with a sprinkle of bonito, seaweed flakes and alternate squiggles of mayo and sauce.
SAY CHEESE
At Northcote’s newest bakery in Melbourne, All are Welcome, along with savoury tartines, French-style pastries and Russian-style cakes, Boris Portnoy is also serving up khachapuri, a cheese-filled bread that’s like a pizza for one and considered one of Georgia’s national dishes.
Russian-born, Californianraised Boris says he first tried the bread about six years ago on a trip to Georgia.
“I spent a few days in the Pankisi region making the most ubiquitous, Imeretian-style khachapuri.”
He says there are three types: the traditional Imeretian-style which is a yeasted dough made with yoghurt cooked in a fry pan with cheese inside and/or out; the Adjarian style, which is a boat-shaped pie filled with cheese, butter and a cracked egg baked on a stone in the oven; and the Penovani-style that they serve at the bakery, made from a flaky puff pastry filled with cheese and baked in the oven on a tray.
“I guess their appeal is the same as any other bread and cheese concoctions,” Boris says. “It’s a great little snack.”
SLICE OF SUSHI
In a unique twist on pizza , from week Sash will open on Chapel St, Melbourne, and serve up its range of contemporary Japanese pizza – think traditional pizza bases topped with sashimi, as well as ricebased pizzas they’re dubbing “sushizzas”.
Co-founder Kyle Stagoll says the range has been developed over the past year with chef Ken Montatong and pizza chef Sam Johri.
“It has been a lot of fun playing with different ingredients and combinations and trialling different bases,” Kyle says.
“We are pushing the boundaries as far as we can and in almost all instances ‘break the rules’.”
Expect to see such creations as the sushi tuna, mango, strawberry, ginger and wasabi mayo pizza, or the sushizza topped with duck, mandarin and orange.
“There are also other Japanese fusion products such as Japanese style arancini balls,” adds co-founder Dave Nelson.
Chef Ken says these creative pizzas can be made at home.
Make a simple pizza dough with added sesame seeds and crushed nori.
Bake the base with mozzarella and blue cheese in a 250C oven for 10 mins until golden. Top with sashimi – tuna, salmon – and avocado slices. Finish with squiggles of mayo and sriracha (to taste), and garnish with shiso leaves or powder (found at Japanese grocery stores).
PIECE OF PIE
“Melbourne has a great array of delicious Italian-style pizzas but it’s very hard to get a good New York slice on the go,” says Pizza Pizza Pizza co-owner Lazaros Papasavas.
He says NY pizza differs from the traditional Neapolitan style in that it’s bigger, uses more sauce and cheese and is usually eaten by the slice.
“For me, the perfect NY pizza is pepperoni.
“Layers of sauce, cheese and salami, cooked so the crust is golden and chewy, and the pepperoni is starting to crisp.”
The key to making pizza at home is a super-hot oven – 250C.
“Sparingly oil your pizza tray, and make sure the dough is not too thick and even,” Lazaros says.
“And remember not to overcrowd your topping or the dough won’t cook in time.
“Between seven and nine mins, rotating once.”