Tag Archives: pie

Za final cooking instructions

20180103_104346

1/2 cooked, not cut ‘za

As many of you know Za is EVOO’s sister restaurant with two locations, one in Kendall Square, Cambridge, abutting EVOO and the original Za is on Massachusetts Avenue in Arlington.  When the timing is not right for you to dine at either restaurant, you can still enjoy ‘za on your own schedule.  Below is the best way I have found for finish cooking or re-heating ‘za. So, if you are not sure what time you want to eat, but you know you want ‘za, don’t serve it soggy and cold.  Follow these simple instructions to eat crispy crusted hot pizza whenever you want with little effort.

The first thing you need to do is order a stack of za from either location.  They are 10″ pizzas that will serve one hardy appetite or two can share one za paired with one of Za’s amazing salads.  Order a bunch and finish cooking on your time.  I tend to order them early in the day, asking for them to be 1/2 cooked, not cut and refrigerated until pick-up. There is no need to take them home hot.  When I get home I refrigerate the pizzas until I’m ready, whether it’s a few hours or a few days it doesn’t matter.

When it’s time, preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Once your oven reaches 375, place a heavy duty cookie sheet on the middle rack in your oven and heat the cookie sheet for 5 minutes, this will ensure a crisp bottom.  If you have multiple racks and multiple sheet pans you can finish cooking several pizzas at a time, however, be careful the temperature on the bottom and top racks can vary greatly from the middle one.

Now add your pizza, I have found it takes between 8 and 12 minutes to get the crust crispy and the cheese to gooey.  Use a burger flipping spatula lifting the ‘za in the middle.  The sides of the ‘za not being held by the spatula should not droop, the topping should be hot and bubbling in spots. Remove the Za from the oven place on a big cutting board, cut into eight equal sized pieces and serve.

 

20180103_104413

Step 1: Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.

 

 

20180103_104559

Step 2: When oven reaches 375, place sheet pan on the middle rack in the oven for an additional 5 minutes.

 

20180103_104616

Step 3: Place ‘za on hot sheet pan.

20180103_135927

Step 4: Look at doneness, brown edges, bubbly cheese.

20180103_140015 (1)

Step 5: Check bottom, za is nicely browned and not droopy.

cutting za

Step 6: Cut and enjoy your za.

 

Pie in the Sky

Community servings logo

We are proudly baking pies for the twentieth consecutive year in support of Community Servings’ annual fund raiser Pie in the Sky.  Every year since EVOO opened in 1998, we bake 25 to 30 pies, for pick-up a couple of days before Thanksgiving. Many of the areas best restaurants, bakeries and caterers bake a total of 2500 pies to support Community Servings.

20171118_150416

Fredy getting ready to par-bake some of the pie shells

Each pie costs $30, which provides a week’s worth of nutritious home-delivered meals to a Community Servings’ client and a tasty Thanksgiving treat to the buyer.

Pie in the Sky pie box
EVOO’s Sweet Potato Pie

 

Follow this link to find to buy a pie.  https://pieinthesky.org/buyflow/cart.cfm

 

EVOO’s Sweet Potato Pie Recipe

Ingredients:

1 each      pre-baked Pie Shell

¼ cup      Dark Brown Sugar

2 cups      Sweet Potato Purée

(from 3-4 baked sweet potatoes)

2 TB        Unsalted Butter

3 TB        Bourbon

1 TB        Molasses

3 each      Eggs

2 each      Egg Yolks

1 cup       granulated Sugar

½ ts         ground Nutmeg

¼ ts         Salt

1 ts          Vanilla Extract

2/3 cup    Milk

 

Method:

Find your favorite pie shell recipe make and pre-bake it.  Evenly spread the brown sugar inside the pie shell.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Bake the sweet potatoes until cooked, while they are still hot, scoop out the pulp, measure out 2 packed cups. Place the sweet potato pulp in the bowl of a food processor and add the butter, pulse until butter is melted and sweet potatoes are a smooth puree. Add the remaining ingredients, pulse until smooth. Pour the sweet potato mixture into the prepared pie shell. Bake until set 45 minutes – 1 hour, until set.

Cool at room temperature for 2 hours and serve with top quality apple butter and lots of whipped cream.