Last night's dinner shift wasn't that busy. There were plenty of people in the restaurant, but they weren't ordering a lot of pizza, mostly the homemade pastas that Vincenzo makes. Still, I made about a dozen. The Pizza Bianca al Proscuitto was my favorite to make and my best looking to date. That's a white pizza (no sauce) with olive oil, oregano, garlic and cheese and then it cooks. When it comes out it gets a big pile of arugula and prosciutto. And Lee & Jen: I made Vincenzo, who works there, a cheese-less one -- the olive oil, oregano, garlic base and then topped it with chopped tomatoes mixed with basil and a ton of chopped fried eggplant. It looked so delicious.
I was feeling so confident, mostly because I was only using the front of the oven which is way easier to master than the back (and I'm short) and then Pepe the Owner walked in with only 10 minutes on my shift left to spare and watched me and Mathilda (she's also here for the course, from Bogota, Columbia!) and when he saw my lame technique and caught me putting the wood pizza slide on the marble slab (big no-no) he made us make a bunch more pizzas and I didn't get out of there till 9:30. And with that, my confidence has left the building. At least with regard to the shaping and oven work. I rock at the dough making and I get another go at the cheese today, but with a smaller batch that I should be able to lift. :) I LOVE the cheese-making!
