Sugo Crudo Pizza

Even though it's been quite a while now, I crave my lunchtime trips to the Sullivan Street Bakery, where I would get a huge slice of pizza bianca for only $1 or the pizza pomodoro. Thin crust, with a gorgeous topping of just tomatoes. Room temperature. Perfect.

Although I love pizzeria-style pizza, I can't seem to fall out of love with the Italian pizza I experienced a few years ago, very similar to the bakery's pizza. Thin and delicious.

At home, I try to recreate this pizza - one that exists in memory, perhaps not in reality. Like many things, don't we imagine things a lot sweeter than they actually were? In my mind, I still see the 20 year old sitting in Piazza Navona watching the beautiful people drinking the most beautiful cappucinos I have ever seen. I clearly remember ordering a pie with my friend in Rome. The pizza was not like anything I had tasted before or since, except for my all too brief rendezvous with Sullivan Street.

Being a bit of a perfectionist, I have tried and tried again with pizza. I refuse to give in and buy a pizza stone or do any of the 'tricks' to make pizzeria pizza. I know that it will never be the same. But it is not the pizza I am after anymore. I want the simple base, the simple topping. The tomato, gorgeous and naked, with the faintest sheen of olive oil.

So I went raw this past weekend. Raw tomatoes as my base. The base was already something I have been perfecting for a while now. It's the one from the NY Time's 'fried pizza experiment'. It's perfect, though it needs more water, so that the dough is almost meltingly smooth, a touch away from being sticky.

The base was about as simple as you get. A tomato, a clove of garlic, some olive oil, some salt, some chilli flakes, and a touch of the pasta seasoning my friend, Maria, from Norway gave to me -- but a mix of basil, oregano or parsley could work just as well. All whizzed together for a few seconds - the olive oil emulsifying the tomato sauce a bit to give it a glorious gazpacho-terracotta hue.

The base is stretched out into a circle with the hands -- eagerly, patiently. The tomato base goes on top. Then just a few gratings of pecorino romano and mozzarella finish this pizza off.

It doesn't need more than 15 minutes in a hot oven, as the base is so thin. It comes out crispy, delicious, heady with spice and garlic. Food of the gods, or at least, a Roman holiday.