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Trenton Tomato Pie
- Intermediate
- 60 min
- roughly 1 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with richness that coats and comforts, a warm current of chile, opening aromatic and staying there.
Ingredients
- 500g pizza dough
- 400g crushed San Marzano tomatoes
- 2 garlic cloves, grated
- 1 tsp oregano
- 350g low-moisture mozzarella, grated
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- Pecorino, salt, and chili flakes
Equipment
Grater / zester
The skills inside
Shaping by handResting dough: the pause that does the work
Allergen screen
Found: dairy
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Stretch the dough into a thin round or a rectangular pan and let it relax 15 min. 15 min
- Scatter the mozzarella directly onto the dough: cheese first is the Trenton order.
- Season the crushed tomatoes with garlic, oregano, salt, and oil and spoon them over the cheese in irregular pools, not a smooth layer.
- Dust with pecorino and chili.
- Bake at 260C for 12-14 min until the crust is crisp and the tomato has cooked down in patches. 14 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Resting dough: the pause that does the work 71 recipes
- It actually rested, covered, for the time stated, not cut short because the rest of the schedule was tight.
- It rolls and shapes without fighting: it stays where it is put, and it does not spring back or shrink on the bench between passes.
- The surface is smooth and supple rather than dry, cracked, or skinned over.
- It is at the temperature the next step needs: cold where the fat must stay solid, cool and relaxed where it must be rolled thin.
- Baked, it holds the dimensions it was shaped to rather than shrinking back from the edges of the tin or the rim of the dish.
Where it goes wrong The rest was skipped or shortened, so the gluten was still tight: the dough fought the pin and sprang back thick and uneven, then shrank down the sides of the tin in the oven.
Shaping by hand 85 recipes
- The pieces match: weighed, or judged against each other rather than by dividing the mass by eye, so that no piece is half again the size of its neighbour.
- Surfaces are smooth and unbroken with no cracks, tears, or dry patches, and the seams are sealed and sitting underneath.
- The shape is defined and it holds while the tray waits: it has not slumped, spread, or relaxed back out of its form.
- Nothing is trapped that should not be: no air pocket where filling should be, no filling breaking through the surface, and no excess flour greying the outside.
- They finish together in the heat: no piece done while another is still raw, which is the only test that the first mark was met.
Where it goes wrong The dough was worked past its point or shaped without a rest, so it fought back: the pieces spring out of shape on the tray and bake tight, uneven, and torn along the surface.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Chianti Classico or Barbera d’Alba
- Also Right
- Vermentino for the lighter plates
- From the Taps
- Italian pilsner
- Zero-Proof
- San Pellegrino Sanbittèr
Tomato’s acid demands equal acid: Italian reds evolved beside the sauce, and the regional pairing is the safest law in wine.
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