Ham and I both grew up in North Beach, the Little Italy of San Francisco. Although many of our favorite spots have long closed (Panelli’s 😢), Golden Boy continues to thrive in the heart of our neighborhood. Declaring itself the place “where it’s hip to be square,” Golden Boy and the Sodini family have been churning out square-shaped focaccia pizza since 1978. They offer five types: cheese, pepperoni or sausage, clams and garlic, pesto veggie and combination. Whether it requires a 20-minute walk from work during lunch or a wait in a line around the block, Golden Boy pizza is always worth it.
If you can imagine my glee when I came across Williams-Sonoma’s Golden Boy pizza kit online, we’re destined to be fast friends. Inspired by Golden Boy’s original recipes, the kit consists of three components: a box of dry ingredients for the focaccia dough ($14.95), a jar of pizza sauce ($14.95) and a bottle of Italian herb seasoning ($9.95). Please note that the herb seasoning isn’t a must-buy since a herb packet is included in the box of dry ingredients.
Though the process to craft the pizza requires several steps and waiting time, the dough is a cinch to work with and creates an 18” x 13” pie. Because François’ ovens are slightly smaller than traditional American ovens, we split our dough between two quarter-sheet pans. Then we topped the pizzas with our favorite trusty combinations—sweet Italian sausage from Molinari’s, roasted red bell peppers and red onions and salami, red onions and black olives.
We’d give the Golden Boy pizza kit a 👍🏻. We’re not sure if we’d buy the kit again though since Golden Boy is a hop and a skip away from our home, but it was fun to spend an afternoon playing with pizza dough. And while we gave ourselves a big pat on the back for our delicious copycat pizza, nothing can ever beat the real thing at Golden Boy.
