Dgourmac's Blog

For those of you following this Blog closely, you will recall that Michael and I began last Fall exploring greater Boston in search of the finest pizza places.  Well, yesterday was our second trip, and it was a very good one indeed.  (If you haven’t been reading that closely, then this will just be another ramble about food.)

The trigger for selecting the location from our previous list was the occasion of Michael’s dental appointment, which was in Brookline, so we chose to go to Same Old Place in Jamaica Plain.  To the regulars who know it well, it may be just be the Same Old Place, but to us it was a great find!

Storefront photo from Google maps, 662 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain 02130

We were fortunate enough to find a parking place right in front, and we arrived late enough so that the lunch crush was over.  While we stood at the counter contemplating our choice of toppings, we were greeted warmly by the owner, Fred Ciampa, who shared some of the history of the store, along with a rundown on food choices.  Michael and I agreed on one large pizza with roasted green peppers and black olives, and we bit into the pie with vigor less than 10 minutes later.

The verdict was unanimous.  The dough was thin, crisp and tangy.  The sauce was very flavorful.  The cheese was just right, not too heavy.  Peppers were good, though I might have preferred red ones.  The olives were fine for canned, and even the red pepper flakes were noticeably fresher and better than the usual offering.

Now that we knew the food is excellent, it was time to make good on my promise to Barbara to bring home pizza for dinner.  With some coaching from Fred (in the booth below) and from Michelle at the end of the counter, we chose a large mushroom and onion — partially cooked, to be reheated in a 550-degree oven on a hot pizza stone for seven minutes — to take home.  We also ordered one grilled chicken salad dinner, as well, which turned out to be a fine first course.  All in all, it was worth the 38-mile trip each way, and I will certainly do it again!  Thanks, Fred and Michelle.

Oh, yeah, when we go next time, we will take advantage of our host’s real estate savvy, too, and park in the customer parking lot behind the store (photo below).

Saturday night was a delightful reunion and dinner with our 2008 CBE Israel trip companions.  It was all the more special because of Peter Abelow’s presence, as he was the scholar-in-residence this past weekend.

Our group in Jerusalem, above.

I will take the opportunity with this Blog to provide a copy of the Roasted Sweet Potato, Chickpea, and Mandarin Orange Salad that Barbara made for the dinner.  A number of folks asked for the recipe, so here it is:

Barbara Weiss’ Roasted Sweet Potato and Chickpea Salad

Yesterday we had a pizza party for seven people.  It was fine, but as usual, we had leftover fixins of assorted sliced, chopped toppings in the refrigerator.  Recognizing that, and thrilled to be the recipient of several stalks of Lynn’s post-freeze kale plants (which I had cooked the day before), I decided to make up a new minestrone.

The refrigerator also contained the remnants of the Provencal roast chicken from Formaggio Kitchen, earlier in the week — so I was “good to go”.  Here is the resulting Minestrone — classic and all my own at the same time.

If you want a copy of the recipe, here it is in PDF form:

My Autumn Post-Pizza Party Leftovers Minestrone

Pizza Plaza in action

Sunday night we were able to have Lyn and Adam plus Laura and Michael for a pizza party.  I cranked up the oven with possibly the hottest fire yet, and by 7 PM we were into an appetizer, namely Arancini, made from a leftover celery risotto.  Laura made the rice balls (walnut size), inserting a cube of mozzarella in the center.  After dipping each ball in flour, beaten egg, and Italian bread crumbs, I fried them in 2-3 inches of oil until good and brown.  Served with a crisp white wine.

Preparation for the pizza was mostly done in advance: fresh tomato sauce, sliced onions, zucchini, regular and Buffalo milk mozzarella, slices of prosciutto, eggplant breaded and baked, sliced cremini mushrooms, pesto, basil leaves, arugula — and of course, the pizza dough, already made with all-purpose and whole wheat flours.

Foreground: pizza elements   At the stove: frying arancini.

One more preparation: sauteeing and braising the chanterelles, to combine with some Cacciota Cheese with Truffles on my own pizza — terrific atop a little sauce, prosciutto, Buffalo mozzarella, and arugula.

Chanterelles in the steel pan

Each person then rolled out the dough and added toppings to his or her pizza:

and it was into the oven.  It was dark outside by that time, but the work light was trained on the oven, so the process was quite workable.  The oven floor was 900+ degrees F. when we started, so each one was ready in about 90 seconds.  A quick lift with the pizza peel for 10 seconds finished the browning on top:

and the customers were happy with the finished product.

For wines we had a 2000 Bonarda (Ghiro Rosso D’Inverno) — and the 1965 Barbaresco (Marchese Villdoria Riserva Speciale) .

Conversation covered politics, sociology, travel medicine, protest movements, South Africa, Nepal, Danish furniture, Israeli techniques for re-acclimating  soldiers returning from war, families, food and wine.

Adam and Lyn brought some of their own peaches which we shared with gusto for dessert.  Thanks to Michael for being the official photographer, and of course, to Barbara for all dough, all the ingredient prep, and cleanup after Laura did a bunch of it, as usual.

Please join us next time.