Pizza is a wonderfull thing

Pizza and I go back a long way together. The pizza you see pictured in today's blog is the result of many years of trial and error, and practice, practice, practice.

My first fond memory of pizza is from my first year of teaching 8th grade English. I told my class that they had to submit a one paragraph description of their favorite food, the idea being that I would be able to find out just where they were skill-wise with their writing abilities. I got the following paragraph from one of my students, and truthfully, as I read it the first time at my desk, after school, in an empty class room, I collapsed with laughter, fell to the floor with tears, clutching it in my hands. I will type it out for you as I remember it:

"A PIZZA IS A WONDERFULL THING WITH DIFFRENT SAUSAGE THAT RAGE FROM HAMBUGER TO A HOT SPICY MUCHROM. ON A PIZA YOU WILL FIND A RED ORGE SOUSE THAT MAKES YOUR MOTH WATER, FUST TO SMALL IT THAN TO TAST IT IT'S SENDS YOU SOURING. THAN ALL OVER THE PIZA YOU WILL FIND THE BEST PRAT, THE HAMBUGER. ALL THIS IS ON A GLODEN BROWN CURST THAT CRACKLES WHEN YOU CROSH."

I think I gave him a passing grade just for all the endorphins he helped release!

It was the family's trip to Rome. Italy, that really got me interested in Italian cuisine. Suffice to say we ate often and we ate well.

Several years later, I purchased what any self respecting pizza chef is going to need as a basic tool, a very large, very heavy, baking stone. Of course, I then needed a pizza paddle (or pizza peel) to deliver the goods into the oven and on to the stone.

In the years that followed, it was learn as you go, trial be error, observation, and just downright hard work with the rolling pin until I could pretty consistently turn out a good pie each time i went at it.

I took my stone and peel with me on the road while I was working "the circuit" for even more practice. I think it was back then that I first got the idea of combining performing with baking!

The Larry Heagle Pizza Party has been really rewarding for me, albeit as I get older, more difficult to accomplish. To finish up today, here is my recipe for Italian sausage that I have never ever given out (so if you got it here, it's a one time deal!):

1 pound fairly lean ground pork (some fat is good, but not too much)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
red pepper flakes to your taste
heaping teaspoon of prepared garlic (comes in small jars at supermarket)
1 teaspoon fennel seed, broken up with mortar and pestle (or use a food processor briefly)

mix thoroughly by hand. Refrigerate until use. (I do not cook my sausage before putting it on pizza. I roll it in my hands as you would clay, then pinch off equal small "meatballs" and line them up evenly across pizza. (see photo)