Product Description

Can't resist the warm, enticing aroma of a perfect homemade pizza with a crisp crust topped with creamy mozzarella and juicy tomatoes? Now you can become an expert pizza maker using Charles and Michele Scicolone's Pizza--Any Way You Slice It.  Their simple techniques and 100 innovative recipes will have you making top-quality, authentic pizza right in your own kitchen.

Inspired by a trip to Naples, the birthplace of pizza, Charles and Michele became determined to find ways to duplicate their favorite dish at home.  Charles, who didn't even know the difference between a teaspoon and a tablespoon, had to start from the beginning.  He made pizza after pizza, and soon Charles, who had never cooked anything in his life, was able to make perfect pizza from scratch.  Friends were amazed not just by how good Charles's pizzas were, but by how simple his techniques were.

Now, after mastering the art of making pizza, the Scicolones share their easy-to-follow tips and shortcuts: from mixing, kneading, and shaping the dough to choosing the right toppings.  Pizza--Any Way You Slice It includes Italian classics, such as Pizza Margherita (tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil) and Florentine Pizza (with spinach), and pizza American style, with favorites like Chicago Sausage and Cheese Deep-Dish Pie and New Haven White Clam Pizza.  And there are easy recipes for unique stuffed pizzas, Italian regional pizzas, focaccia, and flatbreads--something for every taste.

Rounding out this comprehensive pizza book are recipes for pizza accompaniments, pizza history and trivia, a suggested wine list, and a list of the Scicolones' favorite pizzerias in the United States and Italy.  With Pizza--Any Way You Slice It, you're just one recipe away from perfect pizza at home.


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #328850 in Books
• Published on: 1999-09-14
• Released on: 1999-09-14
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

From Amazon.com
Pizza--the tender-crisp crust, savory tomato topping, and bubbling, toothsome cheese. And the trip to the pizzeria--until now. With unprecedented clarity, Charles and Michele Scicolone's Pizza: Any Way You Slice It provides the step-by-step basics and 100 recipes to make authentic pizza, focaccia, and calzones at home. The Scicolones' explicit instructions, tips, and shortcuts--plus precise illustrations--make mixing, kneading, and shaping the dough--as well as preparing toppings--remarkably easy. Even timid cooks will find themselves achieving toasty crusts that balance crispness and chewiness perfectly (hint: a little flour sprinkled on the baking stone adds smoky flavor) and toppings that far surpass the pizzeria's in freshness and taste.

The recipes are international. Traveling from Palermo to Chicago, from Naples to Brooklyn, the Scicolones have gathered recipes for such classics as Pizza Margherita (made with tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil) and Spicy Pizza Marinara; new Italian favorites including Eggplant Parmesan Pizza and Pizza with Prosciutto and Arugula; and American pies such as Garlic and Cheese Pizza Bianca and Chicago Deep-Dish Pizza with Sausage and Cheese. Among the focaccia and other flatbread recipes is a must-make focaccia studded with pancetta and rosemary. Included also are suggestions for starters, salads, and side dishes, as well as wine and beer suggestions. Color photos present the pies in all their glory (and profile the all-important crusts), and there's a glossary of necessary equipment and ingredients. In Pizza: Any Way You Slice It, the Scicolones have included everything a pizza-lover needs to start baking beautiful homemade pies. --Arthur Boehm

Review
"I have long admired Michele's work, because her passion for Italian cooking leaps from the pages.  Now Michele and Charles have written a gem of a little book, Pizza, which should keep pizza lovers happily in the kitchen for weeks."
--Biba Caggiano, Biba Restaurant, author of Italy al Dente


From the Hardcover edition.

From the Publisher
"I have long admired Michele's work, because her passion for Italian cooking leaps from the pages. Now Michele and Charles have written a gem of a little book, Pizza, which should keep pizza lovers happily in the kitchen for weeks."
--Biba Caggiano, Biba Restaurant, author of Italy al Dente

Customer Reviews

Pizza: Home-Made and Why It Should Be
With pizza parlors strewn like confetti through even small American cities and several national chains offering home delivery, why would you make you own?

Because that's probably the only way you'll get a good one short of going to Italy. Most American pizza is awful--topped with tasteless "pepperoni," dotted with the synthetic glop the USDA calls "cheese-type food product."

So get Charles and Michele Scicolone's book and get to work. I only wish they'd written it sooner: I spent several years trying to figure out how to make a decent pizza without their help. Let me tell you it was a long, involved, expensive and frequently messy process. The results, in the end were excellent--except for the dough, which I could never get quite right. The Scicolones have solved that problem by doing real research in the field--by which I mean IN ITALY. As a result they recommend mixing regular flour witha certain amount of cake flour. Cake flour (the stuff used by pastry chefs, not the self-rising stuff) is softer than regular bread flour and the blend of the two types produces a soft, stretchy, easily worked dough that gives superb results.

Another reason for making your own pizza, by the way,is that it's a lot of fun. Get this book and try it.--Bill Marsano

Top-quality, authentic recipes for pizza and much more!
I absolutely recommend this book to any and all pizza lovers. The recipes are extremely authentic, calling for only the freshest ingredients. They are introduced by individual narratives discussing the region each recipe comes from. Plus, the authors have included specific recommendations for turning out superb doughs, from the type of salt and water to use to techniques for rolling the dough. I have given this book as a gift to all my friends and family who are true aficionados of Italian flatbreads--and that is the ultimate compliment!

it won't produce your ordinary pizza
The recipes in this book won't produce the type of pizza you are used to seeing and tasting from Pizza Hut. If you are looking for a healthier, more authentic version, you will enjoy and use this book. Yes, you will need a pizza stone. I bought this book and a pizza stone at the same time, excited about what my results would produce. The crust turned out perfectly on my very first try. The recipes are easy to follow and the results leave you with a beautiful creation. The book's chapters include, ingredients and equipment you will need, pizza dough, neapolitan pizza, american pizza, filled pizzas, calzoni and turnovers, regional italian pizzas and flat breads, focaccia, antipasti and accompaniments, what wines to serve with pizza, a list of the author's favorite pizzerias, and mail sources for those items you may not be able to find in your area. Try the margherita pizza, the focaccio and the deep dishes. They're fantastic. Our particular favorites are follonico's summer seafood pizza and the pancetta and rosemary focaccia. The results are wonderful because the recipes call for the freshest ingredients you can find. Our favorite part of the book, however, is the trivia interspersed about the book filled with the history of pizza and the people who love it!