Pizza Night

PIZZA NIGHT: Deliciously Doable Recipes for Pizza and Salad

WRITTEN BY
ALEXANDRA STAFFORD

PHOTOGRAPHED BY
EVA KOLENKO

PUBLISHED BY
CLARKSON POTTER, AN IMPRINT OF CROWN PUBLISHING 2024

This new book welcomes us into the world of homemade pizza crusts adorned with mouthwatering toppings.

During the pandemic, my husband and I adopted a Pizza Friday mentality, creating a different style of pizza using whatever we had on hand for a crust and toppings. Those evenings became a much-anticipated highlight of each slowly passing week. Although I loved dreaming up combinations as Friday approached, life would have been better if I had Alexandra Stafford’s newest cookbook, Pizza Night, as my guide and inspiration.

This New York Times bestseller features 52 seasonal pizzas paired with complementary salads that will make readers grateful to hunker at home. Alexandra’s first cookbook, Bread Toast Crumbs (2017), enticed many home bakers—including me—to get over our fear of baking bread with yeast. This new book welcomes us into the world of homemade pizza crusts adorned with mouthwatering toppings. I already have sampled numerous pizzas and tagged countless others for the months to come.

Roasted butternut squash pizza with Gruyère and rosemary. Caramelized leek and potato with chive cream. Brussels sprouts with pancetta, balsamic, and ricotta. Cast-iron skillet meatball pizza with caramelized onions. Broccoli rabe with smoked mozzarella. Hungry yet? The seasonal salads provide color and balance to the crusty centerpieces.

The book revolves around Alexandra’s four styles of dough: thin-crust, Neapolitanish, pan, and gluten-free. She guides us through her process of making the dough ahead of time and storing it in small covered tubs in the refrigerator for up to 48 hours so it can slowly ferment, which helps the dough to relax and become easier to stretch come dinnertime. This slow, cold ferment transforms the starches into sugar, making for a better tasting crust with crunchy, caramelized edges.

Alexandra spent several years diving deep in to all things pizza, including traveling to Italy to taste an array of unique and traditional styles. She also writes a Substack newsletter called Pizza Every Friday. Suffice it to say, these recipes and techniques are well vetted. Alexandra firmly believes we can make good pizza at home, using whatever equipment we have: cast-iron skillet, baking steel or stone, or humble sheet pan. It would be great if we all had wood-fired ovens but that’s not reality! The goal is to get creative and expand your pizza playbook with Alexandra’s perfectly married combinations of ingredients.

Mouthwatering caramelized leek and potato with chive cream pizza. PHOTO: EVA KOLENKO

Foolproof recipes for simple sauces, spreads, and dressings enliven her pizzas and salads. While some start with fresh produce, many can be whipped up with canned pantry staples. Two of my favorites are her butternut squash sauce (chunked butternut squash and diced onion simmered gently, then pureed to silky smoothness) and

sun-dried tomato pesto that features an unusual combination of almonds, fresh spinach rather than basil, and lemon juice, making what she calls a “secret-weapon flavor bomb.”

Working your way through this inspiring cookbook will help you find creative ways to eat your ways through the seasons, no pandemic required.

Alexandra posts weekly newsletters with instructional videos and reassuring advice. www.alexandracooks.com