“Double zero refers to the fineness of the grind–so it’s super fine because of that designation, which also helps make it be as smooth and glutenous as possible in the final dough. I buy it in these 55 pound bags through a restaurant store and I just have it shipped to me.”
This week on the show we talk with Pete Giordano about what it takes to make the perfect, Neapolitan-style pizza at home.
And we learn how to make persimmon pudding using a recipe from Clara Kinsey.
Pete Giordano is passionate about pizza. He has an outdoor, gas-powered pizza oven, orders special 00 flour in 55 pound bags, and uses oregano that he brought back from Italy. It’s something that he’s been interested in for a while, but really doubled down on during the pandemic, when he and his wife, Leslie, bought a stack of pizza boxes so they could take dinner around to their friends who were stuck at home.
Ever since that summer of 2020, all my friends have been raving about Pete’s pizza. Even though we’ve met a few times before, I’d never had the chance to try Pete’s handiwork, so I decided to use my radio platform as a reason to invite myself, my partner, Ryan, and our friend Megan over for dinner. Pete was nice enough to make us six different pizzas, answer all my pizza questions, and tell me about what he’s learned and what the future might hold.
When I came up with the idea to record Pete making pizzas, my friends gave me a little bit of a hard time. "What’s the story," they asked, “Local man likes pizza?” Which, in a way, I guess it is. But I also think there’s something special about someone putting in so much time, care, and energy into learning how to do something really well, and then sharing that with others. Pete wants to know everything he can about pizza, and he and Leslie took a trip to Italy last year that they described as a “pizza pilgrimage.” He buys special San Marzano tomatoes. He even printed up a menu for our dinner party, which I found to be extremely charming. There’s a unique joy in being around someone who is so enthusiastic about something, and I truly appreciate Pete and Leslie sharing that enthusiasm with me.
A lot has changed about how we eat over the last few years. Some people got used to getting food delivered to their door each day. Some of us got used to the experience of going to the grocery store and seeing certain shelves completely empty. We’ve waited for our food to arrive at woefully understaffed restaurants and heard restaurant owners complain, with varying degrees of sincerity, that “no one wants to work.” More accurately, people just don’t want to work in certain conditions that were overdue for a change. And a lot of us went a long time without attending a dinner party, which is one of my favorite things to do, so it’s not something that I take for granted anymore, and I feel lucky to have been able to share such great food with good friends. And I also happened to learn quite a bit about pizza! Hopefully you will too.
* * *
A recipe with a history
When Susan Gray was growing up in Bloomington,Indiana, she lived a few blocks away from the Kinsey family--as in Alfred Kinsey, the famous biologist, and sexologist. He was the founder of the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University in 1947, now known as the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction.
The Kinsey’s lived in a brick house on first street, and they had a large yard with many native plants. Alfred’s wife Clara was the member of the Kinsey family that Susan Gray remembers most. The Kinsey kids were a good 10 years older than her, so she never played with them, but Clara Kinsey ran a girl scout day camp that Susan attended for 2 weeks each summer.
Susan shares a recipe for persimmon pudding that Clara Kinsey shared with Susan's mom (and anyone else who wanted it). She tells the story and walks through the recipe with Alex Chambers, producer and host of Inner States.
Mentioned in this episode:
The Elements of Pizza, Ken Forkish
Old Fashioned Persimmon Recipes, Bear Wallow Books
Music on this Episode:
The Earth Eats theme music is composed by Erin Tobey and performed by Erin and Matt Tobey.
Additional music on this episode from Universal Production Music.
Credits:
The Earth Eats’ team includes: Violet Baron, Eoban Binder, Alexis Carvajal, Alex Chambers, Mark Chilla, Toby Foster, Daniella Richardson, Samantha Shemenaur, Payton Whaley and Harvest Public Media.
Earth Eats is produced, engineered and edited by Kayte Young. Our executive producer is Eric Bolstridge.
