Pizza Styles, including Midwestern - What Is It?

Midwestern pizza? Huh?

Most of my prior pizza experience (beyond the big chains) includes these types:

• Trenton/New Haven Tomato Pie - thin, sturdy, crisp crust, and more emphasis on tomatoes (crushed) than the cheese - example, Trenton's DeLorenzo's, Philly's SLiCE, or the famous Pepe's

  

  A slice at Frank Pepe, New Haven CT

• New York Slice - thin, crisp yet foldable, conventional sauce and cheese - example, New Park Pizza in Queens and Wiseguy NY Pizza in D.C.

  

  Pepperoni slice at Wiseguy

• Neapolitan - thin, delicate, puffy crust cooked at 900 degrees in 2 minutes, fresh mozz, often wet in the center, as found at Philly's Osteria, Stella, Zavino

  

  Neapolitan at Zavino

• Hybrid - Neapolitan flavors and toppings, but sturdy like a Trenton pie - La Porta in Media PA

  

  Pizza carbonara at La Porta

• Standard mass produced - medium thick and soft floppy crust, loads of generic cheese, typically what you get at mom-n-pop places

  

  Mass-sourced pie

• Sicilian - thick airy crust, rectangular slices, conventional sauce and cheese

  

  Sicilian pizza

• Flatbread - maybe not even a pizza, but excellent stuff on good bread, such as Jules Thin Crust

  

  Distinctive pies at Jules Thin Crust

• Roman "al taglio" - square slices like Sicilian, but thinner, crisper, superior - Forno Marco Roscioli

  

  Roman al tagio slices

• Granma - an outer boro pie that may be the closest American cousin to Roman pizza - Lenny's in Brooklyn makes a good one

  

  Granma slice at Lenny's in Brooklyn

• Bar pie - crust thinner than even a Trenton tomato pie, basic ingredients in modest amounts, success depends on the piemaker's skill. Can't beat the bar pie at Lee's Tavern in Staten Island.

  

  Bar pie from Lee's Tavern in Staten Island

• Conshohocken (Philly) tomato pie - basically a Sicilian without the cheese, eaten at room temp

  

  Conshohocken tomato pie (slices are usually smaller)

• Old Forge - Sometimes, a somewhat thinner version of the Conshohocken pie, found in Northeast PA. Other times, more like an over-cheesed and under-cooked Sicilian pie. Keystone Pizza Critic gives the details HERE. 

  

  From http://keystonepizzacritic.com/

• Chicago deep dish - a casserole that uses many of the ingredients of a real pizza

  

  Giordano's "stuffed crust" casserole, Chicago

Recent travels, though, have introduced me to a new kind of pie, Midwestern style. I held an east-coast bias which presumed that midwesterners, when taking a break from corn and roast beef, would get their pizzas at Pizza Hut.

Vito & Nick's, Chicago

But I discovered - in Columbus OH, in Bloomington IL, and on the South Side of Chicago (the baddest part of town) - a wafer-thin crispy crust pie that was cut not into triangles but little squares (the "party cut" aka the "tavern cut" ) and it has quite a bit in common with old-school bar pies. Conventional but salty and spicy sauce and cheese, home-made sausage, floating on but not soaking into an almost cracker-y crust. Wonderful stuff and easy to eat a lot of it.

Rubino's, Columbus OH

Here are my reviews of the midwest style pies at Rubino's in Columbus OH, Monical's Pizza in Bloomington IL, and Vito & Nick's in Chicago.

Sausage pie at Vito & Nick's

Review: Trader Giotto's (Trader Joe's) Pizza Margherita

Totino's pizza. Click on any pic for full size resolution.

Some pizza purists avoid frozen pizzas, others swear by them. Many of us have some allegiance to the frozen pizza of our youth, such as Elio's (mine) or Totino's (my review HERE). The individual-size "My Essentials" frozen pies at Bottom Dollar grocery are 79 cents each, and they are close to the bottom of the barrel. Several of the rising crust pies are pretty damn decent - in fact, DiGiorno (my review HERE) is my baseline for evaluating mid level pizzerias. Is your local mom-n-pop pie better than DiGiorno? If you're using Sysco ingredients, probably not.

A DiGiorno pizza (I added the jalapeno)

Trader Joe's is a gourmet grocer that has high-end foodstuffs at bargain prices. I read some nice things about their frozen pizzas, so on my last visit I picked one up to see just how good it is. There are several varieties; I chose the Margherita pie, with mozzarella and grana padano cheeses. It is about 11 inches in diameter - a big personal sized pie.

Cleverly, the box is branded "Trader Giotto's." The pies are imported from Italy, and the box proclaims that the pizza was baked in a wood-burning oven.

Out of the box, it looked promising if a bit pale, covered with seven discs of mozzarella and flecks of the grana padano. I love to doctor up pizza, be it leftover pizza or frozen pie, and here I covered half with slices of pepperoni.

Right out of the box

With pepperoni, pre-bake

The instructions called for 7-8 minutes of baking, directly on the oven rack, but even at 8 minutes it was clearly not cooked to its ideal state. I gave it a full 10 minutes and then 2 minutes more under the broiler to get some top browning.

Fresh out of the oven

It came out looking pretty good, and I cut it into six slices.  The cheeses were surprisingly good - flavor and texture - while the sauce was a bit tame. There were no off flavors, but I'd have liked more spice in the sauce.

The crust was medium thin, much denser and more sturdy than a Neapolitan (as the name Margherita suggests). It had the good flavor of crusty Italian bread. On the first slice, I felt it was too dense and chewy, but by the final slice I found that I liked it a lot. It was a akin to a downgraded version of the superior crust at Gennaro's Tomato Pie (full review HERE) in South Philly.

The crust was a bit dry, and this may be due to the fact that I cooked it 4-5 minutes longer than the instructions had indicated. Next time, I will brush the undercarriage and the cornicione with olive oil, and bake it on a pizza stone or the Baking Steel.

The underside of the crust

This may be the best frozen pizza I've had. And it was only $3.99! The crust gets a 7.5, the cheeses 7, the sauce is a 5, the balance is an 8.  All told, this pie comes in at 7 and beats a lot of "fresh" pizza as well as the frozen competition.

The Pizza Grate for Home-Made Pizza: An Interview with John Daniels

An interest in eating the best pizza can lead to an interest in making great pizza. Most of us have plenty of failures with home-made pizzas. Mine began with the awful pizza kits from Chef Boy-Ar-Dee, before there was Elio's frozen squares.

We've come a long way, and the Internet makes it easy to research recipes, techniques, ingredients, and tools for great home-cooked pie. I discovered first the utility of the pizza stone, and then the Pizza Steel, a thick steel plate that has yielded wonderful crisp crusts. I tested it out and reviewed it HERE.

I love that device, but it has drawbacks. Because it is small and flat, it's easy for a clumsy-handed peel handler like to leave part of the pie hanging off the edge of the cooking surface. It is very heavy, and will rust if not dried carefully after washing.

Now, however, comes the "Pizza Grate." It has a backstop on one edge to keep the pie from sliding off, it has ventilation holes, its (optional) larger size covers an entire oven rack, and instead of steel, it's made of lightweight aluminum.

Click on any pic for full size resolution

We had a conversation with John Daniels of Daniele Appliance, who is using Kickstarter to fund development of the Pizza Grate. He shared with us the details on the Pizza Grate project and some other tips for home piemakers.

PQ: Tell us about your interest in home-made pizza. Are you a pizza chef? Is pizza making a hobby, or have you made pizza commercially?

JD: I am trained as an engineer and my day job is as a patent attorney. I have only made pizzas in our home oven or on the grill, and it used to be a disappointing, doughy-in-the-middle prospect. Since starting the Pizza Grate project, I have become addicted to pizza making. I think about it probably more than I should. We have pizza two or three times a week. I can’t wait to finish this interview so I can go make a pizza for lunch.

PQ: What led you to the idea of the Pizza Grate? What problem were you trying to solve?  Is this a hobby that took off, or were you looking to fill a market void? Tell us about your company.

JD: I came across a Kickstarter project for a steel pizza “stone” inspired by an article in Modernist Cuisine. The concept of cooking pizza on a preheated metal thermal mass makes a lot of sense. We have a CNC plasma cutter in our workshop, and built a few prototypes using 1/4” steel plate and 1/4” aluminum plate. Then we did head to head testing and concluded aluminum had a better overall performance. 

The breakthrough happened when we cut a pattern of through-holes into the aluminum plate. The through-holes let steam escape from under the dough as it cooks, instead of forcing the moisture up into the body of the pizza, performing the function of a good, porous pizza stone. We also added a backstop that prevents overshooting the launch of the pizza into the oven, and keeps the pizza from being pushed into the back wall of the oven when sliding the peel back under. 

 

Pork carnitas

The through-holes also unlock a lot of additional culinary dimension made possible by the thermal mass of a preheated Pizza Grate. It is awesome for making seared/broiled steaks and burgers, and I don’t think I’ll ever cook a chicken in the oven again without using the Pizza Grate, the skin becomes crispy all the way around. Last weekend I made pork carnitas from a whole pork shoulder. The through-holes let the fat and drippings drain away so the skin gets ultra crisp and crunchy, and the drippings can then be separated from the fat and added back to the moisten the pulled meat. We plan on cooking our Thanksgiving turkey this year on the Pizza Grate.

Aluminum is lightweight and of course, it doesn't rust like steel. But most important, aluminum is about 3 times as thermally conductive as steel and many times more thermally conductive than stone. That means it will absorb the heat energy in the oven quicker, and it will also give up the stored heat energy to the dough quicker.  

There are two keys aspects to our Pizza Grate: 

1) the through-holes allow steam to escape from the dough unrestrained so the moisture isn’t forced back into the dough towards the cheese side; and, 

2) the aluminum quickly gives up the heat energy to the raw dough at the beginning of baking through thermal conduction (direct metal to dough contact). 

The heat of the oven is reabsorbed by the aluminum mass by relatively slower thermal convection, creating a sort of shock absorber to the pizza cooking process giving the top of the pie time to get perfectly cooked.  It is very difficult to burn the bottom of the pizza, and the crust comes out beautiful every time. 

I started a company with a couple of friends to develop an outdoor cooking grill we created called the Incredigrill. The Pizza Grate came along during the course of our product development and is much less challenging to manufacture, so we have put our focus on this product to generate cash flow while development of the Incredigrill continues.

PQ: How do you distinguish great pizza from ordinary pizza?

JD: The crust, I think it is texture first and flavor second. It has to have a nice crisp outer shell, be light and airing on the inside, and there needs to be a nice chewiness too. Flavor is actually more subtle than texture, but when the dough has a good flavor to it, you know it.

PQ: Where did you grow up? What are your earliest pizza memories?

JD: I grew up in Trumbull, CT. Pizza was always a treat in our house growing up. I remember when he brought pizza home, my father would rip the top of the pizza box off serving the pizza in a nice flat serving “platter” in the bottom of the box. There were six kids and my parents, so when food hit the table it tended to disappear quick, I don’t remember there ever being any left over pizza.

PQ: Do you have a preferred style of pizza? Roman, Neapolitan, New York, New Haven, Sicilian, etc?

JD: I love them all, but my favorite is New Haven style pizza.

PQ: Can you name your favorite 2 or 3 pizza places today? What makes them special?

JD: Modern Pizza (note: PQ review HERE) in New Haven makes a really nice, simple, perfectly executed, pie.  I think its takes about two minutes for them to cook a pizza in their super hot ovens. The crust is perfect, and lots of mozzarella cheese. I don’t know if its the cheese they use or the cooking process, but the cheese takes on a really nice consistency that I can only describe as sort of mosaic looking. 

 

Meatball and onion pie at Modern

Just last week I had one of the best pizzas of my life at a pizzeria in NYC called Donatella’s. There is a massive wood burning oven in the back corner of the restaurant.

But, really my favorite pizza place these days is our home. There are few things in life to me that are as enjoyable, relaxing and satisfying as cooking with my children, and pizza is really the perfect vehicle for that experience.

PQ: Beyond your Pizza Grate, what tips do you have for home pizza makers?

JD: Number One, get the oven hot!

When flattening out the dough, work the outer rim first and work your way towards the center, you will get a nice even thickness this way.

Have all of your ingredients out and ready to add as you build your pizza, work fast so the dough doesn’t get stuck to the peel or work surface, and don’t overload the pie.   

Add a dash of vinegar to your pizza sauce, and use less sauce than you think you should, practice restraint.

I like to build the pizza on a layer of cornmeal on a wooden work surface and then slide a floured metal pizza peel under the pie immediately after putting on the final topping. Keep the pizza sliding on the peel by shaking the peel back and fourth as you walk it over to the oven, don’t give the dough a chance to stick.

Spin the pie once or twice during the cooking process so it cooks evenly.

Cook it a little bit past the point when you think its done.  You really want a little bit of char at the edges.

PQ: How easy, or difficult, is it to clean the Pizza Grate? Can it go in a dishwasher?

JD: The Pizza Grate can go in the dishwasher, its pretty much indestructible. It is very easy to scrub clean in the sink with a steel wool pad. If you want it looking like new again, put it in during an oven self-cleaning cycle.

PQ: Any other advice for those seeking great pizza, either at home or at a pizzeria?

JD: Treat yourself to a weekend day with nothing to do but making pizza. Make the dough the night before or in the morning following a good recipe exactly. When the dough is ready, get a can of crushed tomatoes and make a raw sauce by adding vinegar, oregano, garlic powder, salt and pepper directly into the can.  Get a block of mozzarella cheese and cut it into 1/2” slices that your can tear into pieces when making the pie. Get all your ingredients together, what ever toppings your want (but at least have fresh basil and pepperoni slices on hand), crack open a beer or pour a glass of wine and make a bunch of pizzas one after the other. Make the first pie simple and sparse as a warm up, just a bit of sauce and some cheese pieces, and go from there. Some concentrated pizza making time will hone your skills very quickly.

The Pizza Grate on Kickstarter: 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/250320055/the-pizza-grate

Review: Stella Rossa, Downingtown PA

From 1985-2009, I never lived more than 5 miles away from Trenton NJ, and thus had relatively easy access to great pizza (tomato pie), even though my favorite - DeLorenzo's Hudson St - opened at 3:00 pm and the phone was off the hook by 3:05. 

My 2009 move to West Chester PA resulted in a generally futile ("quixotic") search for good pizza and prompted the creation of this blog. A mere 56 miles from Hudson Street, but in virtual pizza Kansas.

From StellaRossaRistorante.com

Finally in 2012, La Porta opened in Media, PA (full review HERE). Not exactly West Chester, but less than a half hour away. I also discovered, in nearby Wayne PA, an outpost of the superb Florida chain, Anthony's Coal-Fired Pizza (full review HERE). 

Even as West Chester lacked a decent pie, it is a wonderful dining destination for almost anything else. My personal favorite is Nonna's (upscale Italian) on Gay Street, but I also enjoy Doc Magrogan's Oyster House (also on Gay Street).

See another excellent review at KeystonePizzaCritic.com

Now, "Doc Magrogan" initially struck me as a made-up name for a funfoodanddrinkery place like "T.J. McGillicuddy's" or "P.F. Winberie's" or "H.R. Pufnstuf." But in fact there is a real Dave Magrogan, who operates several restaurants including four locations of the Oyster House, Kildare's in West Chester, Harvest Seasonal Grill, and now Stella Rossa. My high opinion of the Oyster House made me optimistic about Stella.

"Stella!!!"

Stella Rossa is housed in a partially-restored former paper mill on the Brandywine River in historic Downingtown. It's a big yet cozy space with a 225 seat dining room, a 50 seat patio, and 25 seat bar. There is a full menu of appetizers, cheeses, salumi, olives, and salads in addition to a big selection of "pizza rossa" and "pizza bianca" Neapolitan pies.

Linguine with jumbo lump crab

We arrived on a Thursday evening in November, and the place was two-thirds full and buzzing. Stella has a destination ambiance - surely a place to see and be seen. Magrogan has his finger on the pulse of what appeals to hip diners in 2013.

We ordered one entree - linguine with jumbo lump crabmeat in a spicy marinara - and one pizza. We opted for the salumi, which is a Neapolitan pie with hot soppressata and fresh mozzarella. Fancy cocktails are around $10, but a half-liter of the house red wine was a bargain at $12.

"Salumi" Neapolitan

For a big new place on a busy night, the food arrived swiftly - another sign of an experienced restaurateur.  The linguine was cooked al dente - very nice but not the equal of Downingtown's Avalon Cafe, which is the next best thing to being in Italy. The flavors were wonderful, and that is noteworthy because many chefs - even the pros at La Porta - fail when mixing red sauce with crab.

The pizza had a typical Neapolitan crust - puffy edges, leopard spotting, and a thin soft base. Impressively, the center was not wet. The pie was well balanced with the sauce, cheese, and soppressata so that the toppings were in harmony with the base.

Beyond its excellent texture, the crust was especially tasty. The sauce was piquant, with a fresh tomato burst and a spicy tang. The cheese - house made - was tasty but floated on the pie like big, white, undercooked clouds. This was the only notable shortcoming, and it reiterates for me that fresh mozzarella is better reserved for your Caprese Salad. Pizza is generally better with aged cheeses that can be properly browned in the oven; fresh mozz is too wet.

The underside of the crust

I've had better Neapolitan pizza, but not much better. Stella Rossa earns a 10 for ambiance. The pie gets a 9 for its crust, 9 for the sauce, 6 for cheese, 8 for the soppressata, a 10 for its balance, and 9 for execution. Overall, an 8.5 pie, a destination pizza in a destination setting.  Stella Rossa is the hippest place I know this side of Philly.

Review: Vito & Nick's Pizzeria, Chicago

Way back in the 1980s, I discovered Chicago-style deep dish pizza ... In Washington DC! We went to Armand's Chicago Style Pizza, which is a small regional chain that was started by a Jersey Boy enamored with Chicago deep dish pizza.  I remember liking it, and I remember that I struggled to eat two slices.

Vito & Nick's, Chicago. Click any pic to see full size resolution.

A few years later, I had deep dish again, at Geno's (guest review HERE) in Chicago, with a similar experience.  As the years passed, Pizzeria Uno expanded its chain operation to the east coast, and I've found their pie to be Pizza Hut grade. Since then each time I try deep dish, I like it less. Jon Stewart agrees!

Still, Chicago remains a great pizza town, and there are several thin-crust purveyors with great reputations. I haven't been to Chicago since starting this blog, and my recent pass through would have prompted a stop at Great Lake Pizza had it not closed about a year ago.

A view of the bar from the dining area

I flew into Midway, on the south side of Chicago, to then rent a car to drive south to my Bloomington destination.

There are not a lot of great pizza choices near Midway; there is an outpost of Giordano's "stuffed crust" deep dish casserole (reviewed HERE), but I was intrigued by Vito & Nick's and their thin-crust pie.

Vito & Nick's has been in business for 84 years, making pizzas (cash only, no delivery) for 58 years at the Pulaski Road location. Inside and out, V&N looks like an old style shot-and-a-beer bar, but with a number of dining tables.

Guy Fieri, of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, did a feature on Vito & Nick's - video link HERE. I'm sorry I missed out on the Italian Beef pizza.

At some point, much of the inside walls were covered in carpet (I'm guessing the 70s) but now most of that has been updated. The ambiance is simple but cozy.

The sausage pie

I arrived around 3pm on a weekday, but already a good handful of regulars were drinking at the bar. Two beers are on tap -- Old Style, and Old Style Light. Either way, it's $1.50 for a 12 ounce pilsner glass.

The menu offers, beyond pizza, sandwiches, pastas, and appetizers. I was intrigued by the Friday special of "All You Can Eat Smelts" for $9.95. 

Slices at Vito's & Nicks

For comparison, a slice at Rubino's

The pizza menu is refreshingly brief - they offer large and small in four variations: sausage, half-sausage, cheese, and cheese & eggs (Friday only). Other toppings can be added, but I took the hint and ordered a large sausage pie.

The underside

As soon as the waitress brought the pie, I recognized the wafer-thin, party-cut, Midwest style. This pie had a strong resemblance to the thin-crust pie at Rubino's in Columbus OH, another old-school pizzeria in business for over half a century (full review HERE).

The genuine Italian sausage was in lovely rough chunks, under the cheese. The sauce and cheese were spread entirely to the edges of the crust, leaving no cornicione handles. Each little rectangle was 4" long at most.

The crust had a distinct and delightful crunch, with just enough residual chewiness to assure you that it's bread, not a cracker. The sauce and cheese were pretty conventional, and rightly so for this old-school pie. They were applied in perfect proportion for the thin but sturdy crust.

The sausage was the ideal topping, adding a savory flavor and texture to each bite. Much like the pie at Rubino's in Columbus, all the elements were in perfect harmony. In fact, the Rubino's pie and the Vito & Nick's pie were quite similar, and I couldn't say if I preferred one to the other.

All told, destination pizza in a destination setting. Near perfect in flavor, texture, and balance. This is a 9.9 pizza experience. It blows away all those north side puffy casseroles masquerading as pizza.