the Roam

Those of you who know me know that I’m a sucker for the regional food styles of my youth. So many of my memories are triggered by the taste of Central Dairy’s ice-cream, the creaminess and tang of provel, the mouthfeel of Shakespeares Pizza. Today I found myself craving Shakespeares so I made a facsimile from scratch.

Shakespeares Pizza is one of my favorite Mid Missouri food landmarks. With parents from Columbia and going to the University of Missouri Columbia myself, it was inevitable I would fall in love with the pizza. I grew up on it. When my grandmother passed away my brother and I had just brought back a stack of Shakespeares to my grandfathers house. We stood in the kitchen eating pizza and toasting her memory.

In New York City there is no Shakespeares though and I have to satisfy my nostalgic cravings on my own.

Shakespeares’ pizza has a chewy crust with a crisp bottom layer coated in cornmeal. To get this result I start with a basic pizza dough with olive oil to aid in producing a stretchable dough that will crisp, even when laden with sauce and cheese.

Ingredients
For two 14 inch Pizzas

• 4 1/2 Cups Flour
• 2 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Yeast
• 1/4 Cup Olive Oil
• 1 3/4 Cup Cold Water
• *I add in oregano, garlic and parsley as well but that isn’t necessary

Honestly I hate this part. It is messy and disgusting and gets all over you and everything. I’m a decent cook, but not a decent or happy baker. So I make two servings and place one half in the fridge for another day to save myself the trouble the second time.

Make sure to be using cold water (we don’t want the yeast to work very hard) mix all the ingredients in a large bowl, dip your hand in and go to town like you are a human dough hook. If you have a mixer with a dough hook then la di freaking da. Use that you rich bastard. I actually have a food processor that can supposedly mix dough with an attachment. I tried this once and burned the motor out immediately. Do so at your own risk fellow food processor users.

After ~10 minutes of mixing you should come out with a homogenous ball that is pretty sticky, but not dripping wet. Divide it in half. Keep one half out to work with and put the other away so you can have an easy pizza another day.

Now wash your goddamn hands because you are covered in dough and can’t touch anything. Another reason I hate baking.

To ensure your crust has the desired crisp and strength stretch it out over a 14 inch round pan coated in cornmeal while you preheat your oven to 500, or higher if it can manage. Make sure you don’t confuse cornmeal with grits. Almost just did that… I would have been livid.

Now you pre bake that blank dough for 5-10 minutes till the top is barely starting to brown.

Shakespeares pizza doesn’t flop around under a heavy loud. It supports toppings stem to stern. I hate a pizza that flops around, limp, ragid, flaccid and soggy. This pre baking of the crust will ensure it crisps enough and doesn’t become soggy once toppings are applied. This wouldn’t necessary if we all owned pizza ovens, but unfortunately I don’t.

Now the fun part! Cooking.

I roast tomatoes in the oven for 30 minutes at 500 degrees Fahrenheit and then smash them up with green onions I’ve been sautéing in bacon fat.

Add garlic, salt, pepper, red pepper, a little balsamic if you want some sweet tang, whatever feels right. Just taste as you go and don’t be afraid of fucking up. I think a lot of people miss out on flavor because they are afraid to experiment. Your tongue will tell you if you are about to do something wrong. Just taste the sauce you have, then taste what you want to add to it before you add it! If I’m making a pizza just for myself I add a lot of hot sauce to the sauce.

A little sauce goes a long way. Be careful not to spread too much on the dough or you might find it over powers the feel and taste of the rest of the pizza.  A simple set of toppings I like to use are provolone and mozzarella topped with pepperoni and sopressata  and sprinkled with romano.

Be liberal with the cheeses if you want to get the stringy cheese mass that comes on a pizza from Shakespeares. Mozzarella and provolone both turn stringy and stretchy when melted. In the future I might add some emmentaler (swiss) to my cheese mix to make it more fluid and better emulate the texture Shakespeares cheese has in my head. Gouda would serve the same purpose as emmentaler, but have a stronger flavor that would pair well with bacon and artichokes IMHO.

There ya have it.. my way of bringing a little bit of my nostalgia for the pizza of my youth out to the east coast.

p.s. The danger of making two servings of dough… You may eat two pizzas in quick succession like I did and feel horrible about yourself as I do right now. I’m gonna take a nap.