Pizza Party

We had the recent good fortune of a visit from my father and his wife. It had been way too long since their last visit. As is natural, a lot of hope, excitement, expectation and planning on both sides were piled onto this visit. Some highlights were expected: fabulous seats for Wicked, my sister's recent engagement, meeting "the new dog"-see prior post--but the unexpected highlights turned out to be the most lasting and priceless. A little backstory...

My dad loves to cook. He's had a lot of experience with what works, what doesn't and knows that staying with the "tried and true signature" dishes is the way to go. I totally agree with this philosophy. So imagine the fun and hilarity that ensued when we decided to give each family member a ball of fresh pizza dough*, assorted pizza toppings and made it a "contest" for the best pizza.

My dad had never made home-made pizza before (or so he claimed). Of the six of us present, we ended up making five pizzas (the last dough-ball was saved for the pizza in the picture above) Four of the five pizzas were consumed that night. The fifth was lunch the next day-(and. it. was. fabulous.) Here are the entries--I regret now that I didn't take pictures. I know better now.

Pizza #1--mine--fresh mozzarella slices, fresh pizza sauce, shredded mozzarella

Pizza #2-- a combined effort from our spouses(mine and my dad's)-fresh pesto sauce, parmesan, light dusting of fine mozzarella

Pizza #3-- Dad's--fresh tomato sauce, mozzarella, onion, prosciutto, olive, green pepper, tomato, rolled out with gusto and proudly served.

Pizza #4--sister's fiancé--fresh tomato sauce, fresh heirloom tomatoes, mozzarella and olives (if I recall correctly).

Pizza #5--collective effort--all the leftover toppings were used up, but since we were all chock-full of pizza by then, we stuck the last one in the fridge for lunch the next day.

Of course, they were all great. My dad's pizza and the Pesto Pizza were really close in our opinion and it was really hard to decide which was the winner (although my dad felt his was a run-away, more so in that it was his first attempt, so I'm inclined to give him the benefit of doubt, or at least beginner's luck).

Making home-made pizza is a great dinner concept--everyone loves pizza and you can tailor the toppings to each person's individual tastes. The secret is fresh pizza dough and a pizza stone which somewhat compensates for the lower temperatures of a conventional oven versus a real pizza oven. I put an asterisk next to fresh pizza dough so I would remember to tell you that, if you live in San Francisco, the best place to get fresh, authentic and cheap pizza dough is Lucca Ravioli on Valencia street. Three dollars for enough dough to make three pizzas. Of course I picked up the pizza sauce, mozzarella, pesto, prosciutto and parmesan there, too.

A simple salad and ice cream for dessert! A dinner party where everyone participates. That's a priceless memory! Have fun and Buon Appetito! Don't forget to have enough wine on hand, neither!