keto pizza!

Lunch was keto pizza. I made a sheet-pan pizza using that keto-baguette recipe, and the crust turned out heavy but perfectly edible. I've got enough for tomorrow as well, so I guess I know what I'll be eating for Sunday lunch.

There wasn't much to be proud of here. The keto-bread recipe wasn't my invention. The sauce was a bottled arrabbiata from my downstairs grocery. The sausage was that Korean-made salsiccia that I like—manufactured in Hanam City, right next door to Seoul and a 26K walk away. The pepperoni (different brand but still legit) was a brand I found on Coupang. The cheeses I used (two types of mozzarella and one type of Parmigiano reggiano) were also grocery-store purchases. The dusted parmesan and red-chili flakes were purchased, too. All I did was shred the cheese and put the pizza ingredients together.

Result: delicious pizza. Only one problem: even though I spread the "dough" thinly in the sheet pan, the crust still ended up being thick. I think I know the way around that the next time I try making this pizza: I'll slap the dough between two sheets of parchment paper, then roll the dough extremely thinly, then bake the dough while it's still inside the parchment paper so that the paper is easy to remove when the crust comes out of the oven. I think I can make the crust about half as thick as it was today. That said, today's crust wasn't bad at all. Sure, it was on the heavy side, but that's often how I learn: through my mistakes. 

Next time will be better. Enjoy the photo essay.

crust, baked, with sauce now added

a closer look at the crust (to which I'd added Everything Bagel seasoning plus oregano)

more cheese (mozz "pearls"), pepperoni, sausage, and shrooms added

Do you put your shrooms on fresh, or do you cook them first? Not cooking your veggies first means their water will render during the pizza bake, and you'll end up with a soggy pizza. I guess one way around that, with mushrooms, is to slice them very thinly, then scatter them sparingly onto the pizza. Or overbake the pizza to make the rendered water evaporate, a tactic that risks burning or drying out your crust.

There were two types of mozz plus Parmigiano reggiano. Low-moisture mozzarella went down over the sauce first, then pepperoni, then those "pearls" of regular mozzarella, then the salsiccia and the shrooms (a combination of oyster and button mushrooms).

For the record, I cooked the shrooms in a mixture of butter and olive oil. I added salt and pepper at the beginning of the cook, and when the shrooms had shrunk toward the end, I added the garlic powder. The smell was extraordinary.

I did most of my prep work for this pizza slowly, over the course of last week. Cooked the sausage on Wednesday. Cooked the shrooms Thursday night. Shredded the cheese early this morning. Everything else came together quickly today.

I almost forgot to add the Parm as the final layer of cheese on top.

I baked the whole thing on low heat for 15 minutes, then blasted the top with my broiler for five minutes.

Come to think of it, I should have used the broiler for at least 7 minutes. More Maillard.

I slid the whole thing onto my large cutting board so I didn't have to use silicone tools to cut the pizza.

Looks pretty damn good from that angle.

a corner piece on my plate

seen from more directly above

a look at the crust's crumb—heavy but good

This is a "bread" recipe that I trust, at least in terms of taste if not texture. In terms of texture, the recipe is awesome right when the bread comes out of the oven, but the moment the bread starts to cool down, it gets heavy and dense. Next time, I'll make a thin-crust pizza.

Snack: Parmigiano rind, microwaved for 30 seconds, then cooled. Crunchy and chewy.

dusted with parmesan and chili flakes

Trivia: parmesan refers to the faux, shitty cheese that Americans know comes in a green, plastic bottle—the cheese we sprinkle indiscriminately on everything. The only cheese that can be labeled as Parmigiano reggiano must come from the Parma region of Italy. This notion of government-controlled naming (appellation contrôlée in French) is important to ensure the authenticity of things like meat, cheese, wine, and other food products. It's a quick and easy way to know whether something is real and/or official.

In all, I'd give today's effort a B+. Pretty good, but there's room for improvement.