"Good" Pizza Day at the Willy C!

Freshman year!

Eleven years ago, I was an ambitious, energetic college freshman at SUNY Fredonia.  Majoring in pre-law, I truly believed that the world was my oyster and that I had a bright, lucrative future ahead of me.  This was at the tail end of Clinton-era prosperity, before the 2000 election and the Florida recount, before 9/11, before I transferred to Northeastern University, before the wars, before the market crash, and before it dawned on me that life isn't going to be an endless string of bonus checks and fashionable parties, but rather a daily grind of putting the new cover sheets on my TPS reports.
 

Yours truly, at a good,
old-fashioned kegger...


Ahh, the year 2000.  After "surviving" Y2K, the days ahead seemed celebratory, and celebrate we did!  We shook our bon-bons.  We let the dogs out.  We let Sisqo see that thong-tha-thong-thong-thong.  Britney hadn't yet flashed her naughty bits, Facebook didn't exist, and Bostonians still groaned about The Curse of the Bambino. 

Kinda surreal.

I made some great friends at SUNY, a few of whom I still talk to regularly and am willing to get felt up by TSA to visit.  When I reminisce with these friends, one of the things we still talk about fondly from that era is the "good" pizza from the Willy C (or to all you non-Fredonians, The Williams Center, which is the hub of non-alcoholic student activity).

The "good" pizza was nothing more than thin-crust pizza margherita with a kick of garlic, but compared to Willy C's other pizza offerings, which featured doughy crust, cheap, greasy pepperoni, rubbery cheese (often burnt), metallic, bitter black olives, and absolutely tragic-looking bits of green pepper, the "good" pizza was reason to run to the nearest computer, log on to AOL Instant Messenger, and let everyone on your buddy list know that the Willy C was serving the "good" pizza! 

Two nights ago, I dreamed about the "good" pizza, and I wouldn't rest until I had it.  My options were limited - I could make some phone calls to SUNY's dining services office to see if it still existed, and if so, when they'd be serving it next, then hop on a plane, rent a car, drive to campus, and wait until the "good" pizza came out of the oven, or I could try to duplicate it.  I chose the latter.

If you went to SUNY Fredonia for more than 5 minutes and you want a trip down memory lane that doesn't involve Scummy's, Coyle's, Brigham Road, or high times at the Chinese buffet with the suspiciously large 'chicken' wings, try this recipe at home sometime! 

The "Good" Pizza

1-2 roma tomatoes, sliced into 1/4" thick rings
1/2 lb. pizza dough
cornmeal
2-3 T. peppery olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, pressed or sliced paper-thin
1 t. pesto, or 1 T. shredded basil leaves
a few grinds black pepper
1 cup shredded mozzarella

Preheat the oven to 465.  Lay the tomato slices on paper towels to remove excess moisture.  In the meantime, sprinkle cornmeal on your pizza tray or cookie sheet and stretch the pizza dough so that a very thin crust is formed.  Place the dough on the cornmeal - this is the best way to prevent it from sticking. 

In a small bowl, combine the olive oil, garlic, pesto or basil, and pepper.  Mix well, then brush over the pizza crust, leaving 1/2" uncoated around the edge.  Top with an even layer of shredded mozzarella, then place the tomato slices on top of the mozzarella. 

Bake for 13-15 minutes, then remove from oven, let the pizza cool for a few minutes, and slice and serve.