A Slice of Inspiration: Women’s Pizza Month with Christy Alia

Pizza lovers, you’re in for a treat!  In this episode of the Kitchen Confidante podcast, we welcomed Christy Alia of Real Clever Food. Christy is a dedicated pizzaiola (pizza maker), sourdough bread baker, instructor, recipe developer, and founder of #WomensPizzaMonth, a community and celebration behind the iconic pizza and the women in our lives. This year, she has teamed up with Corto Olive Co. and Stanislaus Tomatoes to help us all celebrate at home and a scholarship opportunity to send aspiring women pizza makers to Pizza University. Whether you’re a seasoned pizzaiola or just starting, join us as we chat about the importance of high-quality ingredients, how to make your best pizza yet, and Christy’s dedication to the art of pizza making!

What was the inspiration behind Women’s Pizza Month?

I created it in 2021 as a global pizza party on Instagram to basically celebrate women. And part of the reason I created that was because I noticed that women were underrepresented and under-recognized for their significant contributions to our lives and the pizza world specifically. So, I told people on Instagram to create a pizza, dedicate it to a woman who inspires you, and tell us why. And I use that as a platform to educate people on the contributions of women pizza pioneers in the pizza world. 

It’s been amazing because I could highlight people like Sarah Minnick. Now, people might know about her because she was recently featured on Netflix’s Chef’s Table. But when I first featured her in 2021, people were like, “Oh, my goodness, I had no idea who she was.” And that, to me, was sad because Sarah is a hero of mine. She forages for sting nettles. If you had been on our page last week, you would have seen her in the woods getting the sting nettles for her pizza. She uses fig leaves, not figs, on her pizza. I mean, she really transformed the way we look at pizza. 

And there are other people, like Ann Kim, a Korean American chef I’ve highlighted, also on Netflix’s chef table. Check those out if you haven’t already. But she was one of the first to put kimchi on pizza, which blew people’s minds. But it’s not just that. She just basically opened our minds to all the limitless possibilities when it came to pizza. She has a pizza with pickles and potato chips, which was inspired by fried pickles she saw at a local fair. Like, how cool is that?

Can you describe to us the perfect pizza dough?

When it comes to pizza dough, I learned how to use yeast from my grandfather. We went on to poolish, which is a preferment using yeast, and now I use sourdough. But the best pizza dough is going to be the one you make with your own hands. Forget a mixer. You don’t need one. I actually recommend you don’t use a mixer when you’re first making pizza.

You start with a basic recipe, which should be flour, water, salt, and either yeast or a sourdough starter. But time and temperature — those are the most important ingredients. The tricky part is that people want a recipe that will tell them to ferment it for 2 hours, etc. You need to watch it. Basically, the temperature or humidity in your house will not be the same as mine. So what I like to do, because I teach pizza classes, is I like to get people in touch with their dough.

So when you first mix those ingredients up, you’re looking for maybe a 25% expansion of that dough. A lot of people are tucking it into the refrigerator as soon as they mix it up, and they’re like, why is my dough not doing anything? It’s because you need to give it a little bit of time. And when you use that pizza dough, it should be at room temperature. It shouldn’t be cold, because just like if you have any experience with bread, it won’t be able to stretch. Many people ask why when I stretch my dough, it springs back. It’s because it’s probably cold or it hasn’t fermented enough. Gluten is very tight. You have to let it relax to be able to stretch it out. So, a lot of it has to do with time and temperature. A lot of people forget those important ingredients.

How are Corto Olive Co. and Stanislaus Tomatoes getting involved for #WomensPizzaMonth this year? What is this pizza kit like? Is it something that anyone can get?

Yeah, you could go to Corto’s website. You’ll see the pizza kit there and be able to read about it. What’s super unique about the pizza kit is, yes, the olive oil. It’s the freshest olive oil you can get, in my opinion. There is nothing fresher out there. I’ve been to their mill. They harvest olives at the peak of freshness and get those into bottles as soon as possible, avoiding light, oxygen, or anything that will ruin the freshness of the olives. They do the ultimate job of ensuring it tastes as fresh as possible when you use it. But the really special part is the tomatoes they put in this kit. When I first got the Datterini tomatoes in the jar, I thought, oh, these are cute, but then you taste them. I mean, you don’t need to do anything right from the jar. They are a flavor explosion. So, all you have to do to make the best pizza sauce is crush and put them on the pizza. You don’t even need to add salt and olive oil. I’ve had tomatoes from Italy and Spain, and people’s backyards. These, to me, were probably the best tomatoes I ever had.

Learn more

Listen to the full podcast episode with Christy here, and follow her on Instagram @realcleverfood. Get your limited-edition Corto x Stanislaus Pizza Kit and apply for the Pizza Scholarship at https://corto-olive.com/products/pizza-kit.

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