Not long after I started this blog I wrote about PIFF and Pizza. Sorry that's Twitter speak. In normal language: Not long after I started this blog I wrote about a good as it gets afternoon spent at a Portland International Film Festival screening of The Chicken, the Fish and the King Crab followed by an evening of cooking up homemade pizzas. We decided that it was such a great time it needed to be tradition so last weekend was our second annual PIFF and Pizza.
We saw the Belgian mind trip of a movie A Town Called Panic. It was so good that my face hurt -- I think that 90% of the 75 minute movie I was either smiling like a goon or laughing. There was a man at the back of the theater with a laugh that sounded like a squawking duck. That of course added to the hilarity. It's a crazy movie and I want to get as many people to see it as possible. I know that most of you already eat pizza so no need for persuading there...
I prepped the pizza dough before we left for the movie so it would rise by the time we got back. I also made a spicy red sauce with stewed tomatoes, serranos, red onion, garlic, a good kick of 5-spice and lots of olive oil before the movie. When we got back all we had to do was dice, slice and grate, brown and whisk the rest of our ingredients, roll the dough out and assemble the pizzas.
This year's PIFF and Pizza included three savories (mine, my boyfriend's and our friend Duc's) and one sweet just like last year. We outdid ourselves with the savories this year but didn't do so well with the dessert pizza. We'd lost some steam by then. And stomach room....
Pizza 1 -- My pizza
I went with a throwback -- spicy barbecue chicken pie. I seared the chicken for just a couple minutes and then tossed it in a spicy barbecue and red sauce mix with a generous squeeze of lime juice. Then I used the rest of the barbecue/red sauce to top the pizza followed by mozz and parm, thin sliced red onion, serrano and the chicken. It was really good.
Pizza 2 -- Duc's pizza
Ok this was a masterpiece so it deserves Darwin shots....
Butter followed by cheese followed by egg (cardiologists please read no more)...
Topped with ribboned lacinato, thin sliced red onion...
And since you've seen the photo at the top you know the final topping -- prosciutto. It was speechless good.
Pizza 3 -- My boyfriend's pizza
My boyfriend decided to go traditional and we're so glad he did.
Red sauce, mozz and parm, olives...
Followed by bulk spicy Italian sausage, red onion, and lots of cracked pepper
So as you can see after having our way with these three savory pies dessert wasn't really a priority. But sticking with tradition we needed to make some sort of an effort. I picked up a Fuji at the market since the Granny Smiths were soft (tart sounded better...) along with semi sweet chocolate chips. I brushed the crust with melted butter, added thinly sliced apple, chocolate chips, and crushed spiced nuts. All those ingredients are tip top but it didn't hold a candle to last year's Bananas Foster Chuao Chocolate pizza...
Good but not great
So another successful PIFF and Pizza. There's still time to check out some kick you in the butt good international films at the Northwest Film Center's 33rd Portland International Film Festival which runs through this Sunday, Feb. 28th. Other films that I saw and loved this year -- The Topp Twins, Mother, and Short Cuts I.
Portland International Film Festival www.nwfilm.org/piff33www.nwfilm.org