It will be about pizza.
Now Sicilian. Do you love it or not.
It is the square pie. The way it is normally prepared is the dough is cooked separately. They mold the dough into a rectangular tray that is deep but normally not as deep as a Chicago Deep Dish style pie. You put it in the pizza oven until it pretty much cooks through. Then you would add the sauce and cheese. Normally you don't add anything to it. No mushrooms or sausage or anchovies. Of course anybody that puts ham and pineapple on their pizza should have their balls cut off and fed to them.
Currently the best Sicilian pie is at the aforementioned Spumoni Gardens in Bensonhurst on 86th St. This photo is one of a half consumed pie. When you go to the pizza shop in NYC ask for the corner. That has the crusty ends. You know like ndspinelli's shorts.
The best part about a Scilian pie is that it fills you up. A couple of slices is good enough for even a fat fuck like me. Because sometimes your eyes are bigger than you stomach. So you have to be careful. Like when spinelli went to the pizzeria and the guy asked how he wanted him to cut the pie. In six pieces or eight pieces.
He said "cut it in six pieces, I don't think I could eat eight."
This discussion makes me think of pies gone by. There was this little pizza store that was on Henry St between 1968 and 1974. They made this great Sicilian pie with a garlic sauce that was almost like bruschetta since the pie wasn't so thick. It was the best Sicilian pie I ever had. Of course since it was different nobody really liked it. Plus the guy was a gambler and the loans sharks took over the place and busted it out. But for a while it was great.
The funnies thing I ever saw with regards to a Scilian pie was one day in the North Star Pub in the 1980's where this Mexican dude was trying to pick up an Italian girl from Staten Island. He had on this hideous plaid sports coat and looked like the fuckin' Frito Bandito. He kept telling her "But I'm Italian." She kept saying "No you ain't. You don't look like an Italian you are a fuckin' Mexican." He goes "No I am Sicilian."
She goes "You ain't Sicilian you ain't even a fuckin' slice."
11 comments:
Thin crust. Almost cracker thin. Crispy with just enough chewy to hold together.
Though I will allow that I've probably never had GOOD Sicilian or Chicago style.
My dad and I used to get a "poor boy" pizza at a place called Joe Mama's in Burbank. It was just a thin crust with no toppings that you dipped in a marinara sauce.
So good. But different. And now gone. Sic transit pizza mundi.
My fave pie is Lou Malnati's in Chicago. Amazingly there's an excellent Chicago joint in LA nr Dodger Stadium.
It is hard to get a good sicilian pie, but when you do find it...it is amazing stuff.
I like the crust that has those bubbles. The crust is crispy on the bottom but the bubbles that pop up are still doughy without being a big wad of dough. The crisp crust with some of the cornmeal still on it and the soft bubbles where the sauce can cling along with the toppings. My favorites, sausage, olives, anchovies. Sweet sauce, silky cheese, salty salty spicy toppings.....perfect.
Great..... now I want pizza.
I like the crust bubbles too. It reminds me of something: link
Garlic sure would've helped a lot of the disappointing pizzas I've et.
Well, MORE garlic. And not in the form of that garlic powder they have to sprinkle on it. Real crushed garlic baked right into the pie, that's the ticket, or would be the ticket if they did it, but they don't. ;^(
Best pizza I ever had was back in Watkins Glen. Place called Scuteri's. They sold out, now I think it's a Chinese joint.
Thin crust. Thick crust. The way it should be.
And no incessant postings about same crust pizza.
There used to be a take and bake pizza place in our little town. I loved it because you would order it right before you picked it up or while standing there. The dough was freshly made each morning and you could watch them stretching it an putting it onto the pie tin (which you returned or forfeited the deposit).
My favorite, hubby hated it, was the Godfather. I would get a small for me and he would get a more traditional pepperoni and sausage.
Lots of fresh chopped garlic, lots of small smoked baby clams, red pepper flakes, I think I remember some fresh basil and a really good but not overpowering tomato based pizza sauce plus the mozzarella and fresh grated romano cheese. Damn that was good. And their crust always bubbled because we have a really hot oven. A commercial restaurant quality Wolfe Range.
ChipS, Malnati puts cormeal in his crust for a distinct texture and taste. I'm not a fan of Chicago pizza but his is the best of the genre.
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