It's Not Pizza, It's Skizza

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Skinny pizza, or skizza, from Gigi in New York's Hudson Valley

 

New York's Hudson Valley is one of my favorite getaways, a region just a few hours north of Manhattan with rolling fields and hundreds of small farms. Throughout the area, there are small towns and cities like Rhinebeck, where I recently went for brunch at a Gigi Trattoria after shopping for local cheeses at Gigi Market. 

Because it was brunch, I decided to order a delicious-sounding eggs florentine, made, of course, with eggs and spinach from local farms. But it was something else on the menu that grabbed my attention: Skizza. What's a skizza? 

I asked Gigi owner Laura Pensiero, who described skizza as an unleavened flat-bread pizza, which cooks like a Neapolitan-style pizza, and can be topped with seasonal ingredients (I'll show you a listing of the various skizzas offered at the end of this post). 

After seeing it on the menu and asking about it, I walked to the restroom and saw several skizzas being delivered to a nearby table. Maybe it was the sunlight pouring into the dining room through the big windows or perhaps I was just hungry, but the memory of those skizzas—melted white cheese on a golden crust with peeks of sauce and fresh herbs strews across it—haunts me. Why didn't I order a skizza? Why?! The couple at the next table were ordering one to go, even though they were also ordering brunch. 

At any rate, I'll be back and I will have my skizza, but in the meantime, I asked Penseiro for a recipe. Turns out the skizza dough is a proprietary recipe, but she encourages anyone to make a basic pizza dough and try making a skizza-type deal at home, preferably using fresh seasonal ingdredients.

Okay, I leave you with spring, summer, and anytime selections from the Gigi skizza lineup. Prepare to have your mouth water. 

Spring

• Tomato sauce, mozzarella, gamberetti (small shrimp) pea shoots, and red chili flakes 
• Asparagus, Vidalia onions, fontina, truffle oil
• Chopped garlicky clams and Migliorelli Farm baby spinach
• Melted Hearty Roots Farm Farm leeks Mountain Smokehouse Products bacon and Fontina
• Pickled RSK Farm ramps, corola potato and taleggio
• Spring onions, salmon, lemon vinaigrette–dressed baby spinach, crème fraîche drizzle

Summer

• Arugula pesto, thinly sliced Northwind Farm chicken breast, Gigi Ricotta
• Heirloom tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, fresh oregano and basil
• Eggplant caponata, oil-cured tuna, red chili flakes
• Arugula pesto, zucchini and fresh herb ricotta, and grated Parmesan
• Northwind Farm sausage, Hearty Roots bell peppers, mozzarella, shaved Parmesan
• Garden string beans, eggplant summer squash, zucchini, cherry tomatoes
• Peach BBQ sauce, rotisserie porchetta, smoked mozzarella

Every season

• Margherita: Tomato, basil, oregano, mozzarella 
• Caterina: Oven roasted seasonal vegetables, Pecorino Romano. 
• Mamma: Tuscan-style porchetta, fennel salami, red onion, tomato, mozzarella. 
• Rustica: Northwind Farm fennel sausage, broccoli rabe, shaved Parmesan, red chili  flakes
• Vongole: Shucked clams, Parmesan, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, herbs
• Bianca: Coach Farm goat cheese, mozzarella, rosemary preserved figs, pears, arugula, white truffle oil

Other Pizzas of the Week from Food Republic:

• Ham, caramelized, and gruyere pizza
• Matzo pizza
• Hot Lips pizza from Portland, Oregon