Research Continues

I gave up on trying to find Bonta pizza sauce locally, and I ordered a case from Pennmac.com. I also ordered a big bag of Grande cheese and some Caputo flour. I'm not thrilled with Caputo flour, but I was already ordering this other crap, and I figured this was the most economical way to get the flour without paying extra for shipping.

I am in the process of making a pie now. Bonta sauce, Grande 50/50 pizza blend cheese, and plain old flour. Unless I get crazy and decide to try Caputo for the hell of it.

I believe I'm going to alter the pizza chapte to say that Bonta is my favorite sauce. Stanislaus Super Dolce reminds me of the stuff I used to eat in New York, but when you eat a pizza made with it, you know right away that it's a Stanislaus product. Bonta is more subtle and blends into the food better.

That being said, Stanislaus Super Dolce is magnificent on pasta. And as far as I know, Bonta is not. For big tubs of ziti, it's Super Dolce every time.

I think it's safe to say that this is my last experiment for the book. I already sent the manuscript in, but stage mother that I am, I told my editor I wanted to make a few changes, so I'm putting the finishing touches on it.

Wish me luck with my final effort. Unless I decide to try making biscuits with all-purpose flour and my own leavening.

Damn it.

More

I decided to make the pizza with Caputo 00 flour. I just tried it.

Truthfully, the Grande cheese is nothing special. Don't get me wrong; it's excellent. It's as good as the Gordon Food Service stuff, but not noticeably better. And boy is it salty. Very nice cheese, but so is the stuff I already have. So I won't be buying this one again. I'm talking about the 50/50 mix, not the pure mozzarella. For all I know, the mozzarella is the finest cheese on earth.

I'm afraid I'm not being clear. It's wonderful cheese. I'm just saying the earth didn't move. Ive had pizzeria pizzas with Grande cheese, and they were really excellent, so don't write them off. I'm sure you can buy their products with great confidence. But I wouldn't pay to have this particular variety shipped to me again. If I could buy it locally, I'd probably pick some up from time to time.

The Bonta sauce is great, but the salt in the cheese made it a little hard to taste. If you like a salty pizza, no problem. I think that if I used this cheese again, I'd cut way back in the salt in the crust. And I'd put a little sugar in the sauce.

The Caputo flour...still not rocking my world. Fine crust. No doubt about it. But so is the crust I make all the time with biscuit flour.

That's about it. I feel like the only thing I could do now to upgrade my pizza significantly would be to get a hotter oven, but that isn't going to happen, and I'm not sure it would make any difference.