Book Review: 150 Best Desserts in a Jar

Until recently, I was unfamiliar with the concept of dessert in a jar, but apparently it's a trend. And as trends go, it's not a bad one.
There's nothing new, I guess, about layered desserts, like parfaits, served in glass containers. So this is just an offshoot of that. The nice thing about it is that they present well, are fairly easy to make, and lend themselves to individual servings, so they're good when you have guests. There's also something less intimidating about making several individual desserts than trying to tackle one large dessert, where one mistake can doom the entire thing.
As a guide to this culinary species, 150 Best Desserts in a Jar is probably as good a guide as you're likely to find. Author Andrea Jordan, a food writer and cookbook author with 25-plus years of experience, takes the reader through "warm and comforting" desserts - think puddings, custards and cakes - through chilled treats like trifles, panna cotta, and, yes, parfaits. You'll find "adult" desserts like the inelegantly named but intriguing "strawberry, basil and vodka whiz," kid-friendly desserts like a peanut butter and chocolate cup, and one of my all-time favorites, tiramisu. There are also plenty of fruit-based desserts, which are perfect for our upcoming fresh-produce season.
As I've found with other Robert Rose publications, this book is well organized and illustrated, and the recipes are easy to follow. The bulk of its pages are devoted to recipes - not a lot of filler here - but the sidebars are given over to helpful tips and brief comments by the author. If you're tired of the same old chocolate cakes and apple pies, or would like to find some new use for all those Mason jars in your basement, 150 Best Desserts in a Jar is a fine source of ideas.
150 Best Desserts in a Jar
Andrea Jourdan, author
224 pages
© 2013, Robert Rose

Sal's Pizzeria, Ithaca

Ithaca is a bit far afield for a Rochester-based pizza blog, but my travels take me there on occasion, and I suspect that a lot of Rochesterians get down that way from time to time as well. The Ithaca area has a lot to offer, from natural features ("Ithaca Is Gorges," as the bumper sticker says) to its colleges and all that goes along with that - restaurants, nightlife, shopping, and so on.
And pizza. Where there are colleges, there is pizza.
And Ithaca is a college town. There's Ithaca College, as well as Ithaca's most famous institutional resident, Cornell University. I imagine that Cornell in particular attracts a fair number of students from downstate, who grew up on New York style pizza, so it's not surprising to find that style well represented in and around Ithaca.
I've also found that you don't have to go that far in the direction of New York City before you start finding a lot of New York style pizza places. Get down to the Southern Tier, around Elmira and points east and south, and NY style pizzerias seem to become far more commonplace than they are around Rochester. At least, that's my impression. (That may not hold true in Binghamton, which I guess has its own style of pizza, that I've yet to investigate.)
So anytime I'm in the Ithaca area, I'm curious to check out its pizzerias. Following a recent hike in the Connecticut Hill Wildlife Management Area, I stopped by Sal's Pizzeria, in southwest Ithaca. By way of background, I quote from Sal's website:
"Salvatore Melice came to Ithaca from Canicaitti Sicily in December of 1974. One year later he began working in the restaurant business. In 1979, he became a partner in Roma Pizzeria. After 10 years as a partner Sal decided that it was time to go out on his own and Sal's Pizzeria opened in 1989.
"Joe Tilton became Sal's partner in 1999. He brought with him 28 years of restaurant experience. Together Sal and Joe have over 50 years of experience combined."
That experience manifests itself in some pretty good pizza. My cheese slices (which were reheated prior to serving) were very thin, with some light charring underneath. The crust was crisp and a little crackly, and despite their thinness they had some breadiness inside, and an almost sweet flavor.
The slices were topped with a bright red, tomatoey sauce and stretchy mozzarella. The cheese seemed to have migrated a bit toward the center of the pie, but not too much, and as a whole the cheese was applied in good proportion to the thin crust.
Sal's offers 20 pizza toppings (including salami, which I often use when baking pizza at home), but otherwise keeps it simple, with just two pie sizes (12" and 16") and just four specialty pizzas, including the mysteriously named "Sal's Special." They also serve wings, pasta, subs, grilled sandwiches, a few dinners, and sides. There's free delivery after 4 p.m.
This was good pizza. It was close to New York style, but not quite like classic NY pizza - the cheese in particular was a little more unevenly distributed and, in some spots, thicker than I would expect from a NY style slice. The toppings weren't bad, and I enjoyed them well enough, but somehow they seemed not quite to match up to the crust, which I liked very much. So I can't give this an A, but it certainly rates an above-average grade, for a B.
Sal's Pizzeria, 220 S. Fulton St., Ithaca
(607) 277-SALS (7257)
Mon. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 10:30 p.m., Sun. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.

McQuaid Jesuit

Yes, you read that title right. I'm reviewing school cafeteria pizza.
But not just any high school, or any school cafeteria. Let's cut to the chase - McQuaid Jesuit, a Catholic, male-only school, is not only a fine educational institution, it also has some of the best pizza around.
I discovered this through one of my readers, whose husband David DelGaudio runs the food program at McQuaid. I was skeptical, but figured, OK, why not?
It took a couple of phone calls to make arrangements - I didn't want to just show up one day and start wandering through the hallways, given our sadly necessary concerns these days about security - but I made it without too much trouble, and met both Dave and Director of Communications Sean Mullen, who guided me to the cafeteria.
I got there just before the lunchtime crush, and was very impressed by the wide variety of slices available. There were several thin-crust pies, from plain cheese to pepperoni and more, as well as a Sicilian pizza and something I hadn't run across before, panuozzo. This is basically a folded-over pizza dough with fillings inside.
But let me start with the thin slice. I went with a basic cheese slice, which was thin but not paper thin, nicely charred underneath, and supple, with just a bit of bite on the exterior of the crust. The crust was very good, but I think it was one of those that would be even better with reheating, to really crisp up the bottom.
There was some oil on the top side, from the cheese, but nothing excessive. The mozzarella was added in proportion to the thinness of the crust, and was melt-in-your-mouth creamy. A thin layer of basic, tomatoey sauce rounded things out.
Thin crust remains my go-to pizza, but the Sicilian here was a standout, with a bottom crust marked by a bubbly pattern that revealed its pan-baked character, but with no more than a slight feel of oil on the surface. The interior was chewy and breadlike, and the slice was topped with a generous helping of sauce and blistered dollops of fresh mozzarella.
Next up was the panuozzo. This cousin of a calzone is regularly offered here, but the fillings vary from day to day. On this occasion, the fillings were a basic pepperoni, sauce and cheese. The entire thing was baked as one giant loaf, and then sliced. The crust was nicely browned on top and bottom, and enclosed a steaming-hot interior, with smooth, stretchy cheese oozing out along the sides.
Dave informed me that all three of these offerings were prepared using the same dough and sauce, which made for a fascinating study of how the same ingredients can yield very different results, depending on how they're prepared and baked. And all three were baked in a large commercial pizza oven, with a gas flame in back providing some radiant heat.
My one regret is that I didn't speak to any of the students to get their take on the pizza. I got my slices at just about the time that the students swarmed into the cafeteria, locust-like, but minutes before I finished eating, they vanished just as quickly to go back to class.
But if any McQuaid students are reading this - you've got it good, at least as far as the food is concerned. I hope you know that. Not to sound like an old timer ("Why, when I was a lad ..."), but in my day, school pizza was pretty awful, although I suppose we still looked forward to it, given the alternatives. And I suspect that even today, few schools offer pizza that's even close to this good. If I were a McQuaid student, I might try to keep my grades down, in the hopes of repeating a year, just for the pizza. Something tells me it wouldn't work, but I'd consider it, anyway.
I could pick a nit here and there about this pizza. The thin-crust slice was a little pale along the edge (which also had a large bubble in it), and as I mentioned, it was a bit oily on top. But all in all, this was excellent pizza, well made, with quality ingredients, and it rates an A from me.
If you'd like to try McQuaid's pizza, it can be done. The cafeteria is generally not open to the public, but on school days you can order a 20-inch pizza to go; visit their website for details. A 20-inch pie is a lot of pizza, but I don't think you'll end up with many leftovers.
McQuaid Jesuit, South Clinton Ave. at Elmwood Avenue.
Pizza catering available on school days between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m.