The words “pizza school” were all I needed to hear to clear my schedule so on Thursday evening I went to the Lower East Side with some co-workers for an evening of pizza making at Pizza a Casa. There, Neil taught us how to make dough, a 60-second sauce, and some fun topping combos. The first half of the class was all instruction, where I was surprised to learn how quick and easy it was to make delicious pizza dough. Nobody takes it too seriously, but it would be hard to with Neil’s “yea duuuuude” Cali vibe. Don’t let the laid back ‘tude fool ya – he knows his pizza.
After the demo, we all got to make several pizzas. There were some pizza school approved recipe suggestions, but I decided to go rogue when I saw the somewhat under-used spice cabinet. It was there that I spotted everything bagel spice mix – something I saw once online and have been searching for. I built my pizza around that spice, going with a breakfast theme. First, I topped my crust with smoked mozzarella, sausage, and mushrooms. Into the oven it went. Halfway through, we put two eggs on top and then the spice went on once the whole thing came out of the oven.
Pizza number two was a dessert pizza that I was splitting with Patricia and she had major eyes for nutella. We placed a few dollops of ricotta on the crust, along with some blueberries and cinnamon sugar. When it came out of the oven, we topped it with sliced strawberries, nutella, and powdered sugar.
You can’t imagine how great this place smelled. And the pizza you make is better than just about any you can buy.
Peaches to Apples 