(all eating loudly)

- Wow! - Bliss!

-It's like I got a one-way ticket to Flavorville!

This is really good, too, y'know.

(all eating loudly)

- Hey, what's up, guys?

Welcome back to Binging with Babish,

where this week, we're taking a look

at the pizza gyoza from the 2012 iteration

of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series.

First thing we gotta do is figure out how to put

some pizza flavors inside of these gyoza wrappers.

I'm thinking of flavorful medley of about six ounces

of whole pepperoni that I'm cutting up into one-inch chunks

and processing in a food processor

until it resembles little chunks of pepperoni,

and then I'm gonna add eight ounces

of full-fat low-moisture mozzarella,

along with about a half teaspoon of oregano

and a small handful of tore up fresh basil leaves.

Then we're gonna pulse this mixture together

until it forms a rough paste with still visible

big ol' chunks of mozzarella.

It should clump together when pressed lightly

and taste pleasurable when put into the mouth.

So there's our gyoza filling,

now we just have to contend with making gyoza.

If you want to see a more comprehensive tutorial

on how to make gyoza wrappers and fold 'em up,

click the link in the upper right-hand corner right now.

But generally speaking, we're taking about a tablespoon

of filling, placing it in the center of a wrapper,

wetting one side with water,

and folding decoratively into gyoza.

As you can see, these ones aren't perfect, but I'm not here

to reinforce unrealistic gyoza standards.

The last thing missing in our pizza gyoza equation is a dipping sauce.

So into a small saucepan, I'm combining one 28-ounce can

of whole San Marzano tomatoes that I've pureed,

a couple of sprigs of fresh basil, a couple of cloves

of garlic, kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

to taste, and a teaspoon of dried oregano.

Bring everybody up to a simmer, let it cook maybe, like,

20 minutes until the flavors have mellowed out a little bit

and it's thickened, set that aside, and keep it warm

whilst we prepare our dumplings.

Couple of tablespoons of oil and a large nonstick or carbon steel skillet.

Get it nice and hot, plop in our little dumpers,

let them sit there for one to two minutes

until they have a nice brown crust,

pour about a half a cup of water over top, cover 'em up,

and let them steam until the wrappers are soft and the fillings are heated through,

anywhere from three to five minutes, depending on, I dunno, stuff.

Let the water fully evaporate and these guys should lift right off the pan.

Inspect their bottoms to make sure that they are burnished,

and just like that, it's time to serve.

I don't know why I'm using my hands to plate these up instead of chopsticks.

Hindsight is 20/20.

Ladle some sauce into a bowl, and there you have it,

pizza gyoza, about as easy to make as they are good to eat.

That is to say, very and very.

A little bit of crisp on the bottom is great

and very necessary when you've got all these sort of

gummy cheesy components, but I'm wondering if we can't

incorporate more of that pizza crisp,

not to mention flatness, so I think that our answer

lies in a gyoza skirt.

Basically, we're prepping our gyoza the exact same way,

but when it comes time to add our steaming liquid,

we're using a slurry of a half cup of water

tiny whisked together with one teaspoon of cornstarch

and a half teaspoon of all-purpose flour.

This ghostly concoction we'll make a starchy gooey web,

ensconcing the crispy bottoms of our gyoza.

Once we've let them steam for two to three minutes,

it's time to let excess moisture boil off,

about another two minutes,

allowing the delicate lacy remains to crisp up and brown.

Then we're inverting this guy onto a plate

for a crispier and prettier presentation.

And then this gave me the idea to basically

treat the gyoza skirt like a pizza,

but the holes in my first iteration

were a little bit too big and doily-like.

So here comes some steaming liquid with double the flour and corn starch,

which I hope will reward us with a more substantial skirt.

And at first, it looked a little creepy and ectoplasmic,

but in the end, it did yield the skirt with smaller holes.

More of a sheer rather than a fishnet.

I know that you knew that there was a clothing

analogy coming, It just took me a while to get there.

So anyway, now that we've got our nice flat skirt,

we're gonna reinforce it with some Parmesan cheese,

hit it with some of our tomato sauce,

spread that nice and evenly using an offset spatula,

load this guy up with shredded low-moisture

mozzarella cheese, and of course, roni peps.

I've got this on an oven-safe plate that I'm gonna place...Into the oven.

400 degrees Fahrenheit for about five minutes,

until all the cheese is melted, and, not ideal looking,

but it's about as close as I'm gonna get to an actual gyoza pizza.

But how's it taste? And the answer is, well, drippy.

Pretty oily, pretty cheesy, still surprisingly crisp,

little spicy from the pepperoni,

with a nice thin chewy wrapper.

I'd like to imagine that I was channeling Mikey.

This seems like something he would have dreamt up.

Along with touching the still very, very hot plate.

And here's the part where Raph makes fun of me

and Splinter gives me a ninja life lesson.

(smooth music)