Tony Makes a Traditional Italian Pizza

Here’s another in the extremely informative sessions we had with Tony Gemignani at his landmark restaurant, Tony’s Pizza Napoletana in North Beach, San Francisco. In this websode, Tony shows us the difference between what he calls a “traditional Italian pizza” and the Napoletana/Neapolitan pizzas he made in previous segments. I think we might also more accurately think of this as “traditional Italian-American” pizza. This style is baked in a gas fired oven, not wood, at a lower temperature (550-600 degrees) for a longer time, with different flour and, in this case, with some finishing ingredients after it emerges from the oven. In many respects, this is the type of pizza closest to what home cooks can achieve, in a regular oven, perhaps on a baking stone. Even the time frame is about the same, about 7 to 8 minutes. The dough recipe in our Instructional section for Neo-Neapolitan dough (also found in “American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza“), is closest to Tony’s, but he uses a type of Italian flour (not Caputo or San Felice Double Zero) whereas our version uses American bread flour (some folks like to use half bread and half all purpose flour for a more tender mouth feel, but I like the toothsome quality of bread flour). Regardless, you’ll get some great ideas and techniques by watching Tony put together a beautiful prosciutto/Parmesiano/arugula pizza right before our eyes. One tip, not shown on the video, is to toss the fresh arugula first in a little olive oil, salt, and lemon juice. Mangia!!