Agree, “French pizza” sounds like an oxymoron. However, on the menu "Philippe - French charcoal pizza" There are as many as 38 types of French pizza, and the whole city knows and loves this restaurant on the corner of Carlebach and Laskov streets in the very center of Tel Aviv. What is the difference between French pizza and the usual Italian one, we decided to find out collectively by organizing a small editorial meeting at Philippe’s, over a piece of pizza and a glass of wine.
Philippe was born in a small town in the French Alps. In 2001, he made aliyah - like most of those who come now, without a specific goal. I looked around, got accustomed, and decided to open my own place, following the model from France. The dough in his pizza is Italian, and in order to learn how to cook it correctly, Philip hastily left Israel and studied with a famous Italian chef. But the fillings and toppings are French! Special cheeses, meats and sausages, combinations of vegetables and sauces - all this is based on the French culinary traditions on which Philip grew up (as, for example, in pizza Chevre et Miele - from French. "All the Honey"- with goat cheese, honey, pecans and fresh leaves).
And Philip is a perfectionist. To achieve a certain flavor, he brought his special wooden oven to Israel and cooks pizza only in it.
Pizzeria Philippe first opened in Carmel Market. The place was small and modest, but people gradually began to arrive, the first lines formed, and one day, two years later, a regular customer of the pizzeria approached Philip and categorically stated that he could no longer stay here. So the Philippe pizzeria moved to Carlebach, where it is still located.
This is where Philip spends every day at Carlebach 20, because... “if your name is on the sign, you have to be here every day, every night, and make sure that your recipes are still the same as they were in the very beginning”. The atmosphere of this place is made up of the smells coming from the wood-burning stove, interior details from which you can easily guess Philip’s passion for jazz, and the clink of glasses of wine. By the way, wine is an important part of the “French pizzeria” concept. To create the wine list, Philip brought a sommelier from France, who selected exactly those varieties of French wines that were ideal for pizza - meat, cheese, vegetables or seafood. Israeli wines were added to them, resulting in a very good selection in different price categories.
So, but still, what kind of pizza should I get? What is definitely worth trying from Philippe? We studied the menu for a long time, tried everything we could (and came here several more times after that meeting), and we can recommend this:
- for vegetarians: Napolitaine with Buffalo cheese, Végétarienne with onions, mushrooms and artichokes, 4 Fromage with four types of cheese and La Forestiere with Portobello mushrooms and Roquefort cheese;
Roll out “your” dough or defrost a layer of store-bought dough (indicated on the package). Use a fork to make holes in the dough over the entire area. Grate the cheese on a coarse grater and place some of it on the dough. Place the pizza blank on a baking sheet greased with vegetable oil and place in an oven preheated to 175 degrees for 10 minutes.
Prepare some of the filling in a frying pan. To do this, cut the mushrooms into slices and the onions into small cubes. Fry the mushroom filling a little in vegetable oil. Remove the dough from the oven and place the mushroom filling on it. Salt, pepper and sprinkle with finely chopped herbs.
Mix the egg with milk and add the remaining grated cheese. Season with salt, pepper, stir the egg-cheese mixture with a spoon and pour it over the future pizza. Place the baking sheet with the pizza in the oven and bake at 180 degrees for 20-30 minutes (the length of time the pizza stays in the oven depends on the size and thickness of the dough).
Once the time is up, remove the French pizza from the oven and let cool slightly.
In the morning, a hot pizza with a cheese crust will delight your husband when he comes out of the shower (you just need to know the recipe for quick pizza dough - and now you, like the most skilled sorceress, are ready to conjure a delicious breakfast!). At lunch, your colleagues will delight in a hearty “Marinara” or a classic “Margherita”, which you will share with everyone working with you in the same office (homemade pizza with thick fluffy dough tastes great after heating in the microwave!). In the evening, the family will appreciate pizza on the most common yeast dough - with a glass of tart red wine, light French comedy and a warm homely atmosphere.
A party for friends, a children's birthday, a business lunch between trainings, a meeting with girlfriends, a picnic in nature - pizza is appropriate everywhere, desired and needed everywhere.
Surely you have your own proven recipe for pizza dough, which you use year after year: it doesn’t let you down, suits you completely and doesn’t force you to go online before every meal preparation to find something suitable. Of course, in this case, you are unlikely to be interested in any other option - and yet... don’t pass by! A new recipe is always a chance to gain useful experience and write down an even more successful way of preparing a familiar dish in your personal cookbook.
Not many people realize that the secret to delicious pizza lies in a successful dough. You can experiment with toppings for a long time, you can replace some components with others, endlessly select the perfect tomato sauce, buy only the best cheeses, but if the base is tasteless, you will never get a delicious pizza.
Let's talk about pizza dough?
The most common yeast dough for thin pizza
A classic of the genre, which in one interpretation or another is presented in all textbooks on Italian cuisine, which is used by chefs in famous restaurants and which is most often resorted to in standard recipes. Pizza is a folk food and simple, and therefore should not be prepared in a technically difficult or problematic manner. What's more, it doesn't include ingredients that are hard to find, cost a lot of money, and can't be bought at the corner store. The basic components of a simple yeast pizza dough are water, yeast, flour, salt and a little vegetable oil. Everything else is from the evil one.Ingredients:
175 g flour;
125 ml water;
1 tsp. yeast;
1/4 tsp. salt;
1 tbsp. l. vegetable oil.
Dissolve yeast in warm water, add salt and oil. Gradually add flour and knead into a soft, non-sticky, elastic dough. After the dough is ready, do not be lazy to knead it additionally on the table, adding one or two tablespoons of flour: yeast dough loves affection, and the three “bonus” minutes of attention that you give it will only improve the quality of the finished dish.
Cover the bowl with the dough with a towel and place it in a warm place until doubled in size. After this, you can knead the dough and start shaping the pizza.
The most common yeast dough for fluffy pizza
The first secret of a successful pizza with a fluffy base is that the dough for this option is rolled out a little thicker than for a thin one. The second secret is slightly different proportions of flour and water.
Ingredients:
225 ml water;
300 g flour;
1 tsp. yeast;
1/3 tsp. salt;
2 tbsp. l. vegetable oil.
Pour dry yeast with warm water and wait until it starts to “play”. After this, add salt, add vegetable oil (olive is ideal, sunflower is acceptable). Add flour little by little and knead into a smooth, pleasant, non-sticky dough. Leave it in a bowl, covered with a towel, for 1-1.5 hours before rising (the time depends on the room temperature and the quality of the products). After doubling the dough, we cheat and start assembling the pizza.
Pizza dough without yeast
For one reason or another, many housewives are looking for a good recipe for yeast-free pizza dough. Some people do not perceive yeast at all as a healthy food, others this product is contraindicated, and still others simply do not have enough patience and time to wait for the yeast dough to rise. The solution is dough without yeast. Crispy, dry, thin and very tasty.Ingredients:
2 cups of flour;
0.5 glasses of milk;
1/2 tsp. salt;
1/2 tsp. soda;
2 eggs;
3 tbsp. l. vegetable oil.
Mix flour, salt and soda. In a separate bowl, stir milk, eggs and butter. Pour two-thirds of the flour into the liquid mass, stir with a spoon until it becomes a homogeneous sticky substance. Put the spoon aside, grease your hands with vegetable oil and, gradually adding the remaining flour, begin to knead. Knead the dough for at least 10 minutes - you should get a smooth, shiny, even lump, very pleasant to the touch. Cover the dough with cling film and leave to rest for 15 minutes. After this you can work with the test.
Kefir pizza dough recipe
Kefir dough is loved by those who prefer quick options for making pizza - no need to knead for a long time, no need to wait for rise and proofing. Another significant advantage of kefir dough is the banal disposal of leftovers: it often happens that a glass of kefir remains in the bag, which no one wants to drink anymore. The expiration date is about to expire, and on the way home I bought a new portion of fermented milk products. Just throwing away the leftovers is a no-brainer, so you need to come up with something that will allow you to use them without forcing your family to drink kefir that has been sitting in the refrigerator for several days. The solution is kefir dough for pizza, classic or, for example, such a non-standard one as.
Ingredients:
1 glass of kefir;
2.5 cups flour;
10 ml vegetable oil;
1 egg;
1/3 tsp. salt;
1/3 tsp. soda
Mix flour, salt and soda.
In a separate bowl, mix vegetable oil, kefir and egg.
Gradually add the dry mixture into the liquid mass and stir until a homogeneous sticky dough is obtained. You can’t knead it for a very long time - you will “drive out” all the air, and the dough will turn out “clogged” and hard. After all the ingredients are mixed, with your hands dipped in vegetable oil, pour the dough into a well-greased pan and spread in an even layer. Then you can work with the filling.
Pizza dough with sour cream
Perhaps, among all the non-canonical pizza dough options, this one is the most interesting, tasty and convenient. Quite quickly (10 minutes maximum) and with minimal labor (measured, mixed, received), you have an excellent pizza base ready - tasty, tender, not dry or hard. Great option! Of course, a true pizzaiolo would most likely simply faint if presented with the indistinct mass without yeast, which we call sour cream pizza dough. Let's not irritate him - we'll agree that we'll officially call a culinary masterpiece made with liquid sour cream dough an open pie, and among ourselves we'll continue to call it pizza. Homemade and extremely tasty.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup sour cream;
1 egg;
1/2 tsp. soda;
1/2 tsp. salt;
1/2 cup flour.
Mix sour cream with egg, add salt and soda. Add flour and with a few sharp movements knead into a homogeneous, lumpy dough. Place it in a well-greased pan and level it with a spoon. You can work with the filling.
Pizza dough with cottage cheese
Soft, with a pleasant creamy aftertaste, tender and does not dry out for a long time. This is the dough that should be prepared for two large pizzas at once, because on the second day, and even on the third, it remains tasty and appetizing.
Ingredients:
250 g cottage cheese;
1 egg;
50 g butter;
1/2 tsp. salt;
1/2 tsp. soda;
1.5 cups flour.
Grind the cottage cheese with the egg, add soda, salt and softened butter. Gradually adding flour, knead the soft dough. It may stick slightly to your hands - try to limit yourself to the specified amount of flour so as not to “clog” the dough and make it tough. To distribute the dough on a baking sheet, line it with baking paper, lightly grease it with vegetable oil and place a ball of dough in the middle. With wet hands, stretch the dough in all directions, achieving an even layer. Next you can add the filling.
Yeast puff pastry for pizza
And this is the most labor-intensive of all the pizza dough recipes given. Obviously no one will cook this every day, but sometimes you can treat yourself to wonderful puff pastry made with yeast - it is soft, crispy, tender, and substantial at the same time.
Ingredients:
200 g butter;
3 cups flour;
7 g yeast;
1/2 tsp. salt;
3/4 cup liquid;
1 egg;
3 tsp. Sahara.
Pour warm water into a bowl, add sugar and yeast.
Quickly rub the ice cream butter into the flour on a coarse grater, and mix quickly until crumbs are obtained.
After the yeast begins to “play,” add the egg, stir well and pour into the flour mixture. Stir without fanaticism, add another spoon or two of flour if necessary, gather the dough into a ball and, covering the bowl with cling film, put the dough in the refrigerator for 1.5-2 hours. After this, the dough can be taken out and cut.
Beer pizza dough
Ingredients:
1/2 glass of beer;
125 g butter (half a pack);
1/3 tsp. salt;
1/3 tsp. soda;
1.5-2 cups of flour.
Mix beer with melted butter, add salt and soda. Stir in the flour - you should get a soft, non-sticky dough, very pleasant and tender. Roll it into a thin layer or stretch it with your hands and fill it with filling.
Pizza made from ready-made dough
An option for the lazy, busy, in a hurry and who hate “playing” with dough, but who love to eat deliciously, is pizza with store-bought puff pastry, unleavened or yeast. Defrost, place on a baking sheet, spread the filling and put in the oven - that’s it. It cannot be said that with such manipulations you will get a culinary masterpiece, however, the fact that dinner will be much tastier than a store-bought semi-finished product can be said with complete confidence.
5 tips for making delicious pizza dough:
- It seems to many that the unfortunate half spoon of salt in the dough is not felt or felt at all, so you can simply forget about them. Blasphemous mistake! Salt balances the taste of the dough, enhances what is worth strengthening, so in no case should you expect that the saltiness of the finished dish will be leveled out with the help of the filling and ignore adding salt to the dough.
- Having filled your hand and trained, move on to aerobatics - do not roll out the dough with a rolling pin, but gently stretch it with your hands. The display of pizzaiolos preparing your treats by beautifully tossing the dough into the air is not only part of the culinary show. This is also a completely justified way to prepare the perfect pizza: it does not tear the delicate yeast fibers and ensures a soft and pleasant dough structure.
- A common mistake that the generous Slavic soul makes when preparing pizza is adding a thick, thick layer of topping. We conscientiously forget that we are not preparing an open pie, but pizza, and strive to add more toppings, believing that since we are cooking for ourselves, there is no need to be greedy. However, the reality turns out to be different - and the pizza doesn’t turn out exactly as it should. Ideal option: both the filling and the amazingly tasty base should be felt in the finished dish. Don’t forget about this the next time you place meat, tomatoes, olives, mushrooms, cheese and other delicacies on the dough.
- Bake pizza only at high temperatures - a real Italian delicacy is cooked in a wood-burning oven, which provides dry and very good heat. To get closer to a similar picture at home, set the temperature regulator in your oven to at least 220 degrees.
- For the same reason as described above, you should place the dough not on a cold metal sheet, but on a well-heated surface. To do this, keep the baking sheet in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes, and only then transfer the dough onto it.
Good luck with your experiments and delicious pizza!
It’s a pity that while I was working as a tour guide, there was no such specialization as a gastro guide. I would love to practice in such a capacity. It’s so interesting to taste a country.
There are, of course, more pronounced gastronomic regions, and there are less so. But when I travel, I always explore the local cuisine, discover or ask for recipes, and when I return home, I always prepare a tasting themed dinner for my family as part of my trip report.
Provencal cuisine is one of the best in the world. This is the real apotheosis of life!
And it can be described simply, literally in three words: naturally– everything is prepared from local products, ripened, soaked under the hot southern sun and literally taken right before cooking from a tree or garden bed; fragrant– it is in Provence that the most aromatic herbs of France grow, herbes de provence: thyme, rosemary, basil, mint, sage, marjoram, oregano, lavender, with which wine, honey, and cheeses are impregnated; tasty– with such initial data, it is simply impossible to cook poorly, and even unforgivable.
Remember when we first heard the expression “a la Provençal”? Of course, in childhood! Remember the 250 gram jars with an iron lid? And inside is delicious Provencal mayonnaise, both sour and sweet. And there was no better dressing for Olivier salad, right?
To be fair, it must be said that mayonnaise was not born in Provence, but in the Balearic Islands. And its name is purely geographical, in honor of the city of Mahón - the capital of the Spanish island of Menorca, where in the 18th century a version of the Spanish Alioli sauce originated from yolks and olive oil, but without garlic (!). Later, in Paris, where the recipe was transported, the sauce was called “Majones sauce” or mayonnaise.
Well, recipes a la Provençal are a method of preparing dishes with the obligatory addition of olive oil, aromatic herbs, tomatoes, onions and garlic.
Would you like me to share a recipe for a very unusual, but dearly beloved Provencal dish - something that can be prepared right now and right here, without waiting for the summer harvest of vegetables and fruits and without replacing Mediterranean fish with distant relatives from the frozen section of the supermarket? Catch it!
A typical local dish, often called Provençal pizza, is Pissaladière.
The pie is simple, I would say, folk, but these are the dishes that are especially popular now. It is served in the most sophisticated restaurants, but those who do not know the recipe rarely guess what it is made from. The taste of the dish is complex, multifaceted, and there are only four components in it:
yeast dough(like for pizza, you can buy ready-made) ,
onion(lots of onions) ,
olives(I would insist on buying black, loose),
anchovies(small Mediterranean fish, which is mainly pickled or salted; jars of this are sold in good supermarkets) .
How to cook:
- peel 1 kg of onion, cut into thin half rings;
- heat 4-5 tablespoons of olive oil in a large frying pan or cast iron with a thick bottom, add 2 cloves of garlic - not peeled, but crushed with the back of a knife;
- add onion, sprinkle with aromatic herbs (you can take herbes de provence in the set, or you can choose your favorites: thyme, rosemary, oregano...);
- salt and pepper. I also add sugar, since onions get along well with sugar, ultimately giving a pleasant caramel flavor, which is only a plus for this pie;
- reduce the heat to medium or low and simmer the onion for 30-40 minutes, stirring with a wooden spatula until very tender, creamy and golden brown;
- There are as many recipes for pissaladiere in Provence as there are housewives, and some add a little white wine to the onions - you can try that;
- remove from heat, discard garlic, cool filling;
- Preheat the oven to the standard temperature for baking pies - 180 degrees;
- Roll out the dough into your favorite shape - a circle or rectangle, put in the oven for 5 minutes to dry a little;
- Take the base out of the oven and put the onion filling on it. If the shape is rectangular, then place anchovies in diamond shapes on top of the onion, and an olive in the middle of each diamond. If it’s round, you can lay out the “sun” anchovies and sprinkle olive oil on top;
- keep in the oven until cooked through. Usually 30 minutes is enough .
Take it out, cool it, serve it with a green salad and a glass of chilled Provençal rosé wine. Bon appetit!
Natalia Sirenko– formerly a professional guide, currently a traveler, amateur cook and happy woman.
Pizza with sausages and leek
Fast, simple, very filling and delicious pizza!
What to bake French pizza from
for 8 servings
for shortcrust pastry:
Hercules (oatmeal) - 1 glass;
Flour - 0.5 cups;
Sugar - 1 tablespoon;
Butter - 100 g;
Salt - a pinch;
Water - 4 tablespoons;
For filling:
Tomato – 1 pc.;
Onion – leek (stem, white part) – 12-15 cm;
Sausages – 3 – 4 pcs. or sausage, ham or bacon – 200-300 g;
Eggs – 3-4 pcs.;
Sour cream – 400 g;
Hard cheese – 150 g;
Dill - half a bunch;
Basil, oregano - a pinch;
Salt
A baking dish with a diameter of no more than 26 cm, a piece of butter for greasing it, vegetable oil for frying.
How to make French pizza
This ball will need to spread out and take the curves of the baking dish
for oatmeal crust:
- grind the rolled oats (a coffee mill, mortar, or just remember, use your fingers or rub between your palms, it crumbles easily);
- put the butter in a warm place to soften, or grate the cold butter on a coarse grater;
- combine all the ingredients, knead the dough and roll it into a ball;
- wrap the dough in film and put it in the refrigerator for 15-30 minutes so that the butter sets and the dough becomes more pliable;
- grease the mold with butter;
- Spread the cooled dough evenly over the mold with your fingers, as if covering it (the mold) with dough. Form sides about 3-4 cm high.
If the dough has come apart in some places and there is not enough of it, sprinkle oatmeal in the small holes
Preparing the toppings for French pizza
- Cut the leek into rings and briefly simmer (fry) in vegetable oil until softened. Add some salt. Cool;
- cut the tomato into thin rings, and the sausages into thick ones;
- Grate the cheese on a coarse grater. Chop dill and mix with cheese;
- for filling: Beat the eggs. Combine with sour cream and beat again. Combine with cheese and dill mixture;
- Heat the oven to 180 C and bake the pizza on the middle shelf until the characteristic aroma of baking appears and the top of the pizza is browned;
- Cool at room temperature for 15 minutes and serve warm.
Place tomato slices, sausages and leeks onto the dough, already distributed in the mold. Sprinkle with basil and oregano (oregano). Place the filling on top, distributing it evenly over the mold;
Spread the filling evenly over the surface of the pizza.
Features of preparing French pizza and taste
If there is no sour cream
Sour cream can be replaced with cream. Then it’s worth acidifying the filling with a couple of drops of lemon juice.
How to replace sausages in the filling
If you don’t have sausages at home, feel free to exchange them for any more or less juicy meat products: brisket, bacon, ham, boiled, fried or stewed meat: pork, lamb. It is, of course, better not to use completely dry chicken breast or lean beef. Although, you can also cut them into cubes, pour in lemon juice, add salt and quickly fry in vegetable oil, adding leeks to them at the end. Then dry meat can be avoided)
Someone is already enjoying a piece))
The pizza crust is thin and crispy. Barely sweet, which only sets off the excellent taste of the thick, salty filling - soufflé.
Eat me!
Sour cream, combining with eggs and grated cheese, sets firmly and forms a delicious omelette with sparkles of dill, which is generously filled with hearty sausages, topped with slices of juicy tomato and tender, slightly sweet leek. Spicy herbs give the taste greater prominence and distinctness.
In general, even novice cooks can prepare pizza according to our (sorry, French) recipe.
It is as simple as a children's construction set made from blocks.
Enjoy your meal!
You just need to combine all the ingredients of the dough, mix them, roll them into a ball and cool.
Then chop, grate and beat everything for the filling.
Place the dough in the mold, spread the dough like plasticine over the surface of the mold and add the filling there. Which to fill with omelette mixture.
Bake. And immediately gobble up this hearty and very tasty food.
That's all!
Good luck to you and bon appetit!
