Weekend Cooking: Giveaway of Genuine Pizza by Michael Schwartz

I have a weakness for pizza. We probably eat it more than we should. Wait! Is that even a thing? Probably not, especially when you're making your own pizza at home from scratch.

Our favorite way to cook pizza is to grill it, and our basic method for grilling pizza hasn't really changed much since I first wrote about it almost 10 years ago.

So, you may ask, Why would I need another pizza cookbook? I didn't know I did until I received Michael Schwartz's Genuine Pizza via the Abrams Dinner Party. Then I realized there is always something new to learn about the art of pizza making, and I'm eager to explore.

Besides tons of new ideas for toppings and great instructions for making and baking pizza from dough to table, Genuine Pizza provides recipes for all kinds go-alongs, which makes this book more versatile than other single-food cookbooks. As one of the other Abrams Dinner Party members said: This is brilliant.

Let's start with the foundations of every pizza: dough and sauce. The variations in this cookbook range from a beer-honey dough to a rye flour dough and a gluten-free dough. Schwartz doesn't just provide dough recipes, he also gives us tips for shaping and baking the crust and for how to assemble the pizza.

Schwartz, of course, includes recipes for making different kinds of tomato-based sauces as well as pesto, cream-based, herb-infused, and spicy sauces. He then goes on to tell us which sauces go best with which kinds of toppings.

Next, Genuine Pizza outlines techniques for preparing various toppings, such as grilled and caramelized onions. The recipes for the pizzas themselves call for all kinds of ingredients, including the usual suspects: short ribs, mushrooms, bacon, sauteed peppers, shrimp, roasted pumpkin, meats, vegetables, and even fruits and eggs. Handy charts offer advice for how to "map out your perfect pizza," so you can confidently use whatever ingredients you might have on hand.

Finally, are the side dishes and more substantial supplements to your pizza dinner. Schwartz doesn't skimp here, and these chapters help make Genuine Pizza a useful resource for your non-pizza dinners. Yes, there is a recipe for marinated olives, but you'll also find polenta bites, meatballs, soups, salads, chicken, and meats. All of these can be served along side your pizza or all on their own.

Good news for vegetarians, many, many recipes will be appropriate for your diet. Need to go gluten free? Just use Schwartz's GF dough recipe and you're good to go.

Genuine Pizza ends with dessert recipes (the Chocolate Chunk Cookies were a big hit with the Abrams Dinner Party members) and several recipes for adult beverages (the watermelon spritz with prosecco is definitely on my list).

I've made one of the soups (beans and escarole with chorizo) and have one of the meatball recipes slated for this coming week. I'm saving the pizzas for later in the summer when the evenings are warm enough to linger on the deck after dinner. I suspect I'll be cooking out of this book all summer long, and I'll be sure to share my pizza combinations with you.

GIVEAWAY: In the meantime, thanks to the good people at Abrams Books, I can offer one of my readers (with a USA mailing address) a copy of Michael Schwartz's Genuine Pizza. All you have to do to be entered for a chance to win is to fill out the following form. I'll pick a winner via a random number generator next Friday (May 31). Once the winner has been confirmed and his or her address has been passed along to the publisher, I'll erase all personal information from my computer. Good luck!

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