The cooking portion of our Cucinapalooza cook’s tour began in earnest on Sunday with the arrival of Gabriella and Saverio Bianconi at the villa for a full day that was not so much a cooking class as a cook’s journey.  But hours before their arrival from Citta di Castello our group assembled for a special breakfast visitor.

The goal of our week is not simply to learn a handful of recipes and to develop techniques, but rather to gain an appreciation for the process of cooking – not only the part that occurs in the kitchen, but how the ideas for dishes and entire meals come together, and not only how to make a particular recipe but why it should be done in a particular way and what does not work.  To accomplish this we have developed a six day game plan that will allow us time to carry on a dialogue with our guest chefs, rather than simply passively listen in and take notes.  We have given ourselves the opportunity to revisit dishes and to practice so we can learn from our mistakes and improve.  We have varied the daily routine to include some fun and games and some friendly competition.  And we have established a concrete goal to work toward – Thursday’s final dinner at the villa where we will prepare a meal for 25 people to be judged by a panel of judges, the results of which will be a standard that our reigning Gelso Smackdown champion Giuliano Gilocchi will be competing against in July.

So Sunday began with a breakfasttime visit to the villa by Danilo, the chef and pizzaiolo at Cannara’s Carlo Magno restaurant.  Despite some jetlag our group assembled for breakfast and the opportunity to talk with Danilo about the art of pizzamaking, particularly the secrets to making the best dough.  We took full advantage of the hour and a half with Danilo.

Pizza dough is one of culinary life’s great mysteries.  It is difficult to define what makes a great dough, but one knows it when one sees, or eats, it.  And Danilo helped us to not so much solve the mystery, but to understand it.  From a handful of simple ingredients – flour, yeast and water, he introduced us to the myriad moving pieces and variables to be solved and/or controlled – oil or fat, type of yeast, the type or types of flour, the effect of more or less liquid in the dough, how long to let the dough rise and at what temperature, or temperatures, whether to refrigerate, to store or to use immediately.  Naturally Danilo provided us what he considers to be the world’s best pizza dough recipe – his.  And so after his departure we resolved to try out his recipe for use in the evening’s dinner, already scheduled to be a pizza dinner with a wine pairing to be led by Liu Pambufetti, the proprietor of the nearby Scacciadiavoli winery.

And with Danilo’s departure came Gabriella and Saverio’s arrival, but pizza was not cast onto the pile of memories.  Our agenda with Gabriella was to learn about, practice and discuss pastas and other baked goods and so we practiced Danilo’s recipe with Gabriella, getting her thoughts on Danilo’s thoughts.  Naturally she had her own favorite pizza dough recipe – hers.  And so among the pastas and the torta al testo and the tigello and the torcolo, we added Gabriella’s pizza dough.  And along the way we began to get an insight into two different approaches to pizza dough.

Three if you count Pete’s pizza dough, which he has spent the early morning hours the previous evening working on preparing so we could test it on the following night’s dinner.

After eight hours in the kitchen with Gabriella, experiencing a cooking that was learned at her mother and grandmother’s elbow it was time to begin preparing for the evening’s dinner.  Federico fired up the outdoor pizza oven and Marco, back from a day leading a sightseeing excursion for a pair of guests who opted to skip the Cucinapalooza but to spend the week with their cook-spouses, began preparing the pizza toppings.  Our dough from Danilo’s recipe was rolled out and a procession of pizzas began to make its way to the dining room, each one paired with a different of the six wines brought to us by Liu and her American born boyfriend Joe.  Conversation mostly centered around the wines, delightful offerings that included two sparkling wines made from the powerful sagrantino grape (one white and one rose), a characteristic grechetto, a Montefalco Rosso, a Sagrantino secco and a Sagrantino passito.  But with every new arrival the conversation also veered back to talk of pizza.

And when the fourth pizza arrived, a classic margherita pizza with tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil, the moment of truth had arrived.  For we had prepared not one but three versions of the margherita – one made with Danilo’s dough, one with Gabriella’s and one with Pete’s.  A blind tasting ensued and we went around the table giving our impressions of the taste, the chewyness and the appeal of the three doughs topped with the same ingredients.  And when the identities of the three doughs were revealed we were able to begin to appreciate how those minor changes in the numerous variables affected the end product.  It was the sort of thing you are not likely to experience at your average cooking class.

And the winner?  There definitely was a winner, a nearly unanimous victory.  But I am sworn to secrecy from revealing details.  Because in addition to learning about how to make a good pizza dough we learned something else yesterday – a good pizzaiolo never truly reveals his recipe.

Ci vediamo!
Bill and Suzy