We
make our pizza dough fresh in the Cucina every day using 7 simple ingredients
and we only use Olive oil - YES it's more 4 times more expensive than the
mainstream canola or soy oil but it gives our pizza crust that authentic
Italian bread flavour. And we only use Sea salt in our dough, because
it's what the Olive oil deserves. Did you know that each dough ball is
hand rolled? Yup, you don't let a machine work over this nice of a pizza dough!
And after each dough ball is hand rolled, we let it cold ferment (aka proof/rise) and develop
it's flavours for a minimum of 30 hours before it's ready to be your pizza
crust or flatbread.
Back in 2008 when I took my
certified Italian Pizza School course, my Italian instructors talked at great
lengths about the importance of using Olive oil over other forms of oil or fat,
(*did you know some places use lard???It’s true, I don't want to scare you, but
some places even use imitation lard which is really, really bad for your health!)
and they also spoke at length about the importance of a high quality Sea
salt. They spoke about the importance of
choosing a high quality flour, and allowing the dough to develop it’s flavours
at a slowed pace. .
All of this, they said,
is of great importance to how your body digests the pizza, and if you skip
these high quality ingredients, or one of the steps to allow the flavours to
develop in your dough, your body knows it and will have a difficult time digesting the food. Knowing that your body takes an average of
30-48 hours to digest a meal, it’s not
something we want you and your body feeling bad or unsettled about later in the
night or the next day. Rather, we’d like
you and your body to just enjoy all the goodness of all the ingredients that
actually nourish your body and soul, not just fill an empty tummy:). At Diana's, we know that we cater to those
with discerning tastes, those who can appreciate an authentic pizza made with a
great artisan pizza dough. Next post I'll discuss ingredients we use at Diana's vs 'ingredients' mainstream places use.