Pizzas. Pizzas. Pizzas.

When I got to Wagga last night I made a half kilo batch of pizza dough and tried out a few different ways of topping and cooking them. (Will was pretty happy about that!)

This morning I got up at 6am and made another half kilo batch. I then finished cooking them at the TAFE kitchens and transported them down to ABC, ready for my 10.30am foodie segment.

Simon (ABC Riverina presenter) and I then spent 20 minutes, talking and tasting all things pizza. Why to make your own, how to knead the dough, favourite toppings, the importance of quality ingredients, the usefulness of ‘strong flour’…

Monday mornings are one of my favourite times of the working week. Lots of people praise Fridays (for obvious reasons) and ‘hump day’ Wednesdays are a source of encouragement for lots of workers, but I do like Mondays.

I get to share my major obsession, food, with thousands of people! (I believe the listening audience is 250,000+) I get to play Chef for a little while. I get to immerse myself in something other than work, or cancer or family or steps or … any of the other things, good and bad, that usually take up my time. I can’t run late, or cancel or procrastinate. So I do it every week and I love it!

Thank you to all those who gave me pizza advice. From cooking methods to toppings I liked them all. Minimal toppings was pretty much a consensus and a thin crust was definitely in the majority. Only some liked anchovies, most thought a good tomato sauce was an imperative and using pizza stones to prevent soggy bottoms was particularly popular.

As you may have gathered I am in Wagga. Dave is in Canberra and at work.  At this stage I’ll stay here and work this week, then head to Canberra for the week next week when he will probably be not-so-good. This week is the first week of second semester, so it’s a good time to be at work and helping get things done.

My pizza dough recipe should be up on the TAFE Riverina website shortly. ABC Riverina will also put them on their Facebook page. They don’t over post and cover a range of local issues, so its not a bad page to follow if you want to. (click here to see their FB page)

Here are a few pics of the pizzas taken in the studio. The olive and anchovy (which I have renamed the salt lovers pizza 😉 ) was a hit with both Simon and Ben (the station manager). The rest of the ABC crew are hopefully enjoying leftovers for lunch!