Sharing a Pizza

Although we are longtime friends going back almost 40 years, it had been way too long since KT, JM and I had met to visit and catch up. One had spent half the summer in Idaho, the other was in and out of town on short vacations, and the third was laying low, hobbled by a bad back and a broken toe. On a magnificent summer day recently, we met at Ojai's popular new restaurant, La Fonte Pizze, for lunch and conversation. We sat in a quiet corner on the restaurant's back patio so we could talk, and talk, and talk.

After much deliberation (their menu is lengthy), we decided to split a large salad and a pizza, and we agreed on their specialita del giorno, a chicken pizza adorned with sliced fresh peaches. I don't think the others were as enthusiastic about this dish as I was (maybe because I was the one laying low with the bad back and not getting out much), but I thought it was inventive and delicious. Delivered on a wooden peel, the thin-crust pie was piled high with chunks of white meat chicken and local yellow meat peaches, garnished with fresh basil.

This, I thought, probably wouldn't be too hard to do at home. I own a pizza peel, and the ingredients are easily available. So, why not? Well, because my homemade pizza would not come with two cherished friends and chit-chat refined over 4 decades. That is what can never be replicated.