Pizza Philosophy

Tonight is the standby tradition for dinner. Since my husband died almost 3 years ago, we have had pizza and a movie every Friday night. Sometimes the pizza is a frozen variety of some type or another and somtimes I make one of my masterpiece pizza recipes. Sometimes we have salad, sometimes we have chips instead with it, and sometimes we have store bought sweets for dessert or a homemade baked good for dessert.

When I make the pizza, I make it from scratch as much as possible. I start with the sauce which I flavor a lot like life really. It has some smoothness, a little sweet(good times), a little salt (tears), some spices (ups and downs), garlic (earthiness), and herbs (comforts and pleasantness). I use both tomato sauce (the thin times) and tomato paste (the rich times) when I make my sauce from scratch. After I blend them together on medium low, this is when I add the other ingredients, one at a time, and simmer them for a while together. I also add a lot of myself to it as I go.

While the sauce is going, I take the time to make the bread crust from scratch is like the foundation to one's life. Your foundation being your core values, morality, faith and belief, your spirit, and qualities and talents that make you who you are. In my bowl goes the yeast (spirituality), sugar (your spirit), and salt (core values and morality) which get swirled together to blend them. Next comes the olive oil (a good sense of humor), a good one, and hot water (faith and belief). Stirring them together and adding the first cup and a half of flour (experience) and putting in more little by little to get the dough just right. This simple bread crust is the like the foundation that you build your life on. I let it rest while the sauce is simmered a little more and then taken off the heat to cool.

While the dough is resting then I finish up the sauce by making sure it tastes just right and stir it once last time before I take it off the heat to start cooling. While the sauce is cooling and the dough is resting, it is the time to slice up the olives (family), grate the cheeses (friends) mozzarella and cheddar, and get out the parmesan, romano, mushrooms (heroes), and pepperoni (lovers). The cheese is always grated by my kids. After all the ingredients are gathered, then it is time to put build the pizza.

Build pizza is a little like building a life. There are layers to it. There is a foundation and mortar or glue. I start by laying the dough out on my pizza pan and patting out to the edges (this is when your parents teach you what you need to know to get by in life; the things that stick with you your whole life). Then comes the sauce spread evenly across the surface (education and social life). After this comes the light sprinkling of parmesan and romano before laying down the mushrooms and olives followed by a light sprinkling of all the cheeses before putting on pepperoni slices (experiences in interactions with others and learning from them). After the pepperoni slices on goes parmesan and romano then the top is smothered with the mozzarella and cheddar. A good hefty sprinkling of parmesan and romano covers this layer. Finally the top is dusted with powdered dried basil before the pizza is put in to bake for 18 minutes in a 400 degree oven.

After the pizza is baked, it is left to cool some before cutting into it. Once cut, it is time to eat and enjoy. Savoring the pizza and all its combinations of flavors and textures that have come together for pure culinary satisfaction is heavenly. Like life really, you should savor all the life has to offer you, the good and the bad, the thin times and the thick, all the flavors and opportunities that life has to offer. You should enjoy life. Like pizza, life only lasts for so long.

Something to think about, anyway.
Laura