The Art of Pizza

I grew up in a traditional New York Italian family with my roots being very rich in Sicilian influences.  As we who are Chefs know and those of us who are blessed enough to have been born steeped in the love of food through their Italian heritage, as well as expressing love THROUGH food,  can all agree that Pizza is the one staple of our culture that never lost its attraction.

One of the most important "peasant" foods that I fell in love with as a kid was pizza.  A very simple culinary delight consisting of dough, sauce and cheese.  If you were wanting to add to the basic treat, you would add sausage, pepperoni, maybe mushrooms or other toppings, which in the real Italian world is a sacrilegious act.  Pizza is a K.I.S.S. food, sticking to the most fundamental ingredients and walking away satiated after a great pizza. 

In last 10 years, the one totally balanced epicurean delight that I have come to know and love has become elusive.  It is true that the profit margin of pizza is ridiculously huge when it is just dough, sauce and cheese.  Even if it is a designer pizza constructed with very "foodie" toppings, the profit margins are still in the better than comfort zone.  However what has become a bad imitation of pizza prevails.  It all started with the mentality that Papa Johns, Domino's, Pizza Hut and the vast field of other imitators who grew as a result to winter days watching the NFL and people looking for a cheap answer to feeding their families.

What is now considered pizza, is now nothing more than bread with sauce on it.  I have always been the one true connoisseur of wonderful, tasty pizza.  The dough has a certain look that when  you bite into the crust you can taste the shadow of the salt along with it's soft interior while being surrounded in just the right amount of crunch and char.  Not too much sauce that makes the dough soft and soggy and the right cheese blend that has that little sheen of oil. There is not too much of any one ingredient, but a luscious blend of flavors and textures. The actual thought of going to eat pizza creates a mental excitement that is healthy.

These days....NOT SO MUCH!  I am hesitant to even try another of the thousands of "pizzerias" because I know that before I see it I am already ready to be disappointed. And usually I am right on point.  I have asked the locals where to get a good pie....one that has the puffed, charred....NOT BLACK.... bubbly top crust and the blackened bottom crust and the nice sound you get when you tap the side of the surrounding crust.  What I get is a big doughy, bready, sad looking, inferior ingredients on the top type of something that Americans have decided is pizza. I hear people talking about their favorite pizza and I just sit there rolling my eyes and cringe thinking that their interpretation is right in line with those who think that Olive Garden is real Italian!  This is a mortal sin to the highest degree of defamation of character to Italians.....pizza!  What has happened?????

It used to be that you could find at least one great pizzeria in any town, village, burb, city. where you would find a guy with really bad broken English wearing a dingy white t-shirt, white pants, an apron throwing the dough.  Slamming that dough back down on the table whipping up a pie in about 3 seconds.  Not too much, not too little sauce, the exact amount of cheese and a perfect distribution of toppings for the heathens.  Being a true Sicilian I am all about my anchovies and raw garlic.  That massive deck oven behind him was cranking at 800-900 degrees which was the cavern of the perfect heat to create that amazing food that you sat and anticipated.  Of course if you were lucky enough to be in the operation that had a wood fired oven then you were even exposed to a more flavorful result.

It has been brought to my attention as of recent days that Regina's Pizza on the corner of Thacher in the North End of Boston is the one last bastion of REAL ITALIAN PIZZA.  I scoffed and laughed heartily when this establishment was brought to my attention due to all of the other suggestions I have found on the internet to include some iconic names of NYC that disappointed in a depressing way.  I was assured that once I had Regina's I would be happy, satisfied and most likely addicted.

Well it started out at around 6 P.M. on Saturday evening.  Upon coming to the side of the building there was a line of people waiting to get in.  I know that the North End of Boston is a huge Italian neighborhood lined with bakeries and restaurants so at first I was not impressed by the line well understanding that this area is an attraction to tourists as Fanueil Hall is. Finally it was our turn to be seated.  You walk in and you're really quite taken aback to the fact that this place is not that big.  It is smallish and bustling.  Because we were a party of two we got a great seat near the "kitchen" so I could watch the operation and the construction of the pizzas. They were cranking pizzas one every three seconds or faster.  The little "expediter" was finishing pizzas and boxing the to-go orders which were a towering column in of itself.

We ordered our pizza and just waited.  Then..."IT" came.  I had been watching the pizzas coming out of the window from the prep board and I was convinced that from what I was experiencing it was real.....true.....ORIGINAL!  Our pizza was placed in front of us and I just smiled.  There is was....the PERFECT crust with a little char and the BUBBLES....THOSE WONDERFUL BUBBLES.  I asked the little expediter if they made their own dough if it was bought.  She informed me that they did in fact make their own dough in house.  I then asked her what the temperature of the oven was and was quick to inform me that they were at 900 degrees.  With that I almost jumped out of my seat with total validation to what I have been arguing about for the last year.

Let me go on record right now.... PIZZA DOES NOT COOK AT 400 DEGREES.  That is NOT PIZZA...but bread.  It is bread because it is a yeast based dough and it then bakes to rise.  The intense heat of a 900 degree oven bakes a fast "Italian bread"  like dough with a crusty exterior and soft airy interior.  The overall heat in the oven along with the deck radiating the proper environment for a pizza to cook properly is what creates the master piece.  It is the air within the oven that helps to seal the wonderful ingredients to result in a addictive taste.  The air in the 900 degree oven is hot...dry....arid.....to allow for the dough to become that great crust.  It is basic bread baking 101.  A lower temperature oven actually creates an atmosphere to make the "alleged" pizza dough rise while it is baking so the result is not PIZZA. So how is it that the Italians have not come together, and raised their peels in protest?  Why is it that this Italian/Sicilian Chef has to move up to the Boston area to have REAL PIZZA when being raised in NY, feels like a traitor on some levels.  It's not bad enough that I have had to silence my love affair with the New York Yankees in their hunt for the pennant, learn how to use the "evil eye" Maloik while watching the Patriots games the whole while showing my dedication to the Giants...AND NOW...I have to admit that the only one last surviving REAL pizza is in Boston????!!!! HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?????

So last night, in my attempt to try to rid myself of this strep throat that I am battling, I started to jones for pizza....BAD.   I couldn't stop thinking about how badly I wanted pizza.  And the worst part of it was that if  I really wanted pizza....I HAD TO GO TO BOSTON????!!!!  I live about 35 miles west of Boston so that alone is a dedicated addiction knowing that the traffic to get into the North End.  I have never been one who cares about having to travel if something is good.  It just means that you plan ahead and relish the end game.  It gets you out of the house, you listen to some really great tunes on the way and then you walk to your destination after landing a great parking spot.  It is all part of the process and the pizza or whatever is your reward for your determination and focus.  It all pays off with that hot, steamy, crusty, gooey reward of REAL PIZZA!!!!