Perfect pizza crust depends on spin, toss and technique
The numbers prove pizza is popular in more than just the United States.
Since 1984, the month of October has been designated National Pizza Month as created by Gerry Durnell, publisher of Pizza Today magazine. October was selected because it is the month his magazine debuted in the same year.
According to crusty rival Pizza Quarterly Magazine, in 2017 “the world pizza market was $128 billion in sales, and in the U.S. it was $44 billion spread over 76,000 pizzerias.” The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that “13 percent of the U.S. population age 2 and older consumes pizza on any given day.”
Pizza purists have debated for decades about whether it’s the crust, the sauce or the toppings that is the key component to making the best possible pizza, a menu staple which has been in the United States only since Italian immigrants came in large numbers starting around 1905.
Most culinary experts agree pizza, as it is traditionally imagined today, was invented in the Naples area of Italy, with the word being a derivation of the Greek and Latin terms for “pita bread.” It wasn’t until after World War II, with the return of veterans who served in Italy, that pizza began to be introduced on American restaurant menus and the first popular pizzerias in Chicago and New York opened.
I’ve always been a pizza fan, and last week I was happy to learn even more about the dedicated craft of creating the allimportant pizza crust from one of the students in the public speaking course I teach at Purdue University Northwest. Sophomore Cole Barzycki, 19, of Hebron, presented his speech on the topic of making pizza crust and the traditional technique used to toss and spin the rolled dough once in the air to result in an ideal thickness and consistency.
Barzycki, who is studying human resources management, works at Gelsosomo’s Pizzeria in Valparaiso making pizzas, with his specialty being the crusts. He emphasized that the basic ingredients used in the crust of the pizzas at Gelsosomo’s are typical of most pizza crusts. Gelsosomo’s was launched in 1979 by Chicago Southsider Tom Gelsosomo, who opened his first location in Portage and has 11 locations in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.
Barzycki said Gelsosomo’s regards the ingredients in its signature “sweet sauce” as a closely guarded secret, and the information is even kept from the employees since the sauce is made off-site through an agreement with a manufacturer who creates the sauce as a custom purchase agreement according to provided ingredient specifications.
“Even though the pizza crust has these basic ingredients, the key factor of the taste and consistency comes from how we hand-toss it and use a certain spin,” Barzycki said. “A great crust makes a great pizza.”
Despite perceptions, tossing a spinning pizza crust in the air isn’t just about entertainment and theatrics.
“You never want to use your fingers, since that’s how holes are made in the dough,” he said. “Fingers are kept bent, so it’s really the knuckles that are used as the dough is spun around. I don’t even use the rolling pin much and instead use the spin- ning to allow the dough to expand and flatten to the right consistency. The less flour and rolling needed assures the dough retains moisture. The spinning and air contact is what keeps the dough from remaining too sticky before it bakes.”