All Pizzas Are Not Created Equal Part IV

Today I'll talk about the various levels of quality of meats that you find out there.
Pepperoni: This is by far the #1 topping of choice in North America and there are various grades of quality out there. At Diana’s, we use a premium dry cured pepperoni, comprising of a mixture of 50% beef and 50% pork, our cost is over $4.50/pound. There are pepperonis out there that are less than $0.50/pound, and I don’t want to gross you out, but suffice to say we all know what cheap hot dogs are made of, it’s not much different. I wouldn’t feed these pepperonis to my cats, much less my dogs whom I’ve even seen eat some pretty gross stuff.

Chicken: There’s 100% white meat, and there's dark meat, then there’s mixtures of each. Then there is ‘whole muscle chicken’ which is exactly what it sounds like: whole muscle as opposed to chicken meat that has been ground up and reformed to look like pieces of whole muscle chicken. At Diana’s, we only use the top quality 100%, whole muscle chicken breast, which has gone through an extensive scanning process to ensure all the bones have been removed and we hand slice it before it’s ready to go on your pizza.

Beef: Here’s a scary fact for you. Years ago, we were shocked to find that the leading ‘beef topping’ used at many pizza places does not contain any beef. Way, way down on the ingredients list, past the yellow dye #68, past the fillers and by-products, you’ll find ‘beef  flavouring’. At Diana’s, we start with 100% lean ground beef, then we cook it and drain the fat off, then it’s ready to use. From there we add a special blend of taco spices to create our ‘Taco Beef’ and that becomes the base for our ‘Hot & Spicy Beef’ which we add Frank’s Hot Sauce and let it marinate for at least 24 hours before it’s ready to use. All of our beef is 100% real beef, there are no ‘beef toppings’ or ‘beef flavouring’ allowed at Diana’s.

In the summer season we source as many fresh vegetables as possible from a local farmer including, green peppers, red onions, Roma tomatoes, zuchinni, spinach and Basil.

A few months ago we purchased an Aerogarden hydroponic garden and we set that up in the dining room to grow fresh Basil for our Marguerita pizzas. It grows Basil very well, which is great because the shelf life of fresh Basil is very limited, usually only lasts 3-4 days after it’s been cut.

Perhaps one of the things that make us most unique is that we’re always adding and looking for top quality unique toppings to expand the palette and create interesting yet tasty pizzas for you, our customer. Even though neither Pierre nor I compete in baking competitions anymore—it’s a huge honour to be on the judges’ side:), we are always open to your suggestions and on the lookout for something spectacular to share with you.

All Pizzas Are Not Created Equal part III

Enriched white flour vs. unbleached flour vs 100% Whole Wheat vs Whole Grain

Many pizza crust recipes are made with enriched white flour, which on the surface sounds like a good thing, but the fact is that it’s not. When your digestive system breaks down enriched white flour it because sugar, which gives you some energy, however doesn’t provide you with many nutrients, and also leaves you still feeling hungry. Try to avoid simple carbohydrates like enriched white flours and refined grains. North American diets are severely lacking in fiber. Fiber comes from whole wheat and whole grain breads. Fiber takes longer for your digestive system to break down and as a result leaves you feeling fuller longer. Also a source of complex carbohydrates (starches) and a major source of B vitamins, magnesium and many other minerals. Most flours are also bleached, which leaches nutrients from the flour. Why do they do this? Good question—apparently at some point in time in North America, someone decided that natural coloured flour wasn’t ‘white enough’ and added the bleaching process. I don’t know about you guys, but I usually try not to bleach any of my food before I eat it.

At Diana’s Gourmet Pizzeria, we use a high protein, unbleached white flour for our White and Moosehead beer dough recipes. It’s an industry specific product, you won’t find it on the shelves of your local grocery store. The higher protein content ensures the crust will have a crispier bottom and be able to support layers of sauce, cheese and toppings that North American pizzas are known for. This flour is more expensive than the standard all purpose enriched white flour, but it’s key to a better North American style pizza.

Who knew there was so much to know about great pizza? Twenty-one years in the industry has taught me a lot, and I’ve also taken pizza baking courses at the Italian Scuola Pizza and the American Institute of Baking to advance my knowledge and skills. You could say I love pizza.

Next post I'll discuss the quality of meats that are used in the most popular toppings found on pizza.

Gluten Free Pizza Available

Back in 2008 we noticed we were getting more and more phone calls asking if we made a gluten free pizza. People with gluten allergies were begging us to make a gluten free pizza that they could eat – something palatable was requested, but they were really hoping for something tasty. They also needed to have confidence that it wouldn’t make them sick, that is to say, that special care in the preparation & cooking would be assured and they could enjoy a pizza like everybody else – except that it would be a gluten free pizza. In a way it was very flattering to hear requests from people with gluten allergies; many said that we are known for being the best when it comes to all things pizza and these people really missed pizza. We still get calls and questions every week about our gluten free pizza.

We took quite a while to develop our own gluten free pizza recipe and it’s been on the menu for about a year and a half. Our recipe is made in house—from scratch and we only make it early in the morning in small batches. We do this to limit the exposure to wheat flour. We could have sourced the pre-made shells like some other pizza places do, but we felt that we could do better. Italians have been making Gluten Free pizza for years and they even have a Gluten Free baking category at the World Pizza Championship games. What I’ve learned from my experience there is that they don’t like eggs in the dough, which is common in North American Gluten Free products. Our recipe is egg free.

While we were developing our gluten free pizza dough recipe we had several testers who tasted our sample batches and sent us evaluations of each test. We knew we had our final recipe when all the evaluations came back with “this tastes like pizza!!!” A big thanks again to all of our samplers, we really appreciated your honest feedback. Even though we had our winning recipe, we still had to figure out how to incorporate a from-scratch gluten free pizza into a busy ‘wheat’ pizzeria. We asked our friends in Australia and Italy how they have been able to offer it on their menus for the past 10 years. We developed our system based on many suggestions from these experts.

We have a special shelf inside our walk in where we make the gluten free pizzas. We use sauce, toppings and cheese from the walkin which have not been in our kitchen, exposed to the wheat dusting flour that we use to slap out our wheat pizzas. Whenever we get an order for a gluten free pizza, a Pizziolo takes a clean, fresh apron and makes that gluten free pizza in the walk in, then loads it in our granite stone conveyor oven. We use separate baking disks and we also use a separate cutting wheel for our gluten free pizzas. We take extra special care that our gluten free pizzas are not exposed to any wheat products. It’s a lot of work, but we realize that not caring could make someone very sick and that’s just not acceptable.

Part of the other challenge was to check with all our suppliers about whether or not their products were deemed “gluten-free”. Label laws in Canada allow for a small percentage of wheat flour to be included in a “spices” category listed on the label—and listed here are all of our gluten free pizza toppings.

Gluten Free toppings:
Meats: Buffalo Chicken, Cajun Chicken, Plain Chicken, Seasoned Chicken, Strip Bacon, Turkey Bacon, Plain Beef, Capicollo Ham, Oysters, Anchovies, Shrimp.

Veggies: All of them!!!!

Gluten Free Pizza Crusts made from scratch with: White Rice flour, Brown Rice Flour, Tapioca Starch, Corn Flour, Corn Starch, Gluten Free Yeast, and Xanthan gum.
Available in 12” size only.

Gluten Free Specialty Pizzas*
When requested with gluten free pizza crust

Gourmet Hawaiian
Our signature marinara, Capicolla, Strip Bacon, Fresh Hand Cut Pineapple,
Monterey Jack Cheese Blend

Mexican*
*request with plain lean ground beef instead of seasoned beef, our signature marinara, Roma tomatoes, red onions and medium sharp cheddar

Classic Vegetarian
Our signature marinara, fresh mushrooms, green peppers, red onions & Roma tomatoes

Gourmet Vegetarian
Our signature marinara, chopped baby spinach, artichoke hearts, red onions & sundried tomatoes

Cheesy
Our signature marinara, mozzarella, medium sharp cheddar & Monterey Jack Cheeses

Big D’s Bodacious BLT “Canada’s Best Pizza 2006” – Canadian Pizza Magazine
No sauce, a blend of medium sharp cheddar & low fat mozzarella cheeses, capicolla ham, strip bacon, topped with fresh diced Roma tomatoes, ranch dressing, light pepper & sea salt finished with fresh chopped Romaine lettuce.

Havarti Heaven “Finalist for Best Pizza 2007” – Pizza Festiva
Olive oil & herb sauce, roasted red peppers, red onions, strip bacon & Cajun chicken with a blend of garlic’n’chive havarti & low fat mozzarella

Californian
Olive oil & herb sauce, low fat mozzarella cheese, seasoned chicken breast, chopped baby spinach, sundried tomatoes & Roma tomatoes