My secrets to making real NY pizza

I'm from New York.  I feel I have a right to say I know what a great pizza should taste like.  But I don't believe in those so-called reviews that pit one type of pizza against another and declare a winner.

The beauty of pizza is there are endless ways it can be prepared and to limit yourself to only one of them limits your enjoyment of life.


I have eaten pizza prepared in more ways than I can count. My fondest memory was a place near Monterey, CA that I used to go to with my gang of friends when I was in my 20's.  We would get it to go and it was so greasy (how greasy was it?) that no matter how carefully we'd carry it by the time we got it home all of the toppings had sloshed off into a ball in the corner of the box.  It was so greasy that my cardiologist recently told me I am forbidden from even having memories of it.

The truest pizza to my ideal is what I had at the first pizzeria in America, Lombardi's in NYC.  They only have one small location and have only occupied two buildings in the 109 years of existence.  The pizza is thin and foldable, and the list of toppings is limited to the same classic ingredients they used in 1905.

Whenever I visit a pizzeria for the first time I have a tradition of always ordering it with only pepperoni, cheese and sometimes sausage and mushroom.  That way I can make an apples-to-apples comparison with other pizzas I've had.  On the next visit I usually ask what their specialty is.

If you haven't made your own pizza you should do it.  It's easy and you are in complete control of how it turns out.  Following is the way I usually make it, in the manner of the original Lombardi's New York style:



·  Whatever your source of the dough, don’t make it too thick (or too thin).  Too thick is when you can’t fold the finished slice between your thumb, index finger and middle finger.  Go for about the thickness of a corrugated box.  Preheat it in the oven at 400 degrees for about 5 minutes before adding the toppings then brush it very lightly with olive oil.

·  Whatever your source of the sauce, do some prep work first.  Non-NY pizzerias don’t put enough sauce on their pizzas but you don’t want pizza soup either.  Cook the sauce (even if it’s from a can) with a little olive oil, oregano and crushed garlic for about 30 minutes to develop the flavor.  Pizza tastes best when you start with warm sauce.

·  Spread the sauce evenly with the back of a spoon then add other ingredients in this order (this is for my favorite pepperoni/sausage/mushroom combo):

o   Slice mushrooms very thin and lay them down first.  While cooking they marinate in the sauce to bring out their best flavor.

o   Cook spicy Italian sausage about 50%, drain, crumble and spread around the pizza.  Putting the sausage near the bottom keeps its grease from affecting ingredients above it.

o   Slice real mozzarella cheese (fresh or packaged) into a thickness about the same as two CD’s stacked together.  If the cheese is too thick it won’t completely melt and bubble properly.  DON’T use grated cheese and don’t overdo the cheese, leave some space between the slices so you can taste different ingredients with each bite.

o   Lay thickly sliced pepperoni on top.  Although pepperoni has a strong flavor, when it’s sliced too thin it doesn’t balance well with the other flavors.  I prefer to buy stick pepperoni and slice it about 3/8” thick.

·  There is definitely a chicken/egg quandary about putting the cheese on last.  My experience is that will smother the other ingredients, especially the pepperoni that I like to get a little crispy.  I also find that cheese last causes it to slide off when you try to eat it.  Putting the pepperoni on last lets it sink into the melting cheese and everything binds together better.

·  Put pizza in oven at 400 degrees and immediately turn the heat down to 350.  The pizza will begin to quick cook and the heat reduction will help avoid overbrowning of the cheese.  I have a convection oven so about 15-18 minutes works for me.

·  Slice, FOLD and eat.  If you use a fork, please delete this blog from your bookmarks right now ;-) 

 

Mangia!

 

Thought for the day:

 

"We are always the same age inside"

- Gertrude Stein

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