Foodie Friday: St. Louis Bagels and Boston Style Pizza

A couple of years ago, I was shopping at Sam’s Club on Big Bend on a Saturday night. I turned an aisle, and there was Alvin Reid. Alvin is a longtime journalist in the St. Louis region. He’s worked in print, radio and television. I’m familiar with Alvin from his work on Donnybrook.

Guilty pleasure admission: I’m a fan of Donnybrook. It’s a 30-minute program on our local PBS station in which five St. Louis-area media personalities discuss state and local news. It’s followed by another 30-minute program with two of the five taking questions from viewers over the phone and Twitter. That was the format before COVID-19, anyways.

I’ve always appreciated Alvin’s takes on Donnybrook. He became my favorite voice on the show just a few days before our paths crossed at Sam’s Club as St. Louis was at the center of #BagelGate. Do you remember? The nation was gripped by St. Louis-sliced bagels. Thanks to social media, reaction was swift and negative. New Yorkers wanted Missouri removed from the union. That was a simpler time.

In the aisle, I asked, “Alvin Reid?” He stopped and looked. I could tell he was concerned about what my next words would be. He warily said, “Yes?”

Earlier that week as the hosts of Donnybrook discussed the merits of St. Louis-sliced bagels, Alvin dropped a line of pure gold: “You could throw a bagel in a chipper, and I don’t think that’s as embarrassing as (St. Louis-style) pizza.” Click here to listen to the March 28, 2019 segment, which starts at 23:05.

Back at Sam’s, we shared a moment over our mutual dislike of St. Louis-style pizza.

That’s a long way of saying you’ll never see a recipe for St. Louis style pizza in this space. But I have a Boston style pizza recipe below!

I call it Boston Style because the first time I saw it, the pizza was pictured topped with baked beans (YIKES!). That said, I think it’s more northeastern than Boston. I’ve not tried this recipe with baked beans, but it works well with our favorite traditional pizza toppings like sausage, mushrooms and green pepper or ham and pineapple … *screeching tires* Maybe the merits of pineapple on pizza will be a future Foodie Friday blog post.

Here’s the recipe: 

Boston Style Pizza  

Dough

• 1 2/3 cups flour

• 1 tbsp sugar

• 1 tsp instant yeast

• 2/3 cup water

• 1 ½ teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

• ¾ tsp salt

Sauce

• 1 (14.5 oz) can fired roasted tomatoes

• 1 tsp olive oil

• ½ tsp dried Italian seasoning

• ½ tsp sugar

• ¼ tsp salt

• 1/8 tsp pepper

Toppings

• Equal mix of cheddar and mozzarella cheese. I usually use 2 to 2 ½ cups. Less for O’s pizza because he doesn’t like much cheese.

• Your favorite toppings

Directions

1. Process flour, sugar and yeast in food processor 3-5 seconds. Slowly add water while processor is running. Process about 10 seconds until combined and no flour remains. Let dough stand for 10 minutes.

2. Add salt and oil and process for 30-60 seconds until the dough forms a satiny, sticky ball.

3. Transfer dough to oiled counter and knead about 1 minute until smooth. Shape dough into tight ball and placed in greased bowl. Cover with plastic and rise at room temperature for 2 to 2½ hours. It should double in size.

4. While the dough rises, add all of the sauce ingredients into a clean, dry food processor. Process about 30 seconds until smooth. Refrigerate sauce until ready to assemble pizzas.

5. Adjust your oven rack to the lowest setting and preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Brush oil on the bottom and sides of two dark-colored 8- or 9-inch round cake pans. I have 8-inch pans, but a 9-inch pan would probably work better, providing a thinner dough.

6. Remove the dough from the bowl to place on a floured counter. Divide the dough in half and shape into balls. Flatten one dough ball into a 6-inch circle with your fingers. Then, using a rolling pin to roll the disk into a 9- to 10-inch circle (depending on the size of cake pan).

7. Place the dough in the greased pan and press into the corners. You should have a 1/4- to 1/2-inch lip of dough on the sides of the pans. Repeat with the other dough ball.

8. Spread 1/3 cups of sauce on the dough. Using a pastry or BBQ brush, brush the sauce over the edge of the dough. Sprinkle with half of the cheese over the pizza, including the edge. Repeat with second pan.

9. Bake about 12 minutes, switching and rotating the pans after six minutes. The crust should be brown and the cheese should be melty and starting to brown. Using a butter knife or offset spatula, loosen the pizzas from the edge of the pan. Slide a spatula under the pizza onto a cutting board.

10. Rest for five minutes before cutting and serving.

One of the signatures of this style is the “laced” edge. Instead of having a crust with which you can handle the pie, you get great pizza flavor in every bite.

Ideally, you want to roll the dough thin, but this isn’t that St. Louis-style cracker crust. Boston style gives you tender dough with crispy edge.

Lastly, this recipe makes two 8-inch pizzas. We typically double it for our family of four and have a few leftover slices for the next day.  

Enjoy!