Episode 14: John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
What could be more heavenly than a pizza supreme?
This was perhaps the deepest and most philosophical episode so far on The Indie 500 podcast. We discussed John Coltrane’s landmark album “A Love Supreme”. Listen to the pod for our thoughts on life, the universe, this album, divine influence…the usual banter we get into.
One thing I will say is that Coltrane took the words right out of my mouth about why I became a chef. He wanted to make music to make people happy. I wanted to be a chef so I could deliver them happiness as well. The more I learn about him the more I absolutely adore his outlook on life, his story, and his music. I’ve always had a fondness for his music dating back to being in jazz band in high school but never knew too much about the man until researching these last few weeks.
Now I’ll own this, I am not a supreme pizza fan. In fact 99% of vegetables on pizza repulse me. Occasionally I can do caramelized onions or roasted peppers or fancy ass mushrooms like morels and chanterelles. I’m a meat guy through and through and I imagine my arteries will probably back me up on that claim. Having said that, it’s “A Love Supreme” week, therefore it’s pizza supreme week. Do what you want with the toppings I put on my recipe, add your own, don’t have any meat, really you do you boo boo!
One thing I really like to do for my pizza dough is the no knead pizza dough recipe. It really is as simple as it sounds; mix all the ingredients in a bowl, cover the bowl, let them sit at room temp for 18-24 hours (room temp being 68-75 degrees more or less). If you follow the recipe I linked to, you will be just about ready to get making a pizza supreme.
Ok, you got the dough, now just like Coltrane’s musicians were asked to do in the recording session, just improvise, see what happens it’ll probably come out great. Let me know how it turns out!
I kid, I kid! You still need a sauce, cheese, toppings and more toppings!
For my sauce I generally keep it pretty simple. I like getting the 28oz cans of san marzano crushed tomatoes. I’ll empty that into a mixing bowl and a little salt, sugar and dried oregano. If you’re looking for measurements I’d say 2 tbsp salt, 1 tbsp sugar and 1 tbsp dried oregano; give it a stir to mix it up and you’re ready to go.
For cheese(s), the safest bet is to get the pre-shredded low moisture part skim mozzarealla cheese. It won’t get the pizza too soggy like fresh mozzarella will. I also like to add some provolone whenever possible and a few dollops of ricotta cheese as well. Side note: pepperoni, sausage, ricotta is my go to pizza order.
Let’s talk meats for a second, shall we? You can probably call it a supreme pizza if you just have pepperoni and sausage (tip: if you buy the raw bulk italian sausage and put it onto the pizza raw in little pieces, it maintains its moisture when it cooks as opposed to cooking it first then having it dry out when you cook your pizza). I love to have salami, bacon bits, prosciutto, ham, hamburger, linguica, chorizo…it’s all great. The little cripsy cupping pepperoni are having their moment in the sun too, if you can find those, they are just little bits of perfection when cooked right.
Lastly, those lovable little rascals, the veggies. Like I said, not my favorite but that doesn’t mean I can’t advise on the subject. The standard supreme calls for black olives, crimini mushrooms, sliced onions, sliced bell peppers and if you want to stop there I think you’ve got a pretty full pie coming up. Some things I might suggest: artichoke hearts, mama lils peppers, shaved brussel sprouts, small diced potato, try different varieties of olives, corn, squash…you get where I’m going with this. Some veggies might need a little more love than others to be pizza ready but it’s a pretty friendly canvas to add whatever you like!
As you’ve probably noticed I haven’t given a proper recipe on this, like I said, hey neither did Mr. Coltrane to his band when recording the album. But I’ll summarize what you should have at the bare minimum:
1 pizza dough (that recipe makes 3-4)
3 oz of sauce
2 cups shredded mozz, provolone, parmesan mix
12-16 slices of pepperoni
4 oz of italian sausage (raw) you can break into little pieces around the pizza
5 crimini mushrooms, sliced thin
1/4 cup of sliced black olives
1/2 white onion sliced or diced, your call
1/2 red bell pepper, sliced into julienne strips (green is traditional, i just think red tastes better)
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a demo video is worth, I don’t know, 46,000 words? Here’s a great quick video on how to roll out pizza dough
As far as cooking goes, there’s as many possibilities on how to do it as there are options of what to cook it in. For this let’s just stick with a standard oven and a pizza stone. I crank my oven up as high as it will go at least 30 minutes prior to cooking, with the stone inside so that the stone gets hot too. If you’re a real fancy lad, you might have a pizza peel to just drop the pizza onto the stone. But there is nothing at all wrong with just using a pizza pan to build the pizza and then just putting that right into the oven.
Preheat it, then when you put the pizza in, turn the temp down to about 425 or so. It should start to look done at about 12-13 minutes but I’d really start checking at the 10 minute mark but it could go 18-20 depending on how much stuff you put on it, how long you left the oven open when putting the pizza in etc.
Well there you have it, go out and create your masterpiece! Coltrane did his in about 5 hours, this one will take half the time and be twice as delicious!
