Building the Ultimate Pizza, One Slice at a Time
1. The only thing better than beer-and-pizza night is beer-on-pizza night. That’s exactly what you’ll find when you belly up to the bar at Woody’s Grill & Tap, a neighborhood joint that uses Guinness, plus molasses and spices, to sauce its Jamaican Jerk pizza. It’s also topped with Gouda, grilled chicken and onions before cooking in the wood-fired oven at a toasty 550 degrees and coming out ready to pair with the perfect pint.
58 Hemenway St., Boston (617-375-9663) woodysboston.com
2. Carla and Christine Pallotta’s North End childhood inspires many of Nebo’s menu items, but the sense of nostalgia especially rings true in the waterfront restaurant’s prosciutto e fichi pizza. “As kids, our mother never made us traditional peanut butter and jelly—it was always mascarpone and fig jam,” Christine says. On this slice, a crispy, traditional Roman crust lays under a heap of mozzarella, gorgonzola dolce, housemade fig jam and prosciutto.
520 Atlantic Ave., Boston (617-723-6326) neborestaurant.com
3. The age-old dilemma of how to order pizza for a party full of vegetarians and meat lovers may have at last been solved by a food truck. Stoked Wood Fire Pizza Co.’s Buffalo Brussels Sprouts pizza could be renamed The Peacekeeper, satisfying everyone with hand-pulled Brussels sprout leaves, a slightly sweet Buffalo sauce, garlic, caramelized onions and a mozzarella-romano-gorgonzola cheese trifecta. “This pizza is a vegetarian pizza that meat-centric eaters rave about,” owner Scott Riebling says.
stokedpizzaco.com
4. It’s always summertime at Coppa, where a favorite pie marries New England seafood and Italian tradition. Fried calamari, fried hot cherry peppers and a drizzle of lemon aioli top tomato sauce and a combo of mozzarella and Parmesan for the Sicilian Fisherman’s pizza, which is cooked Neapolitan-style in a wood-fired oven. “This creates a charred, crispy, thin crust pizza that still has some great chew to it,” says chef de cuisine Meghann Ward.
253 Shawmut Ave., Boston (617-391-0902) coppaboston.com
5. During the course of chef Lydia Shire’s career, a pizza oven in the restaurant has meant a lobster pie on the menu. She makes no exception at Scampo, serving up aged and hand-stretched dough topped with garlic, shallots, lobster cream, ricotta salata, parmigiano reggiano, scallions and, of course, the signature shellfish—a no-brainer for the Brookline native. “It obviously makes sense to have a lobster pizza in New England, where our lobster tastes the best,” she says.
215 Charles St., Boston (617-536-2100) scampoboston.com
6. The Salty Pig originally placed this eponymous slice on its menu to serve cured meats it was featuring in other dishes, but pizza lovers are eating it up. “It’s become so popular that we actually have to order meats now specifically for the pizza,” chef Kevin O’Donnell says. You might see selections like mortadella, salame genovese and prosciutto cotto paired with whole-grain mustard, crème fraiche, parmesan, baby arugula and pale ale caramel.
130 Dartmouth St., Boston (617-536-6200) thesaltypig.com
7. Plenty of local pizzerias serve up traditional American slices, but for “a true taste of Alsace,” sample Brasserie Jo’s tarte flambée. The French regional specialty is known for topping a thin crust with fromage blanc and gruyère; in one variation, chef Nicholas Calias adds blue cheese, walnuts and apples. Once the cheese melts for 6-8 minutes in the small stone oven, the flatbread is topped with fresh parsley. Keep an eye out for an upcoming Toulouse sausage and mushroom addition.
The Colonnade Hotel, 120 Huntington Ave., Boston (617-425-3240) brasseriejoboston.com
Eyes on the Pies
A Definitive Guide to Boston Pizza.
By Improper Staff | Photo Credit: Kristin Teig | Style Credit: Catrine Kelty | Sept. 26, 2014
In Naples, you can find sublime pizza on practically every corner. Boston’s not quite there yet, but Neapolitan-style pies are currently hotter than the 900-degree ovens that cook them, having popped up on menus all across town. And some local chefs—including Joseph Cassinelli of Somerville’s Posto, Giuseppe Castellano of Cambridge’s Gran Gusto and Todd Winer of Fort Point’s Pastoral—have gone through an official certification process in hopes of rising above a competitive field.
If you talk to Winer for more than a few minutes, you can tell that the lessons of his Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana certification course have been burned into his memory. The two weeks of 10-hour days not only schooled him in pizza history and theory, but left him enamored with what makes the Neapolitan approach unique: the dough. Winer recalls “stacks and piles of dough,” made a day in advance with a special mixer and left unrefrigerated for 24 hours. When it’s finally cooked, the carbon dioxide in the dough expands rapidly over a rolling fire. The resulting crust is light and airy on the outside and dense in the middle. “It’s so light and fluffy. You can eat lots of it, and you won’t feel full,” Winer says. “[The certifiers’] biggest concern is that pizza is becoming too bastardized, and if you’re going to say it’s Neapolitan pizza, they want to make sure it’s Neapolitan.”
Castellano hardly needed any certification, since he hails from Naples, but the recently renovated Gran Gusto does have the stamp of approval from Ospitalità Italiana, a different certification from the Italian Chamber of Commerce. “It’s kind of fast food. It’s made in 90 seconds, but it’s a high-quality product,” Castellano says. “All the ingredients are from Naples. The buffalo mozzarella is from Italy. The plum tomatoes are from Navole.”
Those ingredients, which also include finely ground double-zero flour from Naples for the dough, can be challenging to obtain. “It’s almost Mafia-esque tracking them down,” Winer jokes. But the complex sourcing shows a dedication to the style, says Cassinelli, who opened Posto four years ago. Not only is he himself certified by the AVPN, but the restaurant has also been certified as a pizzeria, after submitting a video recording of the pizza-making process and passing an in-person walkthrough, among other hurdles.
“It’s a different style, but I happen to love it,” he says. “The way it cooks at a high temperature, all the natural oils come out and you can really capture the essence of the basic ingredients. It’s not a style that you need to load up as a meat lovers’ pizza.”
After four years of making Neapolitan pizza, Cassinelli has seen his customers—who initially loved it or hated it—warm up to the style. “The challenge is getting people to understand it,” he says. “Part of it is spreading awareness, and it’s great that chefs are trying to incorporate it into their restaurants. I think you’re going to continue to see a trend toward this.”
By Improper Staff
Meet the massive ovens behind some favorite pizzas.
In opening his second iteration of Area Four—A4 Pizza in Somerville—chef Jeff Pond made the move from a mechanized wood-gas hybrid oven to a decidedly simpler one, a wood-fired oven from Maine Wood Heat. “They’re just craftsmen…they’re intellectual about how they approach it,” Pond says of the father-son team that made it. The egg-shaped design, small mouth and high-arched dome keep the 700-degree temp consistent as it cooks five pizzas at a go for about three-and-a-half minutes. The goods didn’t come cheap—$64,000 for the oven and ventilation—but Pond says the expense was worth it. “What you come to learn with ovens,” he says, is that “the ones that are built by hand, they have sort of a soul to them.”
445 Somerville Ave., Somerville (617-764-4190) areafour.com
Made using sand from Mount Vesuvius, the Marra Forni brick oven at Quattro churns out upward of 400 pizzas every day. “It’s the real Neapolitan pizza that you would eat in downtown Naples,” owner Frank DePasquale says. The North End restaurant’s certified Neapolitan oven cooks three pies at a time for 1 minute and 20 seconds, and the high 700- to 900-degree temperature range works wonders on the raw sauce. DePasquale explains, “When the sauce mixes with the fior de latte, which is a form of mozzarella…it becomes the perfect pizza.”
264 Hanover St., Boston (617-720-0444) quattro-boston.com
Pizza isn’t the only dish to come out of the EarthStone wood-fired oven at Lincoln Tavern. When he’s not filling it with four pies at a time, chef Nicholas Dixon cooks up orders of chicken wings, and he’s also been known to use the oven’s high temperature for meat. (The stone hits 800 degrees, while the dome can get up to 1,200.) “I can get a beautiful, hard sear on a steak, and I feel like it’s a thousand times better than a grilled steak,” he says. Versatility is almost to be expected from this oven, whose design originated 50 years ago for bread baking and makes for what Dixon calls a “puffy, artisanal-style pizza.”
425 West Broadway, Boston (617-765-8636) lincolnsouthboston.com
A day for the EarthStone coal-fired pizza oven at Max and Leo’s Artisan Pizza starts before the sun comes up, usually at around 6 am, when a kitchen staffer begins the four-hour process of getting the temperature to 850 degrees. Once the coals are hot, the 8,000-pounder can cook four pies at a time, which must be rotated every 15 seconds for the perfect char. The process is labor-intensive and the personality finicky, but co-owner Max Candidus says, “The advantages are easy—coal cooks with less moisture than any other fuel source.” That means pies that are crispy outside and tender inside, but the oven also turns out other menu offerings, like Candidus’ favorite: coal-fired nachos that can be capped with any of the restaurant’s 40 pizza toppings.
325 Washington St., Newton (617-244-7200) maxandleos.com
By Improper Staff | Photo Credit: Kristin Teig | Style Credit: Catrine Kelty
Building the Ultimate Pizza, One Slice at a Time
1. The only thing better than beer-and-pizza night is beer-on-pizza night. That’s exactly what you’ll find when you belly up to the bar at Woody’s Grill & Tap, a neighborhood joint that uses Guinness, plus molasses and spices, to sauce its Jamaican Jerk pizza. It’s also topped with Gouda, grilled chicken and onions before cooking in the wood-fired oven at a toasty 550 degrees and coming out ready to pair with the perfect pint.
58 Hemenway St., Boston (617-375-9663) woodysboston.com
2. Carla and Christine Pallotta’s North End childhood inspires many of Nebo’s menu items, but the sense of nostalgia especially rings true in the waterfront restaurant’s prosciutto e fichi pizza. “As kids, our mother never made us traditional peanut butter and jelly—it was always mascarpone and fig jam,” Christine says. On this slice, a crispy, traditional Roman crust lays under a heap of mozzarella, gorgonzola dolce, housemade fig jam and prosciutto.
520 Atlantic Ave., Boston (617-723-6326) neborestaurant.com
3. The age-old dilemma of how to order pizza for a party full of vegetarians and meat lovers may have at last been solved by a food truck. Stoked Wood Fire Pizza Co.’s Buffalo Brussels Sprouts pizza could be renamed The Peacekeeper, satisfying everyone with hand-pulled Brussels sprout leaves, a slightly sweet Buffalo sauce, garlic, caramelized onions and a mozzarella-romano-gorgonzola cheese trifecta. “This pizza is a vegetarian pizza that meat-centric eaters rave about,” owner Scott Riebling says.
stokedpizzaco.com
4. It’s always summertime at Coppa, where a favorite pie marries New England seafood and Italian tradition. Fried calamari, fried hot cherry peppers and a drizzle of lemon aioli top tomato sauce and a combo of mozzarella and Parmesan for the Sicilian Fisherman’s pizza, which is cooked Neapolitan-style in a wood-fired oven. “This creates a charred, crispy, thin crust pizza that still has some great chew to it,” says chef de cuisine Meghann Ward.
253 Shawmut Ave., Boston (617-391-0902) coppaboston.com
5. During the course of chef Lydia Shire’s career, a pizza oven in the restaurant has meant a lobster pie on the menu. She makes no exception at Scampo, serving up aged and hand-stretched dough topped with garlic, shallots, lobster cream, ricotta salata, parmigiano reggiano, scallions and, of course, the signature shellfish—a no-brainer for the Brookline native. “It obviously makes sense to have a lobster pizza in New England, where our lobster tastes the best,” she says.
215 Charles St., Boston (617-536-2100) scampoboston.com
6. The Salty Pig originally placed this eponymous slice on its menu to serve cured meats it was featuring in other dishes, but pizza lovers are eating it up. “It’s become so popular that we actually have to order meats now specifically for the pizza,” chef Kevin O’Donnell says. You might see selections like mortadella, salame genovese and prosciutto cotto paired with whole-grain mustard, crème fraiche, parmesan, baby arugula and pale ale caramel.
130 Dartmouth St., Boston (617-536-6200) thesaltypig.com
7. Plenty of local pizzerias serve up traditional American slices, but for “a true taste of Alsace,” sample Brasserie Jo’s tarte flambée. The French regional specialty is known for topping a thin crust with fromage blanc and gruyère; in one variation, chef Nicholas Calias adds blue cheese, walnuts and apples. Once the cheese melts for 6-8 minutes in the small stone oven, the flatbread is topped with fresh parsley. Keep an eye out for an upcoming Toulouse sausage and mushroom addition.
The Colonnade Hotel, 120 Huntington Ave., Boston (617-425-3240) brasseriejoboston.com
By Improper Staff
Phil Dumontet knows a thing or two about pizza delivery. In 2009, he founded food delivery service DASHED, which has since expanded from Boston to six other cities. Today, DASHED deliverers drive smart cars and Dumontet’s days on the streets are behind him, but early on, he personally shuttled pizzas (among other orders) around town on his bike. We tapped him for inside dirt on delivery.
WHAT’S THE WEIRDEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED WHEN YOU WERE OUT ON A DELIVERY?
More embarrassing than weird: On the first order we received, I dropped the customer’s bottle of chianti, right as she was answering the door. There was no excuse and nothing I could do but apologize profusely. Fortunately, she was incredibly understanding, and I notice she still orders from us regularly.
WORST THING THAT YOU EVER EXPERIENCED ON A DELIVERY?
Customers who answer the door wearing nothing. They sheepishly hide behind the door with an outreached hand to collect the food, but it doesn’t always work.
WHAT’S THE STRANGEST REQUEST A CUSTOMER EVER HAD?
“Please add lots of extra green peppers to my garden salad. It’s for my iguana.”
BIGGEST TIP YOU EVER GOT?
I remember the largest was $100 for carrying multiple 30-packs of Bud Light up to a fifth-floor walk-up. The tip was as big as the order.
MOST MEMORABLE THING A CUSTOMER EVER SAID TO YOU?
“Want to come in?”
WHAT’S THE BEST PART OF BEING A DELIVERY GUY? AND THE WORST?
I love the exercise. Riding my bike around the city, looking for the fastest routes and trying to improve my times was a blast—like a real-life video game or competitive sport. The worst was delivering during heavy storms on my bike. Unsurprisingly, this is when [it’s] busiest, so you’d make the most money delivering, but the fun of riding isn’t there.
WHAT’S YOUR BEST ADVICE FOR A NEWLY MINTED PIZZA DELIVERER?
Don’t forget how happy you’re making someone by delivering their dinner. For those 45 minutes the customer waits for you to arrive, you are the most important person in the world to them.
By Improper Staff
BREAKFAST PIZZA (WINNER)
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and at least for the purposes of this issue, pizza is the most important of all the food groups. Breakfast pizza is like a warm hug to ease you into your day, and around town you’ll find the classic eggs-and-bakey base topped with everything from Parmesan and truffle at Foundry on Elm to creamy spinach at Russell House. Any way you slice it, you’re going to have a good morning. BONUS: Any leftover pizza can be breakfast pizza when you eat it cold, in your pajamas, the morning after.
DESSERT PIZZA
Sorry, chocolate lovers: We love a pan full of empty calories as much as the next guy, but as intoxicating as it is at first bite, dessert pizza can be just a little too much. Often careening from guilty pleasure territory straight into the wilds of sugar overload, most dessert pizzas are simply trying too hard. Marshmallows, caramel AND peanut butter swirls? Pass the cheese, please.
SANTARPIO’S (WINNER)
We’ll admit, this was a tough call. The merits of both these Boston ’za legends are as varied as a pie with everything on it, don’t hold the anchovies. However, we’ve got to give the golden pepperoni to Santarpio’s, an Eastie mainstay since longer than anyone on the Improper staff has been alive, serving up no-frills, no-pretentions pizza that could actually cut the mustard, er, tomato sauce, for any New Yawker who wandered in.
REGINA’S
No disrespect to Regina’s though. We would never say no to a slice from the beloved North End joint, which is similarly no-frills (with the exception of the craft beer list). They score points for a more varied menu, with interesting—and high-quality—toppings, and an old-school pizzeria vibe (though not quite as old-school as the deliciously divey Santarpio’s).
BAGEL PIZZA
No, we’re not talking Bagel Bites. (They’re admittedly addictive, but also burn the roof of your mouth. Every. Single. Time.) We’re talking homemade bagel pizzas. The good stuff, though not quite as good as its English muffin brethren. Bagel pizza, like deep dish, is just way too crust heavy. All that dough throws off the delicate dance of sauce, cheese and spices, taking center stage like a starchy spotlight hog. Not cool, bagel.
ENGLISH MUFFIN PIZZA (WINNER)
Two words: nooks and crannies. So many crispy, crusty alcoves in which our toppings can canoodle, meeting in a perfectly balanced union.
SOBER PIZZA
Honestly, there’s never a wrong time—or state of inebriation—for pizza. Pizza is always delicious. Even when pizza is bad, pizza is good.
DRUNK PIZZA (WINNER)
BUT. Everything tastes better drunk. And pizza? Eating pizza drunk is the intoxicated dining equivalent of riding through clouds made of rainbows and kittens on the back of a unicorn who delivers pizza in 10 minutes or less. Hence the lines of sauced 20-somethings snaking out of the North End’s Caffé Pompeii, Allston’s Bravo, Brookline’s Pino’s and Back Bay’s Little Steve’s, all bar-adjacent and open late.
THIN CRUST (WINNER)
Obviously.
DEEP DISH
Go back to Chicago with that noise. Da bears.
By Improper Staff
Celebrity chef Mario Batali’s first taste of transcendent pizza crust took place at Pizzeria di Matteo in Naples. “It was the first in my memory to achieve a crunch and a bagel-like pull,” Batali says.
He aims for that effect in his own Italian cuisine, which has wowed New Yorkers for almost two decades. This winter, Boston will finally get a slice of the action when Batali opens Babbo Pizzeria at Fan Pier. The Italian restaurant will feature a first-come, first-served pizza bar wrapped around a wood-burning oven. “We’ve been hoping to open in Boston for years,” says the former star of Molto Mario. “It’s an exciting market and a fun town.”
So what’s Batali’s favorite pizza? “I like marinara—and that means no cheese. … When you get away from the white noise of cheese, the bread takes on a whole new personality.”
To please the cheese-loving crowd, however, Batali offers up his pizza Margherita recipe.
Mario Batali’s Pizza Margherita
From Italian Grill
Makes 4 pizzas
Ingredients:
• Pizza dough
• 1 cup simple tomato sauce (preferably Pomì strained tomatoes)
• 8 ounces fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 24 fresh basil leaves
• Coarse sea salt
Directions:
• Prepare a gas or charcoal grill for indirect grilling.
• Divide the dough into 4 pieces and shape each one into a ball. Let rest for 15 minutes, loosely covered with a tea towel or plastic wrap.
• Using a floured rolling pin or your hands, stretch each ball into a 9- to 10-inch round (the shape doesn’t have to be perfect).
• Carefully lay one round of dough over the hottest part of the grill and cook for about 2 minutes, until the bottom is lightly browned and dry.
• Using tongs, gently lift up the dough, flip over and cook for 30 seconds. Transfer the dough to a baking sheet, with the less-cooked side up. Repeat with the remaining dough rounds. Let cool.
• Divide the sauce among the partially cooked pizzas, using the back of a kitchen spoon to spread it evenly to within a half-inch of the edges of the dough. Divide the cheese among the pizzas.
• Place 1 or 2 pizzas at a time on the cooler part of the grill and cook for about 2 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the bottoms are crisp and golden brown.
• Transfer to a cutting board and drizzle with a little olive oil. Scatter 6 torn basil leaves over each pizza and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
• Cut into slices with a pizza wheel and serve hot.
By Improper Staff
Pro Tips
Pro Tips Provided by Chefs Clark Frasier and Mark Gaier of M.C. Spiedo
• You want your tomato sauce thick, so if you’re using a topping with high water content, use it sparingly. And remember: It’s fun to experiment, but a classic cheese pizza is a classic for a reason.
• Preparation is key. If you plan to serve pizza for dinner, make the dough in the morning, let it rise, punch it down and put it in the fridge for the day. Also try to prepare your sauce, grate your cheese and slice your toppings in advance.
• Don’t buy a pizza stone unless you really like making pizza. Instead, use an upside-down cookie sheet, placed in the middle of the oven.
• Add the toppings and cheese just before you start baking a pizza, unless it’s a pie with a lot of toppings, in which case you may want to give the dough and sauce a few minutes in the oven first.
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