Entries tagged with 'Neapolitan'
Posted by Emily Koh, June 11, 2008 at 6:45 PM
Pizza Margherita will now be recognized as a "regional specialty" in Naples by the European Union under its official name, the Pizza Napoletana. This means anyone claiming to sell a Pizza Napoletana must now adhere to the rules of what constitutes a Pizza Napoletana, as conceived by the Associazione Vera Pizza Napoletana (the True Neapolitan Pizza Association):
- The diameter must be no more than 35 cm (14 inches) in diameter and no thicker than 1/3 of a centimeter at its center
- The tomato base must be made from the San Marzano variety of tomatoes
- The olive oil used must be extra virgin
- The cheese topping is buffalo mozzarella
- All ingredients must be from the Campania region
- The oven must be wood-fired, and the pizza must cook in less than two minutes
Legend has it that the Margherita was created in 1889 at Pizzeria Brandi, in honor of the queen of Italy, Margherita of Savoy. Since its inception, it's gone through a myriad of changes and creative twists by pizzerias all around the world, like a tomato-less bianca version. However, the Associazione has threatened to sue restaurants in Europe if they advertise the Pizza Napoletana but aren't complying to the rules: "We are protecting one of the most ancient and most important gastronomic traditions," VPN director Antonio Pace said. "We don't want the others not to make pizza, but we want them to make it as we make it—as it should be done."
Posted by Adam Kuban, January 10, 2008 at 2:00 PM
View Slice's Bronx Pizza Map »
Food maven Arthur Schwarz reports on Zero Otto Nove, a newish Neapolitan joint on Arthur Avenue in The Bronx that has somehow managed to fly under the Slice radar:
Roberto’s has been a destination restaurant for years. Now Zero Otto Nove has become one. It is already, after only a few months in business, drawing customers from the hinterlands, and for several good reasons. Top among them, I am sure, is the Neapolitan-style pizza that may be the best you’ve ever had in the U.S., and better than many in Naples, as I just described. I know I am going out on a limb with that remark, but I know what I am doing. Well, I hope I am not setting anyone up for a disappointment.
Zero Otto Nove’s pizzaiolo, its pizza maker, Ricardo, who indeed has enough charisma to be called by only one name, like Garbo or Cher, is originally from Naples. But he last worked in downtown Salerno. He was making such good pizza in Salerno that my Salernitani friends suggested that the place he worked at, Pizza Margherita, would be a good substitute for Pizzeria Vicolo della Neve, my usual haunt, but which, in the summer, is way too hot and airless to be enjoyable.
As Schwarz explains, the joint's name is Italian for zero eight nine, Salerno's area code.
Zero Otto Nove
Address: 2357 Arthur Avenue, Bronx NY 10458 (Belmont; map)
Phone: 718-220-1027
[via eGullet, thanks to Eater Ben]
Posted by Adam Kuban, October 4, 2007 at 2:15 PM
Photograph courtesy of the Pupatella pizza cart.
Melissa McCart (Counter Intelligence) writes about a type of street cart you don't often see, a Neapolitan pizza cart. It's in Arlington, Virginia's Ballston neighborhood:
Enzo Algarme and Anastasiya Laufenberg weren't kidding when they said they know pizza. The name of Ballston's new Pupatella Food Cart—pupatella is slang for doll in Naples—is a reference to Algarme's grandmother who inspired his love of cooking. Although they've only been open a week and are making do with a standard oven as opposed to the wood-burning one that's becoming the standard in the area's top pizza joints, Algarme and Laufenberg turning out an impressive thin-crust margherita pie. It's well-cooked, but not too brittle, and topped with basil, mozzarella and a glaze of sauce with a hint of sweetness.
Pupatella is located at North Stuart Street and 9th Street North, near Ballston's Orange Line station [map].
Posted by Mark Cohen, July 23, 2007 at 2:00 PM
Ladies and gents, my homeslices, every now and then one of you writes in with reviews and info about far-flung pizzerias that are way out of the range of typical Slice coverage. Today, we've got such an item for you. Mark Cohen, who lives part of the year in Manila, submitted a couple dispatches about some pizzerias in the Philippines. Here's the first of his reports. —The Mgmt.
Words and photographs by Mark Cohen | I grew up in the New York City area and lived there until I left for college. I was a typical New York pizza freak—except that, at the ripe old age of 12, I was making pizza out of the box, learning to work with dough (Chef Boyardee for those who remember). By the time I was 23, I was making pizza from scratch and was fortunate enough to work for a master pizzaiolo in the best pizza place in San Francisco in the late '60s, early '70s. My mentor hailed from the Naples area and was a great cook all around, so I learned from the best.
Continue reading »
Posted by Ed Levine, July 18, 2007 at 9:45 AM
photographs courtesy Isabella's Oven
I had a truly great pizza in a new pizza place on Saturday, and though I'm not going to tell you that I have seen pizza's future and its name is Isabella's Oven, the way Jon Landau did a zillion years ago when he saw Springsteen live and declared that he had seen rock and roll's future, I will say I had a pie that would easily make a New York City top ten list and maybe a national one as well.
Now in New York, when you declare a pizza place that's not on anybody's radar to be Pizza Hall of Fame-worthy, there can be hell to pay. But I'm willing to stand the heat of the wood-burning oven.
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, July 5, 2007 at 12:15 PM
Slice has a pen pal over in New Zealand who checks in with this report on Pizza Pomodoro in Wellington. Will F. also tipped us to Al Volo in Auckland, New Zealand, late last year. —The Mgmt.
Words and Photo by Will F. | Pizza Pomodoro is a precious nugget of toothsomeness that sits nestled in an alley off of an alley. It also sits next to an alley. It's hidden enough that entering its two-table dining space, if it weren't for the neon sign on the facade, would feel like entering the headquarters of some kind of secret society.
Behind a counter crammed with a variety of ingredients—from the traditional mozzarella di bufala and basil to the progressive egg and avocado—chief pizzaiolo Massimo Tolve works at a clipped pace stretching balls of dough into rounded squares about 30 cm (11 3/4 inches) across and distributing toppings with concise movements, all the while rapping with the customers, who are often regulars.
And it's no wonder that people keep returning. The pizzas are magnificent. Tolve, a native Neapolitan himself, learned the art of pizza-making in his hometown. He bakes them in a manuka-wood–burning oven for about two minutes each in temperatures hovering between 400 and 425°C (750 to 800°F). The results are pizzas that have, in the Neapolitan tradition, a paper-thin crust with a light and pillowy cornicione and dots of charring that pepper the underside. The finished pies are quickly slotted into brown cardboard boxes and sliced (no plates here—with only two tables, Pomodoro is largely a pick-up and delivery outfit).
I tried Pomodoro's Bufalina (tomato sauce, mozzarella di bufala, basil, and olive oil) and its Pollo (Italian white sauce, smoked chicken, camembert, mushrooms, and avocado). The Bufalina's cheese and basil were sparsely distributed on a shallow sea of red. The oven left its mark with a smokiness, the sauce was sweet but also had a slight bitter aftertaste, the cheese was velvety and subtle, the basil had a light aroma, and the oil lent a richness. It was well balanced pizza. While I'm a traditionalist and the Pollo is about as far from traditional in terms of toppings as you can get (Camembert?! Avocado? Sacrilege!), I find it hard to say that this pizza wasn't actually delicious. The white sauce, avocado, and camembert combined for a creamy smoothness and were counterpointed by the dainty slices of savory chicken populating the pizzascape.
Robust is probably the best way to describe the pizza here, both in flavor and character. Anyone who's willing to look hard enough to find this semi-secret pizza haven will be well rewarded.
Pizza Pomodoro
Website: pizzapomodoro.co.nz
Address: 13 Leeds Street, Hannah's Warehouse, PO Box 27198, Wellington, New Zealand
Phone: 04 381 2929
Posted by Adam Kuban, June 4, 2007 at 10:51 AM
Remember that rave review Village Voice food critic Robert Sietsema gave Il Brigante the other week?
New York Times food critic Frank Bruni says, "huh," slamming the new pizzeria and, by extension, Sietsema.
If his point is that Neapolitan pizza is unduly romanticized, and that your standard pizza pie in Naples is not necessarily some gastronomically wondrous epiphany, then O.K., there’s some merit to what he’s saying.
But his point seems to be that he loved this pie. My lunch companion and I found nothing lovable about it.
I haven't been yet, but now I'm even more curious...
Posted by Adam Kuban, May 17, 2007 at 1:48 PM
The Village Voice's Robert Sietsema thinks he's found it at Il Brigante:
At its heart, Il Brigante is a pizzeria, and a damn good one. The rear wall is dominated by a flickering wood-burning hearth inside a limestone proscenium, where a sweating and grunting pizzaiolo is the star of his own small repertory theater. In the style of southern Italy, the 10-inch pies are intended for individual consumption. In fact, the margherita ($10) is the city's most perfect evocation of the true Naples style (even surpassing top spots like Una Pizza Napoletana and La Pizza Fresca). Starting with an irregular round of glove-soft dough with no yeasty taste, the margherita is dampened with plain tomato sauce and excellent cheese, bravely wearing a pair of fragrant basil leaves on its bosom. Eat it with a knife and fork—this is no New York pie.
Il Brigante
Address: 214 Front Street, New York NY 10038 [South Street Seaport area; map]
Phone: 212-285-0222
Posted by Adam Kuban, February 21, 2007 at 11:35 PM
SPACCA NAPOLI PIZZERIA
Address: 1769 West Sunnyside Avenue, Chicago IL 60640 [map]
Phone number: 773-878-2420
Website: spaccanapolipizzeria.com
Hours: Lunch, W-Sat., 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dinner, W-Th., 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., F-Sat., 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., Sun., noon to 9 p.m.
An interesting story in the "Good Eating" section of the Chicago Tribune today about the Windy City's Spacca Napoli, complete with recipe. The piece touches on the Neapolitan pizza trend that's sweeping Chicago (as it has in New York, Phoenix, and San Francisco), namechecking a handful of thin-crust Italian-style pizzerias that have opened there in the last few years.
Spacca Napoli opened on Valentine's Day in 2006. That [pizzaiolo-owner Jonathan] Goldsmith could sell thin-crust deep inside deep-dish turf was a good omen to Chris Bardol, who was poised to open Stop 50 Wood Fired Pizzeria in Indiana. Bardol's first bite of thin crust was at Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix and he was converted. But he wondered if his prospective clientele, which included large numbers of Chicagoans, would go for it.
Enter Goldsmith's venture. "I really felt we would do well if someone could see the opportunity in a deep-dish city," Bardol said.
Phil Vettel, the Tribune's restaurant critic, traces the city's fondness for thin crust to 1985 and the opening of Franco Zalloni's Trattoria Pizzeria Roma. "It brought to Chicago's mainstream the concept of appetizer pizzas, small pizzas with crisp, blistered crusts topped with all manner of creative (but appropriately Italian) ingredients.
Jeff Ruby, coauthor of Everybody Loves Pizza, senior editor at Chicago magazine, and an old friend and college newspaper colleague of mine, gets a quote in, too: "It seems [what has] happened here is pizza is going in two separate directions... There's California Pizza Kitchen where anything goes. Then there's the backlash. People are going back to the basics and following strict Neapolitan rules... Pizza has evolved so much in America it's come full circle."
A rather insightful observation, even if it weren't coming from a friend of Slice.
Newly launched Chicago foodblog Drive-Thru, which we've been enjoying around the Slice–Serious Eats office, responds to the Trib's piece and gives a less complicated recipe for pizza.
Sources
Pizza perfect [Chicago Tribune; via Lia]
Talkin' about a different kind of pie [Gapers Block; also via Lia]
Posted by Adam Kuban, February 1, 2006 at 1:53 PM
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROBERT SIETSEMA .::.
A couple days ago, Robert Sietsema offered to let Slice post some of his photos from his recent trip to Naples. Before you take a gander, though, I'd recommend that you go read his account on the Village Voice site. It'll help put the photos in context.
OK. have you read Mr. Sietsema's column yet? Good. Now here are the pix. Be sure to click on them for larger versions, and click through the jump. There's more!
Naples street scene. Photograph by Robert Sietsema
Da Michele exterior. Photograph by Robert Sietsema
Da Michele interior. Photograph by Robert Sietsema
Da Michele pies. Margherita, foreground; Marinara, background. Photograph by Robert Sietsema
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, February 1, 2006 at 11:45 AM
Robert Sietsema visits Naples, making stops at the legendary Da Michele as well as nearby pizzeria Trianon. Regarding Da Michele:
The menu is limited to a pair of amazing pies. Most modern is the margherita (4 euros)óinvented in 1885 on the occasion of a visit from Queen Margherita of Savoia, probably the first pizza to feature cheese, which joins sieved canned tomatoes, a generous pouring of olive oil from an antique pitcher, a basil leaf or two, and sea salt on the surface of the pie. The older of the pies, called marinara (3.5 euros), has its origins in Mediterranean antiquity, an irregular round of hand-patted dough with tomatoes, raw garlic, andóoddly, I thoughtódried oregano, making it seem almost Greek. The dough rises with a decades-old starter, rather than commercial yeast, baking up as soft and pliable as glove leather. You certainly can't pick it up like a New York slice. The overall effect of both pies is a sublime blandness.
"Sublime blandness" may be the most befuddling compliment(?) paid to a pizzeria I've ever seen.
Humble Pie: New Yorker discovers the true pizza of Naples [Village Voice]
