Pizza pie, oh my
Every time I order a pizza slice in New York I get a little pang of “wow, I actually live here!” It’s so iconic, the very act of ordering and eating one makes me feel like a local. And while I could argue that it’s kind of difficult to get it wrong (as most things topped with cheese are) there are definitely levels of deliciousness, not to mention fierce debate about how it should be made and the best places to order pizza in the city. I’ve had the very difficult job of sampling a few of the classics to report back on the (very) good, the (not so) bad and the ugly (just kidding… all pizza is beautiful).
From Italy to Little Italy
While New Yorkers have made it their own, we all know that pizza originated in Italy. The basic components (bread, cheese and tomatoes) were first put together all the way back in the 1700s. While flatbreads existed in various forms before then, one essential ingredient was missing: tomatoes. They were only brought to Europe in the sixteenth century from - in a nice cyclical way - the Americas (well, Peru, so South America but at least it’s the right landmass). While it’s hard to believe given the cuisine now, tomatoes were so novel in Italy at that time that many people actually thought they were poisonous, hence the lag of a couple of hundred years before they were put on top of flatbreads. Despite this, poor peasants in Naples eventually put the two together: as with so many wonderful foods today, pizza began as a humble food of necessity before everyone else realised how delicious it was.
Pizza inevitably found its way across the Atlantic; as I talked about in another blog (#3 on Sicilian food) there has historically been a big influx of Italian immigrants to America, particularly from southern Italy including Naples. There’s detailed debate about who opened the first pizzeria in America, but the first location is generally agreed to have been Lombardi’s in New York’s Little Italy, which opened in 1905 and is still there today. Some of the key features of Neopolitan-style pizza is evident in classic New York pizza today, specifically a thin crust and the fact it’s cooked at a high temperature for a short amount of time. One big difference is how it’s served, however. While original Neopolitan pizzas are generally too soft in the middle to be served in slices (and therefore served as a small, individual-sized pie) that changed at Lombardi’s: many customers couldn’t afford to buy a whole pizza so they would pay for an amount they could afford, and the takeaway slice was born. That’s continued in many places today, with the solution to a soft middle being to fold it in half and just go for it… New Yorkers aren’t shy when it comes to eating pizza slices.
I’ve had a slice (or two) of this early New York pizza tradition at Totonno’s in Coney Island. Anthony Totonno Pero was an original employee at Lombardi’s who left to set up his own pizzeria in 1924 and his descendants are fiercely traditionalist about it. A combination of this and its popularity means a visit to the pizzeria is a true test of the diner’s commitment. There are no reservations so I waited for around 45 minutes in a fairly nondescript street outside the restaurant (no queueing inside) until I was eventually ushered in by the no-nonsense owner, Cookie (Anthony’s granddaughter) and waited another 45 minutes for the pizza. But – thankfully – it was worth it. Part of the experience was just being inside such a historic restaurant; there were framed pictures of famous patrons on the walls and from your seat you can watch the pizzas being carefully and skilfully made (with absolutely no sense of rushing) in a huge pizza oven. The pizza itself was superb: an incredibly flavourful crust that was charred and crispy, but still soft in the middle, with amazingly fresh mozzarella and a deeply flavoured tomato sauce. I opted for the classic and it was a case of “simple is best”: it definitely didn’t need any extra toppings. I cringed slightly at hearing someone at the next table order about twenty toppings on theirs. I’m not sure I’d go again – purely due to the wait – but it was a truly memorable one-off experience, and worth it if you have the time.
Thinking outside the (pizza) box
While the Neopolitan-style pizza is what we think of when it comes to classic New York slice, Sicilian-style slices are almost as ubiquitous in the city. The main visible differences are that the slices are square and have a much thicker crust. The original version from Sicily is called sfincione, which loosely translates as “thick sponge” and was based on focaccia bread. It was traditionally topped with an anchovy tomato sauce, breadcrumbs and grated hard cheese (rather than mozzarella, because most of the milk produced in Sicily came from sheep or goats, not cows). I’d heard that one of the best places to sample this kind of pizza was at Prince St Pizza (a stone’s throw from Lombardi’s in Little Italy) and that the slice to get was the “spicy spring”, which is topped with a spicy tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella and spicy pepperoni. Oh my, it was good. The bread is thick and soft so it soaks up all the delicious oils from the cheese and meat, and you can really feel your teeth sink into it as you get all the layers of flavour. The pepperoni they use is in a traditional natural casing which is what makes the little pepperoni cups curl up and get all nice and crispy. It’s in tied first place for my favourite pizza, along with Totonno’s: they’re both brilliant for different reasons and depending on what you feel like, but this would be my go-to for a regular place to get a slice (at least it would be if I didn’t have so many other food places on my “must try” list).
Taking more of a departure from tradition is another NYC pizza titan, Artichoke Basille’s, which is hugely popular and has branches all over the city (including, conveniently, five minutes away from my apartment). While they do some classics - including a Sicilian-style slice and a Neopolitan-style pepperoni or margherita - their signature slice is the “artichoke”, which is slathered in a thick white cream sauce with artichoke hearts, spinach, mozzarella and pecorino romano cheese. This was an absolute whopper of a slice, roughly the size of my forearm and I used “slathered” for a reason, as it was absolutely dripping in cheesiness. Despite this, I was fairly disappointed with it. The topping was good, as all the ingredients are delicious, but the base was way too crispy, to the point of being burnt, meaning I had to cut it with a knife and fork (which is a bit sacrilegious anyway, but they were also plastic so it turned into something of a Mary vs pizza slice slog). I’m not quite sure what the appeal is here, but perhaps I just went on a bad day…
In an act of betrayal to my adopted city I also had to try Chicago deep-dish pizza while I was there recently for a weekend. As the name suggests, this style of pizza has a raised side to allow lots (and lots) of filling. Similarly to New York-style pizza, there is debate about when and where it was invented but it is agreed to be some time in the 1920s to 1940s. Traditionally it’s cooked in a round, steel pan for a much longer baking time than other pizza, to ensure it’s completely cooked through. Because of this method the outside has a texture almost as though it’s fried, and the toppings are layered to ensure nothing burns: cheese first, then toppings like meat or vegetables, and finally a layer of tomato sauce. The specific type that I tried was from a Chicago institution, Giordano’s, who serve a stuffed pizza, a kind of deep-dish style developed in the 1970s that allows for even more filling (as though that were needed). It has an extra layer of dough after some of the fillings are added, almost like a pie, with a layer of sauce at the very top. While friends in New York had told me that Chicago pizza “isn’t pizza”, I thought this was just posturing until I tried it myself: it really wasn’t very much like pizza. It was much more like a pie that had the familiar flavours of a pizza. Slightly flaky dough - similar to pastry - filled deeply with tonnes of mozzarella (creating a gorgeous cheese pull – see photos) and topped with tomato sauce. The version I tried also included spinach, which was a nice addition to cut through all the richness of that ocean of cheese. It was delicious but one slice was plenty, and I prefer New York’s offerings… Though perhaps that’s just me acclimatising to New York’s protectiveness.
While I’ve tried other slices, most of them aren’t particularly memorable. And perhaps that’s the way it should be. When reading about the history of the New York slice, I read a few articles lamenting the decline of the quality of pizza and the ingredients used. But despite that, I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad slice in the city, just noticeably better ones. Either way, I’m not sure many New Yorkers head out to have the “perfect” slice. Instead, most people want something cheap, portable, plentiful and satisfying … which is why pizza is the ultimate New York food.
