There isn't necessarily a lot I miss about my years living in Washington, D.C., but near the top of that short list is the restaurant Matchbox's Fire + Smoke pizza. The pizza is super spicy from ground chipotle pepper-tomato sauce, slightly sweet from roasted red peppers and basil, and creamy with a bold flavor from a smoked gouda topping. Yum.
This pizza may have been my favorite food in D.C., and while I had previously resigned myself to just sampling this treat while in the District itself, I recently decided to google around to see if I could find a recipe online. To my surprise (and to my hopes!), I was able to find a restaurant-endorsed recipe from Matchbox chef Jonathan McArthur on Washingtonian.com.
When I set out to make the recipe, I made a few changes to fit my own tastes and pizza-making experience, but otherwise followed the recipe fairly closely.
My first, and major modifications, were in the form of using my default pizza dough recipe and constructing a simple, no-cook sauce of diced tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. To that partially pre-baked dough and sauce, I followed the recipe directions of placing the tomato sauce and chipotle puree in concentric circles to allow for different flavors in each bite.
I then added the chopped onion, and minced garlic (instead of pureed garlic).
Finally, I layered on the sliced, smoked Gouda and threw on a bit of dried oregano, while omitting the roasted red peppers to fit my tastes (not a huge fan of those slimy peppers!).
And then I baked at approx. 500 degrees until the dough was fully cooked and the cheese were hot. I finished the pizza with some fresh basil (yum!) and ate way, way too much of the pizza. I can't wait to make this pizza again and again, and I may even have no reason to visit D.C. anymore!
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