I’ve covered a lot of ground since I last posted: Buenos Aires, Chicago, New York, Paris, and now Rome, where I’m currently sitting in a pizzeria in Trastevere, waiting for lunch and thinking about my favorite foods.
While officially this is a wine trip (I’m heading to Verona next week for VinItaly, one of the world’s biggest wine fairs) the Roman portion is much more about food and friendship than it is about vino. So I’ve decided to write about pizza as I wait for mine to come out of the oven.
When asked what my favorite food is, my response never changes. Despite some of the ‘haute cuisine’ I’ve had the fortune to enjoy over the past few years (mostly through work - it will be a very long time before I’m able to go to Per Se on my own dime) there is something about pizza, when done just right, that will always make me crave it more than anything else. Sometimes I’m tempted to say Thai curry - or my mom’s chicken soup - but pizza always wins.
My pizza obsession was born in Italy (shockingly), a country which sets a pretty high standard and also imposes (almost) as many unwritten food ‘regulations’ as France. Unfortunately, these rules are hard to follow outside of the boot, and they’ve made me into a very picky man. So before you start getting images of Ray’s and Pizza Hut in your head, let me explain. I’m talking about real pizza, Italian pizza - the kind you don’t share; paper thin, individually sized, and cooked not in a ‘brick oven’ (most of which in the US are electric anyway and purely a marketing tool as far as I’m concerned) but in one that actually burns wood. Far more than simply providing the heat to cook in, the wood also imparts a smoky flavor (and crispiness) that cannot be replicated.
Then, of course, there are the ingredients, and the ones that make the most tangible difference to me are flour, water, and cheese.
Flour affects not only the taste of the pizza but also the consistency - the right flour allows for dough that is both pliable enough to be rolled thin, yet crispy enough when cooked to support the toppings. For this reason ‘00′ type flour is used - soft grain flour as finely ground as possible. As far as water goes, it has almost mystical qualities in pizza-making; just like New Yorkers state the city’s water as the reason bagels are what they are in NYC (and nowhere else), Italians attribute their aqua with the same power. And I’m certainly not going to disagree with either.
What I really want to talk about here, though, is cheese. Even as I write these words I am eating an appetizer of buffalo mozzarella (and prosciutto di parma) - even as I wait for a pizza with the same! (Not to mention the one I broke out before dinner last night which caused my friend to turn and exclaim “you really are obsessed!” as if he’d thought I was kidding.) Nor do I have any shame about this.
Fresh buffalo mozzarella must’ve been what the gods ate (the Roman ones, of course - Zeus probably ate feta). Light, soft, and subtle, when you cut into it milky water squirts out, and when it melts, this is released instead of the grease that is so often on pizza in the United States (and Argentina). In fact, for this reason, the experienced pizzaiolo (pizza man) will alow his mozzarella to dry somewhat before putting it on the pizza. This is truly a different product than what you buy grated in a resealable zip-top bag - this mozzarella is sold in a bag of water which keeps it fresh and tasty. Even in the supermarket! And if you’ve never been to Italy, well, it’s hard to imagine what you can get in an actual cheese shop.
Together, this kind of cheese and this kind of dough provide the perfect base for your favorite ingredients - whatever they may be. I’m not about to begin a debate between salami and prosciutto, peppers, and onion; suffice to say that the better (and fresher) the toppings are, the tastier your pizza will be.
‘So where can I eat this kind of pizza??’ you’re probably asking. (’I'm not in Rome, you spoiled brat,’ some of you will surely add.) Luckily for you I’ve made a study of such things, so here is a brief guide to Aaron’s world of pizza.
New York: In a city overwhelmed with slices, you have to look hard to find a really good pie. There are two styles that I love - one is a near-perfect duplication of what they make in Italy, and the other is only to be found in the city.
For authentic Italy, my favorites are:
- Piola (an international chain out of northern Italy, the New York branch is on W 12th and University)
- Savoia (on Smith Street in Carrol Gardens, Brooklyn)
- Fornino (in Williamsburg, Brooklyn).
For a unique NYC style that even makes Italians smile, my two favorite places serve large pizzas cooked in their coal burning ovens. Although the flavor is slightly different from that of wood, the affect is similar.
- Grimaldi’s (in DUMBO, Brooklyn, directly under the Brooklyn Bridge)
- Lombardi’s (in NoLiTa, just next to Little Italy)
Argentina: In each Argentine city where I’ve spent significant time, I have one hand’s down favorite pizzeria.
- Buenos Aires: Piola (the same chain as aforementioned, the BA branch is on Calle Libertad, just off Santa Fe, and comes the closest to Italy of anything I had there.
- Mendoza: Pizzeria Quattro Stagioni (In Carodilla, Lujan de Cuyo)
And lastly, my favorite of all. While I won’t presume to rate pizza all over Italy, I do have one favorite in Bologna, where I lived for a year, which takes the proverbial (and international) cake. (And yes, I have been to Naples!)
- Pizzeria Belle Arti (via Belle Arti)
It’s also worth noting that Brazil has quite a healthy pizza culture, with a surprising amount of wood burning ovens and some more-than-decent mozzarella. However, I didn’t quite manage to find the best, and the Piola I went to in Sao Paolo was disappointing.
So go explore the pizzerias of your city! Let me know what you come up with… and if all else fails, come to New York and we’ll eat some pizza together.
March 27th, 2009 | gastronomia, vita | 1 comment