Pizza New Years Eve - best one ever

14 years ago

We've been hosting New Years Eve Pizza Parties now for more than 10 years. There's a local Italian deli that makes dough fresh daily. I bought 12 pounds (yes, that's the maximum we can make in a night - 24 pizzas - one on the grill, one in the oven, starting at about 6 pm!)

I make a simple tomato sauce, and have on hand a few basics - garlic, olive oil, etc. Then guests bring toppings and they make the pizzas. The first couple of years, people brought the usual toppings, lots of jars of ragu, canned mushrooms, shredded mozzarella, pepperoni...

But little by little, my "foodie-ness" is rubbing off, even on our non-cooking friends. Last night's combinations were out of this world. Here are some of the topping combination highlights.

- arugula, emmentaler, burrata, grated pecorino romano, roasted garlic, carmelized onions and tiny super sweet tomatoes

- asparagus, prosciutto and gorgonzola

- duck and hoisin sauce

- tomato sauce, fresh garlic, anchovies and fresh mozzarella

- roasted butternut squash, brie and other unknown cheeses

- roasted veggies - red and yellow peppers, mushrooms, eggplant, garlic, tomatoes (total non-dairy with gluten-free crust)

- bacon, dates, brie and just a touch of maytag blue (this one was perfect at midnight with the champagne)

- a classic margherita

- homemade Italian sausage with fresh basil and black olives

It was so much fun to listen to my (non-foodie) friends talk about going to Chinatown to get duck, making sausage, carmelizing onions, searching online for topping combinations, tasting cheeses, comparing olives - A great way to end and begin a year.

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Comments (6)

User
14 years ago
Wow! That is a lot of pizza. Sounds like a wonderful party.

I love how your pizza party has evolved and your "foodieness" is rubbing off on your non-cooking friends.

Happy New Year Ann.
John Liu
14 years ago
I love it. I'd like to be your pizza friend!
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bob_cville
14 years ago
My brother-in-law in Vermont has hosted the family for New Years for about 12 years. Most years one of the highlights is pizza night. He has an homebuilt, outdoor, wood-fired pizza oven, which he fires up a day ahead to get it nice and hot. He has a professional-chef friend who makes and tosses the dough, and a veritable crew to prepare the toppings, top the pizzas, and slice and serve them.

This year I was topping master, planning and organizing the toppings, designing the toppings combos, and topping most of the pizzas that were made. It is a fairly foodie group, so as with spacific there were some fairly unusual toppings and/or fairly unusual combos.

Sauces: Red, white, pesto

Cheeses: Mozerella, asiago, chedder, blue, goat

Meats: Pepperoni, italian sausage, pesto chicken sausage, bacon, hamburger, meatballs, ham, roast chicken, shrimp, procuitto,

Vegs: Diced tomatoes, roast red peppers, artichoke hearts, fried eggplant, sauted red onion, carmelized yellow onion, crushed garlic, roast garlic, sauted spinach, pineapple, arugula, kalamata olives,

Other: white mushrooms, baby portabello mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, wild-picked black trumpet mushrooms, spinach and cheese ravoli.

After the first few standards of Plain Cheese, or Pepperoni, or Sausage and mushroom to satisfy the some of the kids, I started on the more unusual pizzas. Some notables successes are:

Carnesaurus Maximus: Every meat but the shrimp.
Philly Cheese Steak: Ground beef, red peppers, sauted onions, Moz and Cheddar
Procuitto, Kalamata Olives, blue cheese, carmelized onion, arugula, Moz
Eggplant parmesan: Eggplant, tomato, spinach, olives, mushroom, Moz

The best one IMHO was the Quatro Fungi Pizza: White sauce, All four mushrooms, roast garlic, Moz

After about 42 pizzas, we switched to different crusts and started making dessert pizzas, with sweetened Ricotta, Mascarpone, pineapples, berries, chocolate, reeses cups, crushed oreos, candied ginger, and/or marshmallows.

Counting the desert pizzas we ended up at around 52 total pizzas, not quite up to previous years' records but substantial nonetheless.

I'll be noting some of the combos Spacific listed above for future years.
annie1992
14 years ago
Wow, a lot of pizza making going on. I don't even like pizza, but I'd eat a couple of those, especially that first one of spacific's and bob's Fungi pizza, no red stuff, thanks.

Annie
unorthodoxepicure
14 years ago
I'm sorry I read this thread for two reasons:

1. I now want to build my own outdoor brick pizza oven (and wife will probably say no).
2. I need pizza, even though my endocrinologist has already told me no.

Outstanding stuff here! Wow!
ajh
sally2_gw
14 years ago
I love your idea, Ann, to have people bring their own toppings. It sounds like a fun, fun party, and a good way to spread foodie cooties around! lol

Bob, your party sounds outstanding, also. I have trouble making 3 or 4 pizzas in an evening. I can't imagine over 50 pizzas. Wow.

Sally

Pizza New Years Eve - best one ever

Comments (6)

User

John Liu

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