Pizza Napoletana: When in Naples...

Let's face it — Houston is not a city known for its pizza. At least not compared with the big boys like New York or Rome, and certainly not the holy of holies — Naples, Italy.

And neither should it be compared to these pizza capitals. But I have always felt that Houston is a bit underachieving in the average quality of its pizza joints. This can of course be attributed to the ubiquity of pizza chains like Cici's, Dominos, Papa Johns, Pizza Hut. And when it comes to pizza chains, there is good news and bad news. The good news is they are consistent. The bad news is they are consistently bad.

So what's a pizza lover like me to do? In situations like these I always follow the old adage "If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself." And that is how I came to make and bake my first pizza from scratch.

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What kind of pizza? Deep dish, thin crust, chewy, gooey, crispy — there are lots of choices. To help me with my decision I first considered my own past experience with pizza. Then I looked to those few shining stars of pizza craft that call Houston home.

Growing up in Southeast Texas, even before Dominos and Papa Johns, there was Pizza Inn. All-in-all a serviceable pizza experience for a young man who did not know any better (I was just a chowpup back then). But my real revelation came in my late teens backpacking through Europe. Arriving at Rome's Stazioni Termini after an overnight trip from Paris, my first goal was to find Roman fast food. After a week of baguettes, crepes, croissants and Burghy burgers, I was ready for a change. And Rome delivered in spades.

The typical Roman pizza joint offered pizza rustica with a kaleidoscope of toppings, sold by the rectangular "slice." But the pizza I always came back to had a thin, crispy crust, a restrained amount of tomato sauce and melted, gooey dollops of fresh mozzarella cheese. It was during this time in Rome that I was introduced to "real" pizza — Pizza Napoletana.

And I have been eating — worshipping — it ever since. Living in NY I split my time between the traditional (original) NY style pizza — floppy, foldy, gooey, drippy with grease — and the traditional Pizza Napoletana. Back in Houston I found both. Great NY style at Romano's Pizza. Pizza Napoletana-style at Dolce Vita (wood-fired) and Russo's (coal-fired), and Kenneally's (not brick oven but still good).

But even these local pizza havens somehow paled in comparison to my memories of Rome. And even though I wasn't in Rome, I decided to do as the Romans and Neapolitans do — make my own pizza.

Remembering an old Molto Mario episode for Pizza Napoletana, I pulled the DVD and grabbed the recipe from the Food Network website.

First up was the dough. Since I do not possess the Popeye-like forearms necessary for manually kneading pizza dough for 10-15 minutes nonstop, I enlisted Big Momma to do the heavy lifting kneading. The great thing about this dough recipe was its simplicity — a traditional yeast dough flavored white wine, olive oil, honey and salt. After kneading, the dough was allowed to proof for a good 45 minutes. And, voila!

It has risen! I cannot accurately describe the fragrance emanating from this ball of goodness — earthy, bready, yeasty. So far so good.

On to the sauce. Again, simplicity — olive oil, onions, garlic, fresh thyme, shredded carrot, and hand-crushed San Marzano tomatoes. Combine and simmer for 30 minutes.

Time for assembly. I cut the dough ball into 4 equal parts and individually wrapped 3 of them for freezing and later use. I flattened and kneaded the remaining dough into a thin platform for the sauce, oregano, fresh mozzerella, and fresh basil leaves:

This looked promising (if you hadn't noticed, these are the colors of the Italian flag — red, white and green). Now onto a pre-heated pizza stone for 10-12 minutes:

At this point it looked good and smelled good. And after digging in, it tasted...great. Absolutely fresh. The flavors married perfectly. The crust, essentially a structural support for the sauce and cheese, was crispy on the outside but soft and steamy once you but into it.

I can't say this pizza was better than the brick-oven Pizza Napoletana from the best Houston pizza joints. But it was somehow different. Fresher. More authentic maybe? Combined with a fresh green salad and a glass of Italian red wine, I thought I was back in Rome.

Can’t Beat Braised Baby Back Ribs

"If you could have anything to eat right now, at this exact moment, what would it be?" If you want to work-up a true Foodie this is the question to ask.

Some will give an immediate answer, some will ponder for a moment. Some will give a different answer every time they are asked, some will always give the same answer. I would say 9 out of 10 times I will answer "Baby Back Ribs."

One of my favorite Baby Back Rib recipes is from Alton Brown's Good Eats program on the Food Network. This is a braising recipe, not BBQ. Braising usually involves the "low-and-slow" cooking technique which inevitably leads to meat following off the bone. And that is the way I like it.

The basics: a meaty slab of baby back ribs and dry rub ingredients.

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Dry rub applied, allow to marinate overnight if possible.

Wrap that rascal in tin foil and add braising liquid.

A few hours later, we have reached the promise land.

The braising liquid makes an incredible sauce. BBQ sauce? We don't need no stinking BBQ sauce!

Let me at it!.

Tender as a mother's love, falling off the bone, moist, perfectly seasoned. I'd like to write more but I'm drooling on the keyboard. Bon appetit!

Fettuccine Alfredo: How do I love thee…

Fettuccine Alfredo is one of those dishes that looks simple on paper, yet you can spend a lifetime perfecting it.

It’s also unique in that it’s an Italian-inspired dish (the Italian version being Fettuccine al burro) that contains no garlic or olive oil. The trick to great FA, in my experience, is to layer enough mellow, sweet flavors into the dish to balance the savory sharpness of the fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

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Here’s my trick. Sure, the sweet butter and heavy cream add a mellow sweetness to the sauce. But one more layer can’t hurt, and I add a bit more sweetness and zing with one of my all time favorite ingredients: shallots. Start by sweating the chopped shallots in a full stick of butter over medium heat. Add a pinch of salt and fresh cracked pepper to get the seasoning started. At this point, take a deep breath. The aroma of the bubbling butter and shallots is just plain sexy. Once the shallots are translucent, add lots of heavy cream. Cook down for a few minutes and add the fresh, finely-grated Parmigiano cheese. Don’t let it get too thick! Perfect creaminess is the goal here. Taste for seasoning and add salt if necessary.

Another couple of minutes and it’s ready to go. And now for the final ingredient: freshly chopped, Italian flat-leaf parsley. Not only do the green parsley specks add a beautiful visual texture to the pale sauce, the little spikes of bitterness add yet another layer of flavor to the whole dish. Once the ingredients are combined, take the pan off the heat. If you’ve timed it perfectly, you can transfer the cooked fettuccine directly into the pan, twisting the pasta into the sauce with tongs. Add a bit of pasta water to loosen up the sauce if necessary. Let sit for a couple of minutes to let the pasta soak up the sauce. Transfer to a serving dish, add a sprinkle of parsley and Parmagiano, and let the culinary love begin!

It’s all about the steak

Anybody who knows me knows that it’s all about the steak. There is nothing more sexy than a perfectly cooked and seasoned piece of prime Texas beef.

Yeah, I know it’s not that healthy, and it can be damn expensive, so I keep it down to one steak a week and I’m always keeping my eyes open for a good deal. Sure you can go to Central Market and get a great strip for $16/pound, but that’s $20 bucks with no sides and not even cooked. I don’t even bother checking the prices at Whole Foods anymore. Which leaves me to my humble neighborhood supermarket–the venerable Disco Kroger. Perusing the pre-packaged meats last week, I found a nice NY strip, bone-in, about 1.25 pounds, for…$4.49 a pound. You read that right. It was discounted w/Kroger Card from $9.49/pound. That, my friends, is a deal. The fruits of my labor are documented below. Before and after…

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I started by taking the steak out of the fridge about 30 minutes before cooking, allowing it to come to room temperature (grilling a cold steak can be tricky). Seasoned both sides (liberally) with kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper. Some people like to throw some steak seasoning on there, or even briefly marinate it, but consider me old-school–basic seasoning only. I got the grill nice and hot, very hot actually, and then brushed on a layer of olive oil to prevent sticking. I put the steak on. The smell and sound of a steak hitting a hot grill–there’s nothing better for a true foodie. This steak was about 1¼ inches thick, so I grilled 6½ minutes on each side for medium-rare. I removed from heat and let rest for about 5+ minutes. This is the one step alot of people skip–letting the steak rest. But it is absolutely crucial because that steak is going to continue cooking for a while after it is removed from heat. By the time you are ready to cut into it, it will be perfect…

And there you have it. Perfectly medium-rare. Tender as a mother’s love. Fellow Houston Foodies, if that picture doesn’t get your “juices flowing”, I don’t know what will.