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For many, pizza is a cook’s-night-off meal ordered from the local pizza shop and delivered with a liter of soda. Not at the Frank Van Riper and Judy Goodman household. Before heading back to their winter home in Washington, D.C., the longtime Lubec summer residents had something much more elaborate in mind. They were out to recreate history.
Frank Van Riper was raised in the Bronx in an Italian-American family, but it wasn’t until he was on his honeymoon in Siena, Italy, in 1984 that he experienced “real Italian pizza.” In contrast to the thick-crusted, cheese-heavy pies often found in this country, this pivotal pie had a thin, crispy crust. It was topped with fresh veggies, but no tomato sauce. And it was baked to perfection, sans aluminum pan, in a wood-fired oven. “I’d had good pizza in New York and Asbury Park as a kid,” Van Riper says, “but the pizza Judy and I had that day spoiled us for anything else.”
In the 20-plus years since, Van Riper and Goodman had found some cities where they could get thin-crusted, wood-fired pizza, but not in Lubec, Maine. So, a while back, Van Riper decided to build a stone barbeque grill among his wife’s expansive gardens so he could replicate that honeymoon pizza in his own backyard.
The first step for any gourmet cook in rural Washington County is to make sure you have all the ingredients you need. Van Riper asks a friend to stop by Joe Parisi’s shop in Machias to get some of Parisi’s county-famous sweet sausage. “Before moving to Maine, Joe had run a delicatessen in New Jersey for years, and he brought his family recipes for sausages with him,” Van Riper says. “They have no preservatives or coloring, so he makes them fresh.”
While sausage is an American pizza staple, other ingredients on Van Riper’s shopping list give a clue to the unique pie to come. Caramelized onions, sweet peppers, and kalamata olives will join the sausage as toppings. (He’ll also make some vegetarian pizzas without the sausage.) Instead of tomato sauce, Van Riper uses drained canned tomatoes. “Tomato sauce just makes the crust mushy,” he says. Cheeses include both mozzarella and provolone as well as fresh ricotta, and pesto provides the signature Tuscan flavor.
As the dough finishes rising in a warm spot in the kitchen and veggies are washed and chopped by Judy and guests, Van Riper goes out to check on his secret weapon—his stone barbeque, which he has stoked with charcoal briquettes. “They heat more evenly than wood.” Van Riper goes back inside, cuts his dough into sections, rolls the dough, then tosses each piece in the air, until it’s stretched to about l/4 inch thick.
Van Riper places one pizza dough at a time on the grill and keeps a watchful eye as it cooks on just one side, rotating it so the bottom browns evenly. The crust is then removed from the heat. He brings them all inside for toppings. “Make sure you load the cooked side,” he says. He then returns the loaded pies to the grill and finishes the cooking process, intermittently covering each pie so the cheese can melt.
Van Riper then slices the masterpieces, arranges them on platters, and serves the pizzas with Judy’s exotic ginger carrot coleslaw and a big bottle of Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, a robust Italian red wine.
The guests dig in. Unlike the familiar pizza that comes in a box, this fare is commanding and complex in flavor and texture, so eating supplants talking for a while—until someone asks to hear the story of that honeymoon pizza.
”We were at an outdoor restaurant facing Siena’s famous town center,” Van Riper recalls. “It was a glorious sunny day.” Goodman adds, “Remember the nuns at the other table?”
Van Riper laughs. “There was a table of smiling nuns at a nearby table who seemed ecstatic about everything. Their joy was infectious. When one sister had a big calzone served to her, she spontaneously sang out ‘Alle-LU-ia!’”
One can only imagine what might have happened had she ordered the thin-crusted wood-fired pizza.
-----
Serves 8
Crust:
1 1/2 pkgs. active dry yeast
2 tsp. sugar
1 2/3 cups lukewarm water
2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp. sea salt or kosher salt
4 generous cups all-purpose flour
2 generous tsp. whole wheat flour
Toppings:
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Provolone cheese
Canned Italian plum tomatoes, drained and torn into small chunks
Cooked sweet sausage
Pesto
Chopped garlic
Caramelized onions
Raw sliced mushrooms
Chopped bell peppers
Anchovies
Oregano, rosemary, thyme, and basil, etc.
To prepare crust: Combine yeast, sugar, and water in a bowl, stirring to blend. Let stand about 5 minutes until foam forms on top. Stir in oil and salt. Add flour gradually, whisking at first, then use spoon as mixture thickens and dough forms into a ball. Move dough to floured work surface and knead about 5 minutes until dough appears satiny and smooth. Add more flour, if necessary, to prevent sticking. Transfer dough to an oiled bowl; cover with plastic wrap. Let stand for several hours at room temperature until dough triples in volume. Punch down dough, move to floured work surface, and form into large ball. With sharp knife, cut ball in half, then in quarters, then in eighths. Form each pie-shaped piece of dough into a small round. Pat each round flat with fingers, and then roll out with rolling pin to about 1/2 inch thickness.
Prepare charcoal grill normally, but arrange coals to leave a cool space on which to place nearly done crusts. Lightly oil top grill cooking surface, and place raw crust directly on the grill. In less than a minute, you will be able to lift the crust with a large spatula. Rotate crust (tamping down any air bubbles) to create evenly brown surface. Do not turn over. Move crust to cool spot while processing another crust. Continue until all crusts are done on one side.
To prepare pizza: Lightly brush the browned surface of each crust with olive oil; add toppings to the browned side, with cheese last. Place one or two pizzas back on grill and cover to allow the raw bottom side of crust to cook and to let the ingredients melt. (Note: At this point, pizzas also can be prepared in a 200°F oven, directly on the rack.) Slice and serve immediately with extra fresh basil garnish, hot Italian pepper flakes, and top quality olive oil, as desired.
-----
Frank Van Riper is a photographer, writer, and columnist for The Washington Post. His travels and natural curiosity make him a wealth of knowledge about many topics, including pizza. Here are a few slices from his Italian food data bank:
• Though dishes featuring unleavened flatbreads go back to antiquity, especially in the Middle East and the Mediterranean, Italians, especially Neapolitans, can rightly lay claim to the modern version of pizza.
• One classic version of pizza, Pizza Margherita, was said to have been invented in 1889 by Neapolitan baker Raffaele Esposito, to honor visiting Italian royals, King Umberto the First and his consort, Queen Margherita. Esposito, already a well-known pizzaiolo, came up with a new version to show off the colors of the Italian flag, featuring red tomato, white mozzarella, and green fresh basil.
• Italians often call pizza “tomato pie” to distinguish it from other “pizza,” such as quiche-like tortas or other, sweeter, pies. “Pizza,” after all, can simply mean “pie” in Italian, so a “pizza pie” is really just a “pie-pie.”
Frank Van Riper was raised in the Bronx in an Italian-American family, but it wasn’t until he was on his honeymoon in Siena, Italy, in 1984 that he experienced “real Italian pizza.” In contrast to the thick-crusted, cheese-heavy pies often found in this country, this pivotal pie had a thin, crispy crust. It was topped with fresh veggies, but no tomato sauce. And it was baked to perfection, sans aluminum pan, in a wood-fired oven. “I’d had good pizza in New York and Asbury Park as a kid,” Van Riper says, “but the pizza Judy and I had that day spoiled us for anything else.”
In the 20-plus years since, Van Riper and Goodman had found some cities where they could get thin-crusted, wood-fired pizza, but not in Lubec, Maine. So, a while back, Van Riper decided to build a stone barbeque grill among his wife’s expansive gardens so he could replicate that honeymoon pizza in his own backyard.
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The first step for any gourmet cook in rural Washington County is to make sure you have all the ingredients you need. Van Riper asks a friend to stop by Joe Parisi’s shop in Machias to get some of Parisi’s county-famous sweet sausage. “Before moving to Maine, Joe had run a delicatessen in New Jersey for years, and he brought his family recipes for sausages with him,” Van Riper says. “They have no preservatives or coloring, so he makes them fresh.”
While sausage is an American pizza staple, other ingredients on Van Riper’s shopping list give a clue to the unique pie to come. Caramelized onions, sweet peppers, and kalamata olives will join the sausage as toppings. (He’ll also make some vegetarian pizzas without the sausage.) Instead of tomato sauce, Van Riper uses drained canned tomatoes. “Tomato sauce just makes the crust mushy,” he says. Cheeses include both mozzarella and provolone as well as fresh ricotta, and pesto provides the signature Tuscan flavor.
As the dough finishes rising in a warm spot in the kitchen and veggies are washed and chopped by Judy and guests, Van Riper goes out to check on his secret weapon—his stone barbeque, which he has stoked with charcoal briquettes. “They heat more evenly than wood.” Van Riper goes back inside, cuts his dough into sections, rolls the dough, then tosses each piece in the air, until it’s stretched to about l/4 inch thick.
Van Riper places one pizza dough at a time on the grill and keeps a watchful eye as it cooks on just one side, rotating it so the bottom browns evenly. The crust is then removed from the heat. He brings them all inside for toppings. “Make sure you load the cooked side,” he says. He then returns the loaded pies to the grill and finishes the cooking process, intermittently covering each pie so the cheese can melt.
Van Riper then slices the masterpieces, arranges them on platters, and serves the pizzas with Judy’s exotic ginger carrot coleslaw and a big bottle of Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, a robust Italian red wine.
The guests dig in. Unlike the familiar pizza that comes in a box, this fare is commanding and complex in flavor and texture, so eating supplants talking for a while—until someone asks to hear the story of that honeymoon pizza.
”We were at an outdoor restaurant facing Siena’s famous town center,” Van Riper recalls. “It was a glorious sunny day.” Goodman adds, “Remember the nuns at the other table?”
Van Riper laughs. “There was a table of smiling nuns at a nearby table who seemed ecstatic about everything. Their joy was infectious. When one sister had a big calzone served to her, she spontaneously sang out ‘Alle-LU-ia!’”
One can only imagine what might have happened had she ordered the thin-crusted wood-fired pizza.
-----
Pizza alla griglia (Grilled Pizza)
Serves 8Crust:
1 1/2 pkgs. active dry yeast
2 tsp. sugar
1 2/3 cups lukewarm water
2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp. sea salt or kosher salt
4 generous cups all-purpose flour
2 generous tsp. whole wheat flour
Toppings:
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Provolone cheese
Canned Italian plum tomatoes, drained and torn into small chunks
Cooked sweet sausage
Pesto
Chopped garlic
Caramelized onions
Raw sliced mushrooms
Chopped bell peppers
Anchovies
Oregano, rosemary, thyme, and basil, etc.
To prepare crust: Combine yeast, sugar, and water in a bowl, stirring to blend. Let stand about 5 minutes until foam forms on top. Stir in oil and salt. Add flour gradually, whisking at first, then use spoon as mixture thickens and dough forms into a ball. Move dough to floured work surface and knead about 5 minutes until dough appears satiny and smooth. Add more flour, if necessary, to prevent sticking. Transfer dough to an oiled bowl; cover with plastic wrap. Let stand for several hours at room temperature until dough triples in volume. Punch down dough, move to floured work surface, and form into large ball. With sharp knife, cut ball in half, then in quarters, then in eighths. Form each pie-shaped piece of dough into a small round. Pat each round flat with fingers, and then roll out with rolling pin to about 1/2 inch thickness.
Prepare charcoal grill normally, but arrange coals to leave a cool space on which to place nearly done crusts. Lightly oil top grill cooking surface, and place raw crust directly on the grill. In less than a minute, you will be able to lift the crust with a large spatula. Rotate crust (tamping down any air bubbles) to create evenly brown surface. Do not turn over. Move crust to cool spot while processing another crust. Continue until all crusts are done on one side.
To prepare pizza: Lightly brush the browned surface of each crust with olive oil; add toppings to the browned side, with cheese last. Place one or two pizzas back on grill and cover to allow the raw bottom side of crust to cook and to let the ingredients melt. (Note: At this point, pizzas also can be prepared in a 200°F oven, directly on the rack.) Slice and serve immediately with extra fresh basil garnish, hot Italian pepper flakes, and top quality olive oil, as desired.
-----
Van Riper by the Slice
Frank Van Riper is a photographer, writer, and columnist for The Washington Post. His travels and natural curiosity make him a wealth of knowledge about many topics, including pizza. Here are a few slices from his Italian food data bank:• Though dishes featuring unleavened flatbreads go back to antiquity, especially in the Middle East and the Mediterranean, Italians, especially Neapolitans, can rightly lay claim to the modern version of pizza.
• One classic version of pizza, Pizza Margherita, was said to have been invented in 1889 by Neapolitan baker Raffaele Esposito, to honor visiting Italian royals, King Umberto the First and his consort, Queen Margherita. Esposito, already a well-known pizzaiolo, came up with a new version to show off the colors of the Italian flag, featuring red tomato, white mozzarella, and green fresh basil.
• Italians often call pizza “tomato pie” to distinguish it from other “pizza,” such as quiche-like tortas or other, sweeter, pies. “Pizza,” after all, can simply mean “pie” in Italian, so a “pizza pie” is really just a “pie-pie.”
