A Pies & Pints Black Bean Pie
I just returned from a trip to Long Island and NYC; my old stomping grounds. Had a few slices of pie and lots of discussions about pizza with all those who would listen (thank you, Tashia, for being all ears).
Started off with a couple of fantastic slices from Del Fiorre in Patchogue. This was the first place that showed me what pizza could be. Creative, authentic Italian toppings placed on an airy, crisp crust. They bake most of their pies in pans and the pies are a bit thicker than I prefer but -believe me- they are still doing their thing well.
Our pizza oven was actually purchased used from these guys a few years ago. Kim and I rented a U-Haul, met my old friend Mike Masem, and loaded it piece by piece into the truck. Then back to WV, where it sat in Kim’s garage for over a year. When we moved into the new spot we paid a pretty penny, and had it all put back together and tuned up. It is a workhorse of an oven.
Okay, the pizza. One night at a faux Irish pub on Long Island, with another one of my old cronies, Dave Brown. He brought in a pizza box from a nearby pizza joint. In it was:
• A slice of traditional Sicilian pizza, which is thick and cooked in a pan
• A slice of Grandma- a thin Sicilian slice with a plum tomato sauce
• And two slices of what was New York style pizza with California style toppings.
What’s the difference? Why is some pizza better than others? Is it really in the NYC water? And what makes Pies and Pints so damn good? All these questions and more were the topic of discussion that night.
Naples Italy is the birthplace of modern day pizza. Those of you who follow this and go over it with a fine tooth comb may say that that China actually invented a flatbread with toppings on it Millenia ago (yeah, and pasta too). But for our purposes lets go to Italy.
Technically pizza is nothing more that a flat leavened bread with sauce, cheese, and perhaps a few toppings on it. Or at least that was what the Italians gave to us. So Neopolitan pizza will be a traditional, authentic pizza, which is to say it will be very thin, slightly chewy, charred in a few places but not really crisp, it will have an uncooked tomato sauce and a little bit of cheese. Very few toppings on these pies and they are cooked quickly in a roaring hot wood-fired oven, somewhere in the 900 degree range.
Fast forward to the 40’s where pizza really took off with all the WWII vets returning home and craving pizza like they had in Italy. The whole thing really happened in NYC. Lombardis has the first license in America to serve pizza and they are still churning it out over one hundred years later.
New York style pizza is thin, but a bit thicker than Neopolitan, It is usually cooked in a gas-deck pizza oven, on a stone surface, it takes more liberties with the addition of toppings. Think pepperoni, mushrooms, canned black olives, peppers, onions, etc. It’s usually eaten folded out of hand. Ah, memories. This is the stuff I grew up eating. Fantastic, cheesy, a little oily, a lot delicious.
There are other regional pies, too. New Haven, Connecticut is the home to crisp, nearly cracker thin pies cooked in an irregular square/oval and served on a pan. Lots of cornmeal on the bottom of these pizzas. I’ve never had the pleasure to enjoy a pizza at Sally’s or Frank Peppes place, but one day… one day.
The closest I came was actually in Chicago at Piece Pizzeria and Brewery. This place is great, lots of fun, but… Chicago style pizza is big, thick, doughy, cheesy, and baked in a pan. Some people love it- I can’t say that I do. Hey, to each their own, it takes all kinds, and whatever floats your boat.
Heading out West to California, things get… weird. This is the place where creative chefs started putting crazy things on pizza in the 80’s, such as artichokes, smoked salmon, creme fraiche, squash blossoms, chorizo, you name it. Think Spago, Chez Panisse, and there’s a place called the Caioti Pizza Cafe where the owner Ed Ladou is considered the founder of GOURMET pizza. We at Pies owe him some reverence. One day there will be a pilgrimage to the West coast, anyone up for it?
For anyone interested in learning more, read the book, Pizza- A Slice of Heaven, by Ed Levine. There is and article in the June 2008 Wine Spectator that does a great job of discussing pizza. Also, GQ has an article by Alan Richman called American Pie, which is in this year’s June issue.
So, that’s where the foundation comes from, the oven where my dreams turned golden brown, you might say. Next time- How we took all that and turned it into Pies & Pints.
