As this is the initial post here on Ogle Food, I figured I would start it off with something that I enjoy quite a bit when it comes to food:  pizza.

Pizza and wings are a staple where I come from back in Western New York.  The Anchor Bar is the home of the chicken wing, and you can't go more than a couple of blocks without finding someplace that has wings.  When it comes to pizza, there are some names back home that are proverbial institutions in the area:  Bocce's, Imperial, Carbone's, Doctor's and La Nova within the city limits, Maria's, and Blasdell.  Mention a chain place like Pizza Hut or Domino's and prepare for some backlash, criticism and good old fashioned ridicule.

Since we moved here nearly two and a half years ago, save for a trip home last March, good quality pizza has fallen by the wayside.  Here in St. Louis, they go with the cracker thin crust at places like Imo's.  Totally not my style, I prefer a SOLID pizza that has some weight, flavor and toppings, not something that looks as if it were run over by a steamroller.

That means that I had to put my culinary talents to work and start crafting my own pizza.  I am used to making my own sauce for pasta and realized that it could just as easily be used for pizza construction.  I use tomato sauce, paste, puree, sugar, garlic, oregano, sage, parsley, Italian seasoning, and any other spices I have handy to mix in, usually basil and fennel if I have it.  It usually sits and cooks for several hours, letting all the flavors meld together, filling the apartment with the smells of little Italy.

The dough was a little tougher to come by initially.  In New York, we had a bread maker, so I used the recipe that was in the bread maker book, and in an hour and twenty minutes, I had dough.  When we moved, the bread maker went into storage with everything else, where it still sits.  That meant I had to improvise. 

I stumbled across this recipe for pizza dough one day when searching on the net, and have used it ever since.  It makes a 16" and a 12" pizza out of the one batch, and it has a wonderful texture.  You can add spices, or perhaps some shredded cheese, into the dough after you mix in the first cup of flour and olive oil.  Experiment to make it exactly how you want it.  Variety is the spice of life, and it is especially true with pizza.  I like to have sausage, pepperoni, bacon, basically whatever kind of meat I can put together on my pizza.  Tina likes pepperoni in moderation, but leans toward peppers, onions and chicken.

I leave you with a look at tonight's dinner, tomorrow's snack, a completely balanced meal, a perfect circle, and to borrow a quote from Alton Brown, Good Eats.