Reinhart begins his inquiry into pizza with his baseline palate memory for what a great pizza should be. As a teenager he had worked in a pizzeria, Mama's, and instinctively knew this pie to be the best. Returning as an adult years later, he discovered otherwise. Had he changed, or had the pizza changed? Both, it happened, were true.
So what is the nature of perfection, and where do you go to find it? In the case of Peter Reinhart, this journey includes travels through Italy and across the US. This is Part One of the book, called The Hunt. It's not the most enlivening travel writing, which would have helped elevate the insights into the nature of great pizza and the people who make it happen. But it's only a third of the entire package. The best is yet to come. In Part Two: The Recipes, Reinhart comes entirely into his own. Here is the master at work. Chapters include "The Family of Doughs", "Sauces and Specialty Toppings," and "The Pizzas." Reinhart gives you the building blocks, no matter what your kitchen, tools, and oven might be like. And then he unfolds the roadmap--pizzas from the strictly classical to the strictly whimsical.
I bought this book, having never seen it before, because of my appreciation for author Peter Reinhart's other excellent works, as well as a desire to make good pizza of my own. I have Bread Baker's Apprentice and Crust & Crumb, and because these books are specifically about bread, I assumed that American Pie would be all about the crust. This was a gross misconception on my part; this book is much more than a tome on pizza crust.
The book has two sections. The first is a fascinating account of all Reinhart went through to find what he regards as the perfect pizza. This includes details of a trip to Italy as well as places within the United States where he found excellent pizza on his pilgrimage. The second, larger section deals with the recipes (formulas) he has created, and this section is broken down further into three sections -- dough, toppings and sauces, and finally complete pizzas.
Do yourself a favor -- do not skip the first section and plow right into the recipes and formulas. While you may be more interested in getting down to business, you learn a tremendous amount about what the author regards as a great pizza, and more importantly, you learn just how serious the author was when he set out to find what he calls the perfect pizza. As is typical of his other works, Reinhart writes with unwavering passion, pouring everything he's got into the writing. Finally, many of the pizzas he mentions in the first section are recreated in recipe form in the second section, and it's really fasinating to recreate one of the pies in your own kitchen.
The dough section is a collection of approximately a dozen excellent formulas for crust. Each recipe sticks to Reinhart's trademark method -- slow rise, usually an overnight rising. I have not tried all of these, but those that I have tried have not disappointed. I'm getting rid of my old crust recipe.
The toppings and sauces section contains two recipes for nice sauces, neither of which I have attempted yet but will. Where it gets interesting is his "Specialty Toppings" section -- there are things there that I would never dream of putting on a pizza, such as pureed butternut squash, as well as tried and true items such as sauteed mushrooms and garlic oil. While some of these will not appeal to everyone, there is something interesting bound to tempt everyone.
Included is a brief breakdown of baking scenarios and how to deal with them -- home oven/no stone, convection oven and stone, etc. He covers all the bases.
Finally, the actual complete pizza forulas he gives reflect his quest to find a pizza that meets his unwavering standards. Many of the recipes are clearly a result of his trip to Italy, such as Pizza Vesuvio, and others are accounted in his domestic travels. Again, I have not tried them all (and with eggplant as an ingredient in some of these, it's doubtful I ever will), but those I have tried are so far and away better than what I made before.
All this said, an underlying thought I had was that the search for the "perfect pizza" was Reinhart's search. He was going for what *he* considers a perfect pizza, and that could very well be different than that of many of his readers. He seems to prefer a thinner, crisp crust that is mildly charred, with a good crunch and a finely tuned sauce and toppings combination. If you prefer a thick, chewy crust, you may feel like he is "off the mark" in his search. It is important to remember this when working your way through this book and finding your own "perfect pizza".
If you like pizza and want to make pizza of your own that is just flat-out outstanding, this book will serve you exceptionally well. Even if you don't find what you would consider "perfect pizza" here, you'll find something that's a great foundation.
Comparisons against THE ART are difficult for me to avoid. DeAngelis basically instructs on making one style of pizza - what Reinhart would call a New York style or Americana. Reinhart teaches you to make Napoletana pizza, New York style pizza, Americana pizza, Roman style (thin crust) pizza, grilled pizza (Yes! It's what it sounds like!), Chicago deep dish pizza and a few breads that you may not consider pizza at all, like pita, carta di musica and focaccia. DeAngelis INSISTS that you need to use high-gluten flour (good luck finding it locally) and complains of the inadequacy of the home oven. Reinhart uses (mostly) available ingredients and writes the book knowing that it's going to be used within the limitations of a home kitchen.
But until recently, I've had problems with the recipes. I've tried the Napoletana crust, the Americana crust, the focaccia, the carta di musica, and the prebaked crusts. Despite following his recipes (nearly) to a "T," the dough just did not act as described in the book. It was not as elastic as described, and could tear apart from its own weight. Despite this, if I could get the dough formed into a crust at all, the results were still pretty good! There are two pages on "Ten Tips for Making Pizza Dough." These may be the two most valuable pages in the book, and should be expanded and not relegated to the reduced type size. The recipes call for "instant yeast." I've never found anything in the store called "instant yeast." The ten tips include substitutions for active dry, which I could find everywhere. I tried the following these instructions with no improvement. I had to research "instant yeast." With help from Alton Brown's I'M JUST HERE FOR MORE FOOD and other sources, I discovered that the stuff in the store called "yeast for bread machines" was in fact, instant yeast. Reinhart should discuss this more. Differences in yeasts may seem common knowledge for someone as himself, who is, by all accounts, one of the nation's leading experts on baking, but can confuse the home baker to whom the book is directed.
I finally discovered my problem, again, with help from Alton Brown while watching his bread episode of GOOD EATS where he used the same Kitchenaid mixer as I and momentarily ran the mixer to high to spread the dough when it wrapped around the dough hook. I was dutifully following Reinhart's instructions to knead on medium-low, and my Kitchenaid Artisan really needs medium, if not a bit more to knead. The problem was exacerbated by the fact that I tried to half the recipes (most make a half dozen 12" crusts) and the dough just spun around on the hook for a ride, not kneading at all. Once I corrected this other day, I got the most incredible New York style pizza out of my very oven that would compete with any I've ever had from a pizzeria. Oh - and be warned, depending on the size of your garlic cloves, you might find his sauces to be pretty garlicky.
Of the many doughs, my wife actually liked the prebaked freezer crusts the best. I don't think Reinhart intended this and offers the recipe as an alternative to the popular par-baked crusts in the supermarket. They are great to have on hand when you want a pizza, but could not plan ahead to defrost a dough before you left for work in the morning.
The first third of the book is the author's travels around the world studying the art and types of pizza. He waxes quite philosophical. I expected that this wouldn't appeal to me, but it ended up drawing me in, and I stayed up late finishing the section. He dispels some popular myths. Pizza is NOT traditionally made by spinning it in the air, and it was not invented in America.
My brother's copy of AMERICAN PIE also had the artsy, rough-cut pages, so we think that's normal.
Again, this is the only book on pizza you'll probably ever need. My only suggestions are to add more "diagnostics" should you have problems. Although I usually eschew the idea that a cookbook need glitzy color photos, a few black and white showing, for example, what a focaccia is supposed to look like, would be very helpful. (Some of us have lived sheltered lives!) I am still trying to find my personal holy grail, though: the Pizza Hut thin crust!
http://weread.com/book/1580084222/American+Pie:+My+Search+for+the+Perfect+Pizza/BOK-12226886-1
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