Cast-Iron Skillet Pizza!

Rich_L

Rich_L

Rich_L

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Joined
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Santa Barbara, Californee
Readers of the Serious Eats website will no doubt have seen this but it is SO good I have to share :D I'm a huge fan of J Kenji-Lopez-Alt both in terms of his writing and his recipes and this is one of his best :D

Now, as the title would suggest you need a cast-iron skillet, if you don't have one go out and buy one, they cost relative peanuts and if well cared for you can hand them down to your great-great-grandchildren because they are basically bullet-proof (literally!).

As a bonus I did a quick back of the envelope calculation of the nutritional info and despite the epically cheesey, gooey, meaty appearance I believe it comes in at about 500 calories which is pretty damn reasonable!

Step 1 - JUST LOOK AT IT

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Step 2

Follow the linked instructions :

http://seriouseats.com/2014/10/cast-iron-skillet-tortilla-pizza-bar-pie-food-lab.html

From start to finish it should take 15 minutes at the very most and minimal clean-up involved also. I added a liberal sprinkling of red pepper flakes and some grated parmesan for the win at the end - the only downside is that it may take 15 minutes to make but less than 5 minutes to scarf it down - though another one is only ever another 15 minutes away!

Next step - the PIZZADILLA (or QUESAPIZZA)

http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/10/...la-pizza-make-love-pizzadilla-quesadizza.html
 
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Lol, I'm FORCED to do this because my oven broke. I put it on the gas hob to start and finish it off under the grill. Done it a good few years now, I haven't made it from scratch but just thin stone baked pizzas.

They actually make it a "feature"? :D
 
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Yeah..it's not a massively new method but their take on it and ways to maximise the quality make for a pretty good read.

I'm thinking about trying this out myself for when I'm too lazy to make dough. I used to do something similar a couple of years ago and it was surprisingly nice - but I hadn't thought about slightly oiling the pan to improve the crispiness, or letting the cheese melt around the edges and burn. Nom nom.
 
I made it last night and it was pretty tasty - obviously not as good as making one properly from scratch but the end result was really good for the amount of effort involved.
 
Love my skillet, it's a desert-island item!

Been meaning to try this, it looks fantastic.

As an aside - anyone know a good place to get a baking steel from? I've got a stone, but would like to try the steel for my proper bakes
 
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Flying_Hellfish said:
Love my skillet, it's a desert-island item!

Been meaning to try this, it looks fantastic.

As an aside - anyone know a good place to get a baking steel from? I've got a stone, but would like to try the steel for my proper bakes
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A local steel company is your best bet but if your oven doesn't hit 260C (it might be 250C) then don't bother and get a thick cordite stone instead.
 
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f00b4r said:
A local steel company is your best bet but if your oven doesn't hit 260C (it might be 250C) then don't bother and get a thick cordite stone instead.
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My oven hits up to 270C but I find it's still better to heat the cast iron 'stones' on the hob and then use the grill. How would you compare a pizza stone (or alternatively, steel) to an 'iron' (for want of a better term)?
 
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FrenchTart said:
My oven hits up to 270C but I find it's still better to heat the cast iron 'stones' on the hob and then use the grill. How would you compare a pizza stone (or alternatively, steel) to an 'iron' (for want of a better term)?
Click to expand...

Not sure but also forgot to mention the oven also needs a grill in it to get the real effect, see:

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/144908-modernist-cuisine-baking-steel/?p=1916868

This guy has been involved in "the" pizza forum on the Internet for years and they pioneered a lot of this stuff so it might be worth asking over there:

http://www.pizzamaking.com
 
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To be honest I had already read most of what is on there and employ a lot of the techniques (aside from anything *too* ridiculous) :)

I'm limited by my equipment but I do make use of two cast iron pizza 'stones', a grill, cold fermenting, autolysing, etc.
 
Purchased a cast iron skillet to try this today. I rarely cook so for this thread to give me the motivation to pick it up was pretty impressive. Everything worked out fine and it was very tasty but I think I could improve a lot just by getting my general kitchen skills up to a usable level - I wasn't even sure how much oil to use or exactly when the oil was heated enough to be removed, etc.

Additionally, these skillets seem very complicated to keep and clean - No soap, do not submerge, blah blah. I'm pretty sure I've ruined the 'season' (or whatever it is) already but I would not know... Meh.

Also I had to get a 10" skillet as this was the largest I could find in TKMaxx without the ridges on the bottom (which the one on the other website didn't appear to have). I bought two different types of tortilla... One (10") was too large to sit in the bottom of the skillet and another (8") fitted pretty well, perhaps a little small, but the resulting pizza hardly seemed worth the effort... I'll have to experiment again and see if I can get better results with the 10" which has to go up the sides of the skillet slightly.

Thanks for sharing! :)
 
re caring for a cast iron skillet.

you can wash it in soap, you can even take an abrasive sponge through it. But after you wash it, put it back on the hob, heat it up, then put a drop of oil on it and then wipe it all round the surface area until it starts to smoke a little and then turn off the heat.

That makes sure the surface is coated in oil and stops it oxidising, ala rusting. It is basically what seasoning is.
 
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