AIB Cooking Book - Klaus Meyer homepage

pre‐marinated in a jar) and occasionally I'll put slices of hearts of palm. Depending on my mood, I
may put a few "blobs" of tomato sauce that has already been prepared for spaghetti. I then cut a
nice ripe tomato fairly thinly, and put the tomato around the pie. I then put sliced mushrooms on
toward the end. I probably add more garlic for a kick. Then I put on the shredded mozzarella cheese
(I am liberal here), and then top it off with spicy crushed red pepper. Sometimes I'll add some more
seasonings from the spice department, but this is the basic pie.
You will have preheated the over to 400degrees, and the pie goes onto a pizza pan holder (you may
want to put aluminium foil over the pan, just for ease of cleaning afterward), or a pizza stone, and
follow the Boboli directions. It usually says 8‐10 minutes, but depending on how "thickly" you have
loaded it up, it might take a bit longer. Four hundred degrees is quite hot, so keep checking on your
pie. Remove when you can stick a toothpick in and it comes out cleanly, but be careful not to burn
yourself if there are multiple pizzas in the ovens. Once out of the oven, let it stand for a bit before
cutting into it, particularly if there is to be a taste testing by the group.
Discussion
If this is a group affair, I would recommend about 6‐8 people, depending on how many are doing
their own pie. I can easily fit 4 pies into my 2 ovens (I have an upper and a lower oven). So, you may
end up sharing your "side" of the pie with someone who has different tastes. Watch out for the
margins!
Here is what I have discovered over the years. People get VERY CREATIVE when it comes to their
pizzas. Some are meat lovers. They load it up with pre‐cooked meats such as Canadian bacon,
leftover sirloin or rib‐eye, spicy sausages, BBQ chicken or even ham from a package (processed
honey ham for example). Some throw on some pulled pork, along with the BBQ sauce. I have also
seen folks bring seafood: crab meat, shrimp and scallops. As for veggies, I have seen just about
everything. Some folks load up strictly on veggies (spinach, collard greens, artichoke hearts,
asparagus tips, sprouts, cilantro, etc.) and others add fresh citrus such as pineapple or mango. (One
of the coolest ones was a BBQ Chicken, with a lot of cilantro, pineapple, mango, hot red peppers and
garlic). One friend even went trolling through my olive oils and found a truffle one that he added
liberally to his topping. So,... almost anything goes. At the end, it is always interesting to see who
votes for which pizza. It is really rare that there is a real winner... but hey, the fun is in the process,
and I think the real takeaways are creative new ways to make the average pizza really shine a la
Mama Mia!
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