Ding! Ding! Ding! And now, for Iron Pizza Chef, Battle of the Sauces, we have, in one corner, a man known the world over for his pepperoni and green olive. In the other corner, we have a woman known, at least around her home and among her friends, for her complete and utter adoration of eggs. Allez cuisine!
Today’s battle starts from the bottom up, with two different sauces providing a base flavor profile, and then moves up to toppings. In one corner, pepperoni and olive with Kraft parmesan. In the other, sundried tomato sausage and artisanal parmesan.
What tips and tricks will they use to try to win the title of Iron Pizza Chef? And how do their sauces differ? Come along after the jump and find out.
Well I’ll be frank here. I almost didn’t want to compete in Iron Pizza Chef this evening because I thought the only sauce we had was the gross sweet sauce that comes in little packets along with the Boboli crust. And then, poking around the pantry, I said: “Don’t we have any other sauce in here?”
And we did!
A gift from the Martins last Christmas that somehow was overlooked until now. Thank goodness! We could begin. For my toppings, I selected among these in the fridge:
From six o’clock: fresh eggs, leftover sun dried tomato sausage, Parmigiano Reggiano, black truffle and local greens:
Greg’s topping choices included Boar’s Head pepperoni, Kraft Parmsean cheese and generic green olives from the big box store:
Greg squeezed his plastic bag of sauce onto his pizza crust. I spread my beautiful, homemade marinara sauce, ripe with chunky tomatoes, onto my pizza crust:
Greg shook his can of cheese over his pizza and then topped it with chopped olives and pepperoni:
I grated fresh cheese over mine and topped it thinly sliced chicken sausage:
I thought I was miles ahead at this point.
And then the pizzas came out of the oven. They were much crispier than I’d wanted:
This doesn’t bother Greg. He knows that his industrial-strength ingredients can stand up to a nuclear war and still taste the same. I was worried that with the extra time in the oven that my (already cooked) sausage would be dry. So I needed a little oomph. So I went for my secret weapon, the egg:
Golden goodness. Then I cracked the yolk and spread it over the pizza:
So, in the end folks, we had pizza by the fire. Here are the final entries in the Iron Pizza Chef Battle IV.
Liz: Homemade marinara sauce, grated parm, chicken-sundried sausage and an egg:
Greg: Boboli sauce, Kraft Parm, Boar’s Head pepperoni and chopped green olives:
Who shall be named the next Iron Pizza Chef?
Your votes, below please!
sorry, Greg. Martin’s marinara and an egg beat Kraft parm and Boboli sauce IMHO>
it should be obvious from the pictures, but if the reader could taste he or she would quickly reach the conclusion that the winner, once again, is that of greg, reigning iron pizza chef. the challenger is defeated!