Another attempt to duplicate a recipe

About eight years ago, when my marriage fell apart, I packed up and moved to The Frozen Tundra, mainly because this was the only area where I had friends that were willing to take me in while I got back on my feet.  One place that was on the list of preferred dining spots was a local pizza chain called Davanni's.  This was the one place that served a pizza that was close to what I had in Connecticut, and whenever we went there for dinner this was what we would get.

Besides being a deep-dish style, loaded with toppings and cheese, it also featured what they called "pink sauce."  Essentially, this was a mix of their red sauce and their "white" sauce (which was a garlic-and-herbed olive oil), and the mingling of these flavors was truly spectacular.

Ms. Darkstar expressed a craving for this particular style of pizza, along with the fact that there seem to be no pizzerias in the area that serve anything close.  So, it fell upon me to try to duplicate it.  I knew I wouldn't even come close to an exact match, but just getting in the ballpark on this one would be worth the effort.

I started with the white sauce.  I took some fresh garlic and Italian seasoning, and heated this in a pot with some local extra-virgin olive oil that I picked up at the farmers' market in Frisco last year.  It's a local olive grower that produces some fantastic oils.  Once this was cooled, I poured it into a jar with some re-hydrated Penzey's minced garlic and let it sit.

Our red sauce came courtesy of another Frozen Tundra place we went to: The Green Mill.  Target sells their pizza sauce by the jar in their stores, so we picked up some of that, and I was able to doctor it up a bit with some Tuscan Sunset to get the flavor just right.

The toppings were simple enough.  I cooked up some Italian sausage and hamburger, cut some red onion, got sliced mushrooms, and for an added kick, cooked up some bacon left over from breakfast.  Pepperoni and a nice four-cheese blend were the crowning touches.

All that was left was to make the pizza dough.  We tried the one that Robyn and Nance made.  The dough was simple enough to make, and I was able to split it into two and freeze the other half for another time.

We placed the dough into an oiled deep-dish pizza pan, put on the sauces, a base layer of cheese, the meats and veggies, and topped it off with the rest of the cheese.  Now, what temperature to use to bake the pizza...

I dropped the rack to one space below center, and baked it at 400 degrees for about fifteen minutes (to start).  The crust seemed cooked after that time, and the mushrooms had cooked up perfectly.  I sliced and served, and damn if it wasn't pretty close to good ol' Davanni's.

All in all, the recipe was a success.  Some minor tweaks for next time:

1. I may season the dough next time.  Mixing in some dried garlic and Tuscan Sunset with the wet ingredients right before adding the flour might enhance the flavor a bit.
2. Prebake the crust a bit.  I did find one small raw spot on the bottom, so next time I may top the pizza with everything but the final layer of cheese, bake it for five minutes, take it out, add the cheese, and bake it for fifteen more minutes.
3. Oil the pan better.  There were a couple of places where the dough stuck to the sides of the pan.  Ms. Darkstar also noted that Davanni's crust had a buttery flavor, so I'm thinking maybe some butter-flavor Crisco would solve both of those issues.

Other than that, I think dinner was a huge success, and I will definitely have to make it again.  Soon.