We tried to make a point of creating little traditions to look forward to during the pandemic as a key to good mental health and in April of 2020 the Australian Rules Football League made a streaming package available for $5.00 a month that gave access to all the games played in the previous four seasons. My partner, Deb, has lived in Australia and speaks to her friends in Perth monthly. Perth is home to the West Coast Eagles who won the Grand Final in 2018 in a game that has been voted the Greatest Game of the Last 50 Years. Since there were no live sports being played anywhere at the time, we made Friday night our night to make homemade pizza and watch the entire 2018 season.
On Tuesdays, one of us would mention how much we were looking forward to pizza night. I usually made the dough on Thursday nights and put it in a Tupperware in the fridge overnight. I took it out to rise on the counter on Friday mornings so that it would be ready by evening. We knew the season ended with a championship, but did not know the outcome of the individual games. Pizza and Football night became an event to look forward to with anticipation that had nothing to do with the seriousness of the times. We invented our own tradition and appreciated it with a sense of gratitude.
Weekly practice gave me the opportunity to really perfect my method for making pizza dough. I’ve found that Italian 00 flour gives a crust firmness and structure. High gluten bread flour has more flavor than the Italian 00 flour, but lacks the firmness. The sweet spot is a roughly 70% to 30% ratio of Italian 00 flour to high gluten bread flour. Allowing the dough to rest at key times before and during shaping has also been a handy technique.
Ingredients:
- 270 grams (2 cups) Italian 00 Flour
- 90 grams (⅔ cup) Bread Flour
- 1 tsp. Active Dry Yeast
- 1 tsp. Salt
- 2 tsp. Sugar
- 2 tbsp. Olive Oil
- 220 grams (1 cup) Water
Directions:
Step 1: Combine dry ingredients and mix. Add olive oil and water, mix to form a dough and knead for five minutes. Set aside to rise in an oiled bowl or plastic food-storage container and cover. Allow to rise until doubled in size.
** Dough can be made one or two days in advance and refrigerated, then taken out the morning of Pizza Day to come up to room temperature by the evening.
Step 2: Knead the dough for 1-2 minutes at least 30 minutes before beginning to shape the crust, although 60 minutes is better. Allowing the dough to relax for this time period makes it much easier to work with.
Step 3: Preheat the oven to 450°F. Plop the dough in the middle of the pizza stone, dust with a little flour and shape to fit the stone by pressing down and pushing out to the edge. As the dough nears the edge of the stone, the dough will often start to resist and pull back a bit. Let the dough rest for 2-3 minutes before pressing out so that the dough extends past the edge of the stone. Shape the overhanging dough to form a ridge around the edge of the stone.
Use a fork to pock mark holes all over the dough to allow air to escape and prebake the dough for 13 minutes.
Step 4: Spread sauce, assemble ingredients and finish baking for 17 minutes.
Notes:
We’re lucky here in the Des Moines area to be able to get Caputo 00 Italian Flour at the fabulous Graziano Brothers Market. We usually use canned homemade pasta sauce made from tomatoes grown in the garden, but Deb came across a recipe for a white sauce made from mayonnaise, grated horseradish and Dijon Mustard that makes for what might be our Most Favorite Pizza Ever when layered with leftover roast beef.
White Sauce:
- 3 tbsp. Mayonnaise
- 2 tbsp. Grated Horseradish
- 1 tbsp. Dijon Mustard
I’m convinced Australian Rules Football would catch on in the United States if more people had the chance to see it. It would make a lot of sense as a youth sport. It is a high-scoring sport of non-stop action that emphasizes skill. Scoring can happen quickly and teams always have the potential to overcome sizable deficits. While there’s plenty of macho posturing, players are not intentionally ramming into their opponents trying to cripple them.
When I go back to watching American football, I’m reminded of George Will’s observation that football combines two of the worst characteristics of American life: pointless violence and committee meetings.
American football is a metaphor for corporate life. The myth is that organizations and their many layers of management are all-important and that labor is made up of interchangeable parts who can barely be identified as individuals – the shop steward/quarterback being the exception. Each play begins with a committee meeting and is then litigiously regulated and subject to review by even more committees.
Australian Rules Football places the emphasis on the talents of the players who make in-game adjustments amongst themselves. The coaches only interact with the players at half-time and play barely stops for a moment. And nobody is weaponizing their head with a helmet and using it to inflict disability on their opponent.
One of the more charming things about Australian Rules Football is that each team has a club song that they sing after victories. The West Coast Eagles have one that will get anyone revved up when they’re needing a boost of energy.
Schmecken! 