Bought a lousy pizza Monday. Today I had to either dress up or toss the rest of it.
Made a finely chopped salad with equal portions of lettuce, cherry tomatoes, pepperoncini, liberally coated with a red wine vinaigrette (EVOO, red wine vinegar, garlic, dijon, kosher salt, fresh cracked pepper, dry Italian seasoning and a dash of agave).
Placed small torn pieces of sliced Boar’s Head salami and provolone (luv their provolone) onto slices of pizza and reheated them on the “quick reheat” cycle of my Flash oven.
Served on a large plate with the salad… fork some of the salad on the pizza, or just drag the bottom of the crust through some of the dressing… works wonders on a dry/bready pizza with tasteless sauce.
We are spoiled in San Francisco for good pizza options, but if I don’t want to get take-out or dine out, I’ll take a doctored up frozen pizza over Pizza Hut or Dominos any day. I usually get Amy’s Organic and add pickled hot peppers, some good diced salami and finely diced onions. I’m also with you on the side salad that I’ll put on a slice before eating for the contrast - I thought I was the only one that did that!
Yup! We used to have a mom & pop take and bake shop that was stellar. Now a days we only have a Papa Murphys and a Pizza Factory (and both pretty much suck).
In fact, pretty much EVERYTHING up here now a days sucks.
Please @ScottinPollock, remind me where you are again; I know it’s Northern Ca, in the mountains, I think of Placerville area, maybe I’m mis-remembering.
Our place is also in the foothills. Our lament is the absence of decent bread once you pass Mt. Diablo. We call it “take or bake”. Definitely don’t buy.
There is. It’s rare, but it exists. I bailed after one bite of a bar pie at a place in Ulster County, NY (which is as specific as I’ll be, because they are nice people and I don’t want to shame them). Do you remember the pizza you were served in the grade school cafeteria, with the crust that tasted like Play-doh, the super-acidic tomato sauce, and the plastic-y cheese? This pizza made that look good.
I actually am too old to have experienced grade-school pizza (but TBH our grade school cafeteria actually cooked our lunches and I have some favorites I remember to this day) but pizza at the bowling alley when I was in high school was pretty awful, even for those times. We got it anyway. It stayed in a big glass heated case at the snack bar IIRC. Aside: if we missed a gym class, we could “make it up” by bowling 3 games and bringing back the score sheet as proof. Duckpins! A local Baltimore tradition.
Yes. Our grade school pizza was also great.
Big rectangular pans, sort of what’s now labeled Detroit style.
It wasn’t till HS that it became cardboard with government cheese and ketchup.
Same here. Grammar school had a real cafeteria with hair-netted ladies cooking and “serving” fresh hot food to your tray when you reached the counter… and I too remember the sheet pan pizza… dripping with sauce and cheese with nice crispy edges.
Middle/high school (same place - different time of day) was pre-made garbage. Thank goodness for a Pup’n Taco, McDonalds, and 7-11 a couple of blocks away.
I have spent my life in a quest to re-create Mrs Shirley’s (from the hair net brigade) elementary school cafeteria cole slaw.
Back then, it was alway fish on Fridays, even though we were a public school. We alternated between fish sticks (ironic our other cafeteria lady was named Mrs Paul — I later thought about that for years) and tuna salad on a hamburger bun. Sides were 2 of the 3: potato chips, corn, or cole slaw. That wasn’t a choice; it was predetermined by the menu, which was mimeographed and handed out. Lunch was 35 cents.
The U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps is a great resource for these kind of Institutional Recipes.
Granted the recipes are usually scaled for 50-100 servings!
Provolone has saved many a bad pizza for me. I used to buy ‘pizza bread’, really a focaccia (maybe by Grisso’s bakery?) at a local convenience store and have them load on a slice or two of provolone before they heated it up. That cheezy goodness made it edible.
That’s interesting. How would you pull a recipe from that link? Food for Fifty’ has a few good ones; I’ve used it for making a few dishes for 900. Potato salad in an old claw foot rolling bathtub. Truth!
I have that book, but haven’t actually tried any of the recipes. Wow - can’t imagine cooking for 900, nor making enough potato salad for a claw footed tub! Do tell the stories…
