Pizza – Page 4 – StewsCat

Race Summary: Quick, efficient expo. Early morning bus ride through the city to reach the start. Hilly course with good amount of on-course support and spectators. Beautiful run across the Golden Gate Bridge.

This was my 2nd RnR SF half marathon. I also ran the inaugural race the year before. For the second year of the race, the organizers decided to completely change the course.

Since I’m in Sac, SF is only a short 1.5-3 hour drive, depending on the traffic. We love going to the city, though parking and driving there is not the easiest. Since we were bringing the dog, we found a dog friendly hotel near Union Square. Even though it is the touristy spot, it was located where I could walk to the finish line (shuttles took us to the start from the finish line) and actually is in a decent location to a lot of restaurants.

The expo was at the Moscone center and as per usual with RnR races, it was efficient. I didn’t have time to explore the expo because the wife and dog were waiting outside the building. But I do appreciate the quick packet pickup.

For my usual pre-race pizza dinner, we ended up at Pizzeria Delfina in the Mission District. Originally we were going to try out Flour & Water, but the wait was too long. This pizza joint is located adjacent to their italian restaurant Delfina in a small location. The kitchen took up about half the space and there were a few small tables as well as a long counter. Somehow we wound up getting seated at the counter after only a 5 minute wait.

Race morning I woke up super early as per my usual routine. The hotel didn’t have in-room coffee so around 4 am, I ran across the street to a 24/7 pharmacy and picked up some nasty tasting coffee. I then made my way to the finish line at Civic Center Plaza. There I boarded a bus to the very west side of SF (northwest corner of Golden Gate Park). I sat next to an older gentleman who said he had done a ton of Rock’n’Roll races. We discussed some of the races that we had both done.

The start line had plenty of porta potties and there was no wait should you need to relieve yourself, which I liked. My friend and her husband were also running the race but they were running late and we didn’t end up seeing each other.

All RnR races have corral starts. I lined up in my corral and we were off. The beginning of this race is a little disheartening. You run about 1/4 mile and make a right turn and face your first hill. This is a long slow upwards climb so its best to mentally prepare for hills. Also because we were running through many neighborhoods, there is a noticeable dearth of bands on this course compared to other RnR races. We wound our way along the western coast of SF and towards the Golden Gate Bridge around mile 4. I had run across the bridge the previous year at the inaugural RnR SF race and knew the bridge is not flat. Many people were stopping when they reached the bridge to take a selfie. Since I had done this last year with my friends, this race I kept pushing and tried to pick up my pace since I had a slow start with the early hills. After crossing over the bridge and back, you then run along the north end of SF past Crissy Field, the Palace of Fine Arts, and down towards Fort Mason. Upon passing Fort Mason, we hung a right onto Polk Avenue and headed south towards the finish. This was a little deceptive because there were a few more hills in this area prior to a downhill to the finish. By mile 11 at Fort Mason, my legs were pretty shot with the up and down hills and I was just hanging on to finish.

Final chip time: 2:16:34

I felt good about that time given all the hills.

IMAG4096 — 2014 medal (below) compared to 2013 medal (above)

-StewsCat

I’ve been making pizza from scratch now for a little over a year. I started by doing a search for no-knead bread/pizza dough because I wanted something simple that also didn’t require a lot of technical expertise. I’ve been delving into the science behind baking and yeast and all that jazz. My pizza dough has been evolving over the last year. Sometimes the dough is too soft and pliable, sometimes it is thicker. I believe I’ve found a good compromise between the no-knead method and some folding/shaping that provides a decent amount of structure to the dough.

I start with Jim Lahey’s no-knead recipe. After reading some other blogs, I added in more salt than the original recipe mostly because the original is underseasoned and Jim Lahey himself pretty much admitted that it could use more salt.

500 grams (3-4 cups) all-purpose flour, plus more for shaping the dough
1 gram (1/4 teaspoon) active dry yeast
16 grams (2 teaspoons) fine sea salt
350 grams (1 ½ cups) water

I recently bought a digital kitchen scale so have been using weight (instead of measured cups) to create my dough recipes. I think this is a more accurate method and have had good results with this compared to going by the other measurements.

I combine the above ingredients into a mixing bowl, make sure it is all well incorporated and let it sit overnight (12-18 hours) at room temperature. This method doesn’t require the normal kneading (10-20 minutes) because as the yeast work on the flour and create the gases, they also are kneading themselves (this is why you have to let it sit for so long).

IMAG2592 — Flour, water, yeast, salt – the night before

The next day you have this risen dough full of gas.

Rather than just shaping this into the dough balls for pizza (as in the original recipe), I poured the mixture out onto a floured surface. Here I then stretch the dough in all directions while lightly degassing it. Then I fold the dough in thirds horizontally (like an envelope), then vertically in thirds, flip the dough, then place it back into the bowl for another 45-60 minutes. I repeated this process twice and each time you can feel the dough firming up and getting more structure.

As in the picture above, I then divided the dough into 4 and shaped 2 of them into balls (the other 2 I shape into balls, wrap in plastic then freeze). I then let these dough balls proof for another 30-45 minutes.

After reading about the various ways to roll out, toss, twirl pizza dough, I’ve come up with a method that works for me. I take the ball and put it on a lightly floured surface. Then flatten the dough out and run my fingers about 1 inch from the edge of the dough flattening the dough in the center of the ball and lightly stretching it out into a disc shape. I continue this around the entire circumference of the dough. Then I hold one end (the right side) with my right hand and use my left hand to stretch the left side of the dough disc. Flip the dough over and stretch the right side. Continue until the disc is stretched out. At this time you can then pick up the dough and using your knuckles continue to stretch and thin out the dough – leaving the outer 1 inch edge alone so that it forms a night puffy crust.

I make a simple tomato sauce for my pizza using canned San Marzano tomatoes, some basil and some garlic. Sometimes I’ll add in some tomato paste to thicken up the sauce.

I usually top the pizza with some combination of mushrooms, zucchinis, prosciutto, and/or pepperoni.