Pizza Making With Chef Anna

One of the events on the DaVinci Wine Storyteller Experience itinerary that I was most looking forward to was pizza making with Chef Anna. Wood-fired pizza has been a long time favorite of mine, but experimenting with a wood-fired oven has never been within reach.  The folks at DaVinci changed this by providing us not only with a wood-fired pizza oven, but an outdoor variety overlooking Tuscan vineyards and a lovely Chef Anna to guide us through the process.

Chef Anna, who has been preparing fabulous meals for us throughout the week, graciously let us in on her secrets for perfect pizza napolatena. Secrets which didn’t involve measuring cups or spoons, only general ingredient proportions and modifications based on the feeling of the dough in our hands.

Triple zero flour and fresh yeast {both of which I had never cooked with}, salt, sugar, and water.  So simple.

We let our dough rise underneath crisp, white linens in the cool Tuscan breeze. That alone was a sight worth seeing.

When it came time to roll the dough, it was much tougher than I expected.  I felt as if my dough had failed because it seemed like it barely grew with each pass of the rolling pin.  But after a little bit of patience {I was being watched by Chef Anna, after all} and a lot of small progress, I was left with a large, round-ish palette of dough, ready for toppings.

I dressed the dough with Chef Anna’s sauce, thinly sliced red onion, salami, crumbled mozzarella, and a dab of gorgonzola here and there.  And 90 seconds later, when my pizza was pulled from the fire, it was almost unbelievable that I was responsible for such a good looking pie.  And the taste?  Well, it was wonderful enough to earn the vote for best pizza!

I did agree with Felipo {the pizza judge} that all of our pizzas were great in their own way.  Karen‘s pizza had fresh rosemary that was growing wild at the Casale, Jennifer‘s veggie pizza was a lighter alternative, and Celeste‘s heart-shaped pizza was as delicious as it was adorable.  We spent the remainder of the evening sharing our pizzas, pairing them with DaVinci Pinot Grigio.  All of us were shocked that a white wine could go so well with pizza, but the night ended with four pinot grigio pizza fans.