My Speedy Romeo Copy-Cat Pizza
In St Louis, there's a pizza chain called Imo's. The crust is cracker-like, the sauce is overly seasoned with oregano, and the cheese is... plastic-y? But, like, in a good way - I swear. It's called provel, and it's some kind of processed mixture of cheddar, swiss, and provolone. I know it sounds completely disgusting, and quite honestly, I think most people that didn't grow up eating it hate it, but there's a Brooklyn restaurant that's perfected it. The Saint Louie pizza at Speedy Romeo in Clinton Hill is the best of Imo's applied to the reliability of New York pizza.
Joe and I absolutely love it. I think we both day dream about those pickled peppers (at least I know I do). The bummer about Speedy Romeo is that it's a 40 minutes walk from our apartment, and we often are greeted by a two hour wait. My sister and brother-in-law used to live nearby, and they'd get take out. But since they moved, Speedy Romeo visits are becoming pretty rare. So I made my best attempt at recreating it.
Making the pickled peppers was surprisingly easy. I used this recipe from Bon Appetit. My grocery store didn't have any thai chiles in stock (I think that's what they use at Speedy Romeo), so instead I used a combination of Serrano and Jalapeños. If I do this again, I'd probably put more effort into getting Thai Chiles just for the color variety. They were so delicious on the pizza that I can't wait to try them on other things. I think hot dogs with sauerkraut and pickled peppers are definitely in our future.
4 cups assorted chiles
1 1/2 cups distilled white vinegar
3 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns
2 tablespoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
1 1/2 cups water
Cut the chiles into 1/4'' rounds and place in a 1 quart jar. Place all other ingredients into a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn heat down and let simmer for 5 minutes. Pour hot brine over the chiles. Seal jar and let cool. When the jar is cool, place in refrigerator. The pickled chiles will keep for 1 month.
There aren't many recipes for provel online (maybe I'm the only one that wants to make it?). I used this website as a guide, but halved the recipe because no one needs 4 cups of provel cheese. I'm not exactly sure what liquid smoke is and was totally shocked that they stocked it at my grocery store. It definitely added that plastic-y flavor to the provel, but Joe assures me that he can use the rest of the bottle for grilling recipes, so I'll try not the think about whatever mysterious chemicals are in it.
1 cup shredded provolone cheese
1/2 cup shredded white cheddar cheese
1/2 cup shredded swiss cheese
2 drops liquid smoke
Mix all ingredients well.
I bought the pizza dough at our local Italian grocery, but one of these days I'm going to remember to start a dough first thing in the morning and make a sourdough pizza dough using Joe's starter, so stay tuned for that. I had some leftover pizza sauce frozen from a few weeks ago, so I didn't have to make new, but I use this Smitten Kitchen recipe when I do.
1 ball pizza dough
2 cups pizza sauce
6 -10 slices hot soppressata
2 handfuls cooked Italian sausage
2 cups provel cheese
A generous handful of pickled peppers
2 tablespoons olive oil
Pre-heat oven to 500°. Stretch pizza dough oven cookie sheet. Spread a thin layer of tomato sauce over dough. Place slices of soppressata so that most of the sauce is covered. Sprinkle sausage over soppressata. Cover entire pizza in provel cheese. Add pickled peppers on top of the cheese. Brush olive oil onto the crust if a crispy crust is desired. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Slice using the tavern cut.
The pizza actually turned out shockingly similar to the St. Louie at Speedy Romeo. It was absolutely delicious!
Bonus: I got to eat the leftovers for lunch the next day with the first cherries of the summer!