Reader Questions: Frozen Pizza, Emerging Pizza Shop, How's My Day Going
Quite the variety of questions to answer in today's Pizza Mail Bag (Grease Bag?)!
Hi there!
This week I posted on Instagram asking for your questions - these questions could be related to pizza or life in general. I got a good response asking about certain pizza preferences, including my favorite question about what up-and-coming pizzeria is pushing the boundaries of the pizza world. Let’s dive into this tangy pool of sauce and see what we got.
What would you rate that slice of pizza in your hand out of 10? - Dan
This question comes in from Dan and references the above photo which I posted on my aforementioned Instagram. A great question. A stunning question. What is a handful of Rockaway pizza worth? Certainly its weight in gold, but it’s much richer than precious minerals.
That particular slice is the Prosciutto and Arugula pizza from Rockaway. This is a white pizza. I’m a sauce boy. I love red sauce. The older I get the more I understand and appreciate a red sauce on a pizza. It can make or break the whole pie! With that said, this slice is white pizza perfection. The saltiness of the prosciutto blends with the sharp parmigiano-reggiano expertly. When you bite into a pocket of lemon zest a delicious alarm goes off in your mouth. There’s just enough lemon flavor on the pizza to keep you hunting for the next salvo of lemon without scaring you off. Would eat again. I give it an 8/10.
Favorite Homemade Dough Recipe? - Emily
When it comes to making dough at home it’s very easy to get in over your head. The variables you can control for when making dough are nearly infinite and you can get lost accounting for every option. For at home dough I opt for something simple. This Roberta’s Dough is my go-to for anything I’m making for a casual pizza encounter - pizza for my family, some friends popping over. This dough is easy to work with, the recipe is straightforward and succinct. Also, when I ball my dough I ball them in individual ziplock bags for easy access the next day. The Roberta’s Cookbook is an excellent pizza resource.
If I’m feeling fancy I’ll use the recipe in The Pizza Bible.
Which new pizzeria in the area do you see pushing the boundaries in the pizza world? - Bill
Wow, great question. This is a tough one because there aren’t too many cutting edge new pizzerias out there. Lots of places are perfecting New York style. One of the biggest leaps in recent years has been Driftwood Oven’s use of sourdough starter to make incredible pizza and a litany of baked goods.
I think the Blue Sparrow Food Truck is pushing the flavors of the pizza. While I wasn’t crazy about the crust, their cheese pizza is incredibly flavorful. Their toppings are thoughtful and delicious, I think we’ll be seeing them creating some next-level pizzas in the coming years.
I’d keep an eye on whatever it is Kevin Konn is doing. His endless experimentation is fascinating and he puts out one of the best pizza products in the city.
Shoutout to Black Cat Pizza for building what seems like a vast and rapidly expanding pizza business through Instagram. Very novel, great pizza too.
Best and Worst Cheese Combinations - Andrea
I admit I’m not a huge cheese enthusiast. As I grow older I like less and less cheese on my pizza. Yet, Driftwood Oven’s Four Cheese pizza solved the rubric’s cube cheese puzzle, perfectly aligning four different cheeses for maximum enjoyment. Look at this combo: appalachian, buttercup, mozzarella, pecorino, chili flake, white wine shallot cream sauce, honey. Unreal.
Worst cheese combination would probably be like mozzarella and whatever cheese the Stinky Cheese Man is made out of.
Where do you stand on frozen pizzas? - Brooke AND Bobby
I got this question from two different people. As I wrote about a few weeks ago, the frozen pizza game is on point! It’s never been a better time to be grabbing pizza from the freezer aisle. Many artisan pizzas ($10 or so) are pre-cooked pizzas that are cryogenically frozen in time. Read more about my love of frozen pizzas here or enjoy my review of Roberta’s Air-Tight Pizza!
What nation (excluding Italy and the US) makes the best pizza? - Mark
The only quality pizza I’ve had outside the US and Italy was in Sweden. So they get my vote. Though, the infamous subreddit, /pizzacrimes, seems to imply that Swedish pizza is a deformed creation. If they are committing pizza crimes, they were on stellar behavior when I was in the country.
How is your day going? - Christa
Great day! Had a very good jog this morning, it was seventy degrees and I got to go to Driftwood Oven with my friend Charlie. What an amazing day!
What is your favorite not pizza food? - Josh
This is a tie between popcorn and ice cream.
Thanks for reading! I hope you have found something to enjoy in this amazing pizza newsletter.
Thanks and pizza ya later!
-Dan Tallarico, Pizza Journalist