Artist Spotlight – Jen Levin

Did you grow up on Totinos or Jacks frozen pizza and then one day discover how good pizza can be with a homemade crust and fresh ingredients?
I met Jen Levin a few years ago when her family moved to St Paul. When we met, I could tell in one conversation that she was what I call a “midlife creative.” I caught her sketching during the sermon at church, found out she was an expert gardener, and amazing cook (well, pretty amazing compared to me!)
The first time I was at her house, she told me that she makes homemade pizza for her family almost every Friday night. It was a Monday and they were eating the leftovers for lunch. I thought to myself, ”Now here is someone I can learn from….or at the very least, get some good pizza from!”

Time passed and I followed the photos of Jen’s pizzas on her Instagram. The ingredients she used were so unique and I was impressed by her commitment to improve this pizza making craft. I asked if I could come over on a Friday night and watch her work her magic.

When I arrived at the Levin home, Jen had the dough ready and ingredients prepped. She had made the dough the night before and let it rise overnight. I always thought pizza dough had to rise in the oven or in a warm place, but this is not necessary. As long as the dough stays room temperature and you don’t live in a really cold house, it should be fine. The crust recipe Jen uses is just flour, water, salt, and yeast. She buys her flour in a 50lb bag from Cosettas market in St Paul. That bag of flour lasts her 6 months. She says that she gets a lot of funny looks and questions when she comes in asking for that amount of flour.

Jen has a large family so she usually makes at least 6 pizzas at a time. As I watched her, she made it look so easy. She tossed each circle of dough into the air, fashioning it into a crust.

There were a few things that surprised me. One, was how simple the red sauce was. Just whole tomatoes from a can and spices. Two, she didn’t pre-cook her sausage. She put it on the pizza raw. The high temperature of the broiler cooks the sausage throughout in a matter of minutes. There is no need to pre-cook the meat.

This is Jen’s favorite cookbook where she gets her crust recipe and inspiration for toppings. My Pizza by Jim Lahey.

This pizza was 1/2 thinly sliced apple, garlic butter, and cheddar cheese and 1/2 onion, rosemary, pistachios, and grated parmesan.

This one was more of a traditional supreme with pepperoni, sausage, green olives, and mozzarella. My favorite pizza of the night was one with goat cheese, sausage, mushrooms, and olives. I decided I am definitely a fan of goat cheese (something I would never think to try on my own)

The trickiest part of the pizza making, in my opinion, is the baking. Jen uses the broiler setting on her oven. She puts one pizza in the bottom broiler drawer and another on the bottom shelf of the oven. Then she rotates them a couple minutes into the cooking process. The bottom broiler cooks the bottom crust and the top oven finishes browning the top of the pizza

This is the ”peel” she uses to take the pizzas out of the oven. I need to get myself one of these.

I asked Jen about her inspiration for pizza making. She said some of the best pizza she ever ate was in Sicily while living there with her family for 3 months. Restaurants in Italy wouldn’t typically open until 8pm and they had little kids with bedtimes. They found a place close to their apartment that opened at 7pm and it became a favorite spot.

During our pre-dinner chat, there were also stories of a New York City pizza she ate once after a run in the rain, and ”the best pizza ever” with her sister at Pizza Bianco in Phoenix, AZ.

Why every Friday night?

As I watched this labor of love unfold (the whole process took close to two hours) I wondered to myself if the time and effort was worth it. Why not just order take out?

It became clear as I watched Jen making those pizzas, that this was important to her and to her family.
She told me that this is something everyone loves and something they look forward to. She enjoys getting people together, and the laid back atmosphere of chatting while the pizzas are coming out of the oven, one by one. “I love good food and I love making it for people and with people,” she says.

Upon tasting the final product, all my questions faded away. This pizza, made with love, was an incredible gift and a creative expression from the chef.

Jen’s longterm goal is to have her own food truck. I hope that this can become a reality.

I’ll be first in line to order!

“I’ll have the sausage, olives, mushrooms, and goat cheese.”