Pizza Secrets with Chef Rick Mahan

Pizza is my “Stranded on an island” – if you could only have one food option – choice. I love pizza more than any other food. As long as I can switch it up with toppings, I’m golden. I’ve been searching for a good pizza crust recipe – I tend to go with the easy pre-made dough from Trader Joe’s or Il Fornaio from Henry’s.

Chef Rick Mahan – chef-owner of The Waterboy and OneSpeed restaurants in Sacramento, CA –  taught the packed class at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op Learning Center last Thursday. The class sold out in 3 days. They created a second class for the Spring semester and that sold out too. People like pizza – and Chef Rick too!

From here on out, I will be making my own crust. Chef Rick and his pizza class showed me how easy and how tasty GOOD homemade crust can be.

We started class with appetizers provided by the co-op.

Castel vetrano olives, artichoke hearts, capers and sweet red peppers. I did not try the capers after less than favorable reviews from the table.

The Peppadew whole sweet piquante peppers were really good.

I will definitely be buying the United Bakery Sea Salt Breadsticks soon – they were awesome!

Let’s Talk Pizza…

Chef Rick’s pizza dough was the perfect combination of soft and crunchy. I’m not one for a super thin crust, but I don’t like cake-like thick crusts either.

Dough Ingredients:
(Neopolitan style crust – Makes three 12 ounce balls)
22 oz. Unbleached All Purpose Flour
1 Tablespoon Kosher Salt
1 Teaspoon Instant Yeast
1 3/4 Cup plus 2 Tablespoons Cool Water – temp about 65 dgrees

He didn’t have a problem sharing his dough recipe with all of us – even though he uses a variation of this recipe at his One Speed restaurant, it doesn’t mean it will taste the exact same – because our ovens/temperatures, water, type of yeast, brand of flour, room temps, etc. are all different.

The key to this pizza dough recipe is a long fermentation period.

Directions:

  • Add water to a large mixing bowl. Combine dry ingredients, mix and add to the water. Mix by hand or spoon for a few minutes dipping hand or spoon in cool water as needed to avoid sticking.
  • Let rest 4-5 minutes then continue mixing for another 3 minutes. (The last mix may be done on a lightly floured board – he chose to continue mixing in the metal bowl) – metal or glass bowls works best.
  • Place dough in oiled (Extra Virgin Olive Oil) bowl, brush top and sides lightly with olive oil, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 24 hours. If you are making pizza the same day and don’t have time to make the dough the day before – it can be stored at room temp for 8-10 hours – that should be enough for the fermentation process. The longer the better – but don’t store in fridge past 48 hours.

Chef Rick showed us how to do the dough window pane test – this test is done to see if the gluten has been activated. Pinch off a small piece of dough, add flour so it’s not sticky – pull and rotate the dough gently to stretch the piece into a thin, translucent membrane – if it tears easily, knead a few more minutes, and then try the test again.

You can freeze the dough after it ferments. Just be sure to remove the dough from the freezer 24 hours prior to use.

Chef Rick’s Tomato Sauce

The above picture was taken after we had each taken a spoonful to taste. This tomato sauce was incredible. Very clean and simple, just the way I like it. I will never buy store bought pizza sauce again. I used my $5.00 class coupon to stock up on Strianese organic tomatoes.

Chef Rick started with a 28 oz. can of organic peeled tomatoes. You can also used crushed – but he chose to hand crush them. He added 2 teaspoons of Kosher salt and made us all swear that we would NEVER use IODIZED salt ever again. He suggested that if we had any, we use it to melt snow during the next storm. Ha! I made the switch to Kosher and sea salt a while ago, but I do still have some iodized in the spice cabinet.  The sauce also contained 1/2 a teaspoon of black pepper, 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar (you could also use lemon or white wine), minced garlic, crushed red chilies, fresh herbs (you could use oregano, flat leaf Italian parsley, basil or marjoram and a splash of good olive oil.)

Whisk the ingredients together and let stand for 6-8 hours in the fridge – you do not need to cook the sauce before using it on your pizza.

Pizza tip of the evening – All pizza ingredients should be pre-cooked and seasoned – they should taste great on their own. The #1 problem with raw toppings, such as mushrooms – they create too much moisture and add water to the dough.

We all shared pieces of roasted pepper and mushroom pizza – grated fontina, roasted red peppers, mushrooms, fresh herbs and the best part of the entire process – heavy cream – wow… this really brought everything together. Chef Rick just poured it on the pizza before putting it into the oven to cook.

Rick’s Pizza – Chef Rick’s signature pizza –  was a favorite of the evening. Cooked diced new potatoes – oiled and seasoned with thyme, salt and pepper, grated fontina cheese, crumbled fresh goat’s cheese, pitted small black nicoise type olives, carmelized onions, pepper cured bacon, arugula and drizzled extra virgin olive oil.

Bacon…bacon…bacon… Keller Crafted Meats  – Uncured Pepper Bacon is available at the co-op – as are all of the ingredients used in class. I highly recommend this incredible bacon.

A few slices of the Pizza Margherita shared the table tray with Rick’s Pizza – super simple, the tomato sauce (recipe above), fresh mozzarella cheese (packed in water) added sea salt or Kosher to the pieces of cheese, Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, fresh basil leaves (after it comes out of the oven, you don’t want to burn the leaves) good quality extra virgin olive oil – before cooking and after.

Pizza Cooking Instructions:
Set your oven temp to as high as it will go. Chef Rick uses slabs of dark granite in his non-pizza ovens – the granite distributes heat more evenly over the surface of the food. He just keeps the granite in the oven at all times. He asked how many of us had pizza stones and a bunch of hands went up. He suggested leaving the stones in the oven for all cooking. Several people at my table already did that, mine just sits in a box in the cabinet – I don’t even use it for my pizza cooking. I will probably break it out until I get myself a piece of granite.

The pizza should take about 8 minutes. Do not open the oven to check on the pizza – I did that a few weekends ago while making pizza and my girlfriend Deede was horrified, LOL. Never again, I promise.

The Major Take Aways From the Class…
Practice, practice, practice… just keep trying new things and once you find something that works, leave it be and run with it. A pizza peel and flour are your friends. The wetter the dough, the crispier the crust – cold water will keep the dough from sticking to your hands. DO NOT overload your pizza with toppings. This is what I have done in the past. I’m looking forward to seeing space between my toppings.  The last tip of the evening – don’t wear a black apron when making pizza dough ;).

I am super excited to put my new pizza skills to the test. We also made an incredible focaccia, but I’m saving that for another post. I had fun in class, Chef Rick was a great instructor. I’ve been to his Waterboy Restaurant, but I have not tried OneSpeed – I will be going soon.

Question: – What’s your favorite kind of pizza? Thick/thin crust? Toppings?

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12 comments

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    • Laurie Laux on April 5, 2011 at 9:53 am

    Holy Cow! Wish I could have been at that class! I have been really wanting to try home made pizza! I think I’ll start with the TJ dough to start! :o)

    Been to both places! One Speed was really a fun place and the pizza was GREAT! A very hip mid town joint! You’ll love it.

    Thanks for the post! Once again, you have inspired me! 🙂

    Laurie

    • Kristen on April 5, 2011 at 9:55 am

    I loved the class and Chef Rick was GREAT! I can’t wait to make a pizza! I too used to pile on too much sauce, raw toppings and cheese. It was amazing how flavorful every ingredient was…. The crust was amazing, crisp but not too thin. Too bad OneSpeed is too far to go at lunch time… I might be tempted to go now just thinking about it!

      • foodiddy on April 6, 2011 at 8:08 am
        Author

      That is what I noticed too – the flavor was so much richer when the pizza wasn’t overloaded with stuff. I had fun in the class and look forward to our Spring semester. 🙂

    • Sybil Law on April 5, 2011 at 11:18 am

    YUM.
    I like thin and thick pizza crusts – it just depends. Pizza is good no matter what, really. 🙂

      • foodiddy on April 6, 2011 at 8:07 am
        Author

      Yes, it’s pretty rare to find a horrible pizza, but when you have a good one, it’s definitely awesome!

    • jessica on April 5, 2011 at 12:57 pm

    Wait, those big green olive-looking things are capers!? I’ve only ever seen the very small pea-sized capers. What was wrong wtih them?? Don’t they just taste like dill / salt??

    GORGEOUS pizzas. Now I want one. I think that is my “stranded on an island” food as well. Delicious! I have a really good pizza dough recipe somewhere also that uses a beer in the mix instead of yeast, similar to the beer bread comment. I’ll have to dig it out and try it…

      • foodiddy on April 6, 2011 at 8:06 am
        Author

      Yes – big, huge capers – when Kristen bit into it, her face scrunched up – and she likes the small capers. The big ones were filled with little seeds. The second person at the table that ate one, spit hers out too…I was not brave enough, but now I wish I would have at least tried one. When you find the beer crust recipe, send it to me. Thanks!

    • Amy on April 5, 2011 at 3:53 pm

    I’m not even hungry and my mouth was watering looking at all the pictures you took 🙂 The appetizers looked great….the pizzas looked so yummy… I thought the same thing Jess did about the capers. I never saw them so big!

    I love all sorts of pizza. I’m a bread person to begin with so smother on toppings of great crust and then I’m in heaven. Breakfast pizza… lunch pizza..dinner pizza HA! I used to work at Uno’s back in the day and learned to try different things on my pizza. I don’t need a bunch of meat….fresh veggies and a little cheese would make me just as happy. Sometimes I’m in the mood for a bbq chicken pizza with red onions…yummy!

      • foodiddy on April 6, 2011 at 8:09 am
        Author

      Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner Pizzas, YES! Dan is a huge fan of CA Pizza Kitchen BBQ Chicken… I’m not as much a fan. I really do like red sauce on my pizzas, but the cream sauce was HEAVEN!

    • Laurie Laux on April 5, 2011 at 5:51 pm

    Guess what? Made the basic pizza tonight! YUM!!! Used TJ dough though. Will try to make my own soon though. My sauce ened up a bit runny but very tasty. I don’t think I mixed it up well enough and the juice from the tomatoes was making it watery. The center of my pizza wasn’t cooked all the way through too. But guess what? Practice, practice, practice! Have enough to make another one in a day or so! Thanks again Kathleen! <3
    Laurie

      • foodiddy on April 6, 2011 at 8:03 am
        Author

      TJ dough was my “go to” dough before learning that I could easily make it myself. Hmmm… as for the sauce, now I’m wondering if it would be better to drain the tomatoes – not sure if Chef Rick did that or not. I’ve never had the center not cook – I’d increase the time by 3-4 minutes – hopefully that will help. Have fun on your second go-around!

    • dubu on April 6, 2011 at 11:56 am

    First off, the chef looks like William H Macy (in this photo) 🙂
    I Love all PIZZA’s!!! I will have to try making dough from scratch. I usually buy a loaf of french bread from the bakery, slice it, drizzle evoo, spagetti sauce and all sorts of toppings. My family loves it!!! Have you tried dessert pizza? Cookie crust, cream cheese spread, and fresh fruit…..SOOO good!!!!

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