{"id":3573,"date":"2016-12-13T01:00:39","date_gmt":"2016-12-13T06:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/?p=3573"},"modified":"2016-12-14T15:32:58","modified_gmt":"2016-12-14T20:32:58","slug":"guest-column-top-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/guest-column-top-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Column, John Arena: Top It Off"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some pizza purists<\/strong> maintain that the only \u201creal\u201d pizza is the Margherita<\/em>. Others will argue that the Pizza Marinara<\/em> predates the Margherita<\/em>. True diehards insist that the Pizza Bianca,<\/em> with just olive oil and sea salt, is clearly the oldest form. When I was getting started in the business toppings were limited to sausage, mushrooms, and anchovies. Well, times have changed. Creative pizza makers like Rome\u2019s Gabriele Bonci,<\/strong> and our own incomparable Tony Gemignani<\/strong> are changing the way people think of pizza possibilities. Even in New York where the cheese pizza was always, king artists such as Andrew Scudera at Goodfellas<\/strong> in Staten Island are producing incredible pizza (check out his shrimp, crab, and lobster pie with black Sambuca romano sauce<\/em>). Sure there will always be a place for the classics but amateur and professional pizza makers are expanding the boundaries of pizza as an art form and bringing diversity, creativity and excitement to the world of pizza, which is certain to attract a new generation of chefs and consumers.<\/p>\n

Every great pizza maker has a signature pizza or an identifiable pattern when choosing toppings. A true pizza aficionado can easily identify a Chris Bianco<\/strong> pizza and distinguish it from a Paulie Gee<\/strong> pie. We will cover how to combine flavors in our next instalment but for now lets explore the basics of how to top a pizza correctly for the best result. Remember, these are suggestions. I\u2019m an old hippie so I\u2019m not too big on hard and fast rules.<\/p>\n

\"Pizza

Pizza Sbagliata, nice variation on the classic red, white, and green<\/p><\/div>\n

Order of placement changes everything. Let\u2019s try an experiment. Extend 2 dough balls. On the first one construct a basic pizza margherita. Put the sauce down first place a few basil leaves at random. Top with fresh mozzarella and a drizzle of olive oil. Bake and serve. On the second dough place mozzarella and bake. After the pizza is baked splash with tomato sauce, drizzle with oil and finish with fresh basil. Using the same ingredients you will have two completely different results. The second pizza is a variation of Franco Pepe\u2019s Margherita Sbagliata<\/em><\/strong> that is taking Italy by storm right now. Sbagliata means \u201cwrong\u201d but you can\u2019t go wrong by heading to Caiazo and experiencing this simple but elegant pie. NOTE Franco spots this pizza with pesto instead of basil.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s try another experiment that hits closer to home. Stretch 2 more dough balls. On one, construct a standard NY style pizza placing sauce down first, sprinkling with Romano<\/em> cheese and topping with shredded low moisture mozzarella. On pizza number two lay down low moisture mozzarella that has been sliced instead of shredded. Now splash the pie with pizza sauce and a generous sprinkle of Romano<\/em> and bake. Same ingredients as the first pie but pizza number two will be crispier, the sauce will taste different and the cheese will be creamier.<\/p>\n

\"Sauce

Sauce and Cheese, standard assembly<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Sliced

Sliced Mozzarella with sauce on top<\/p><\/div>\n

So what happened? By placing the cheese down first you have created a butterfat based barrier between the water in your tomato sauce and the crust, resulting in a crispier pizza. By placing the sauce on top of the cheese you have protected the cheese from breaking down in the heat of the oven, resulting in a creamier finished product. As expected the sauce on top has been exposed to more heat than it would have been if it were under the cheese, so the tomato flavor is now more concentrated. The pizzerias in Trenton NJ have been using a similar method for almost 100 years and frankly this is usually the way I make pizza for myself.<\/p>\n

\"Shredded

Shredded mozzarella with sauce on top, South Jersey style!<\/p><\/div>\n

Vegetables placed on a pizza before baking should be pre-cooked. Roast, saut\u00e9, blanche or grill. That\u2019s your call, but I can assure you that most veggies will taste better if they are cooked to concentrate flavors, evaporate moisture and produce some caramelization. If you choose to use raw vegetables, such as arugula or tomatoes, place them on pizza after baking.<\/p>\n

Delicate cured meats, such as prosciutto<\/em> or brasiola<\/em>, should be added to the pizza immediately after it comes out of the oven. These toppings don\u2019t like heat and will dry up and become flavorless and tough if they are in the oven. Even the Italians, who bake for 90 seconds or less, put these toppings on when the pizza is finished baking. When topping a pizza with any type of salumi<\/em> or charcuterie<\/em> be sure that the meat is sliced (very thin) just before you use it for optimal flavor.<\/p>\n

With all toppings, always start at the outside near the sauce line and top towards the center diminishing the concentration of toppings as you move in. Avoid what is known as \u2018\u2019center loading\u201d. The toppings are going to move towards the center as the pizza bakes anyway and the center is the weakest point.<\/p>\n

\"Add

Add arugula after the pizza comes out of the oven<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some pizza purists maintain that the only \u201creal\u201d pizza is the Margherita. Others will argue that the Pizza Marinara predates the Margherita. True diehards insist that the Pizza Bianca, with just olive oil and sea salt, is clearly the oldest form. When I was getting started in the business toppings were limited to sausage, mushrooms, and anchovies. Well, times have changed. Creative pizza makers like Rome\u2019s Gabriele Bonci, and our…Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":350,"featured_media":3637,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[316,65,319,315,317,320,318,66],"class_list":["post-3573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-s14-guest-columns","tag-andrew-scudera","tag-chris-bianco","tag-franco-epe","tag-gabriele-bonci","tag-goodfellas","tag-jersey-style-pizza","tag-paulie-gee","tag-tony-gemignani"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGuest Column, John Arena: Top It Off - Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/guest-column-top-off\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Guest Column, John Arena: Top It Off - Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some pizza purists maintain that the only \u201creal\u201d pizza is the Margherita. Others will argue that the Pizza Marinara predates the Margherita. True diehards insist that the Pizza Bianca, with just olive oil and sea salt, is clearly the oldest form. When I was getting started in the business toppings were limited to sausage, mushrooms, and anchovies. Well, times have changed. Creative pizza makers like Rome\u2019s Gabriele Bonci, and our...Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/guest-column-top-off\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PizzaQuestFornoBravo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-12-13T06:00:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-12-14T20:32:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/12\/Guest-Column-by-John-Arena.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"470\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"246\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Arena\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Arena\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/guest-column-top-off\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/guest-column-top-off\/\",\"name\":\"Guest Column, John Arena: Top It Off - Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-12-13T06:00:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-12-14T20:32:58+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/#\/schema\/person\/654db614f577b3f7ccef6a1114f5fbee\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/guest-column-top-off\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/guest-column-top-off\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/guest-column-top-off\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Guest Column, John Arena: Top It Off\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/\",\"name\":\"Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart\",\"description\":\"A journey of self-discovery through pizza.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/#\/schema\/person\/654db614f577b3f7ccef6a1114f5fbee\",\"name\":\"John Arena\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/959857ea723ba51f6d6609d60f345f42?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/959857ea723ba51f6d6609d60f345f42?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Arena\"},\"description\":\"John Arena is a third generation pizza maker. He began making pizza professionally in his family\u2019s New York pizzeria on his 13th birthday in 1967. John graduated from Adelphi University with a degree in communications, but skipped graduation ceremonies to open his first pizzeria in Las Vegas in 1980. Along with his cousin, Sam Facchini, he is the co-owner\/founder of Metro Pizza with 6 locations. John is also the instructor of the nations first University level pizza class, History and Culture of Pizza. The course, offered to upper level hospitality students, is an in depth exploration of the social, cultural and historical influences that have shaped the many regional variations of pizza. A frequent seminar leader, and contributor to trade publications, he is a staunch advocate of sharing the joy of creating, eating and celebrating pizza, as the world\u2019s greatest communal food. He can be reached at jcdurango@embarqmail.com or through his website at http:\/\/www.metropizza.com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/author\/john-arena\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Guest Column, John Arena: Top It Off - Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/guest-column-top-off\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Guest Column, John Arena: Top It Off - Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart","og_description":"Some pizza purists maintain that the only \u201creal\u201d pizza is the Margherita. Others will argue that the Pizza Marinara predates the Margherita. True diehards insist that the Pizza Bianca, with just olive oil and sea salt, is clearly the oldest form. When I was getting started in the business toppings were limited to sausage, mushrooms, and anchovies. Well, times have changed. Creative pizza makers like Rome\u2019s Gabriele Bonci, and our...Read More...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/guest-column-top-off\/","og_site_name":"Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PizzaQuestFornoBravo\/","article_published_time":"2016-12-13T06:00:39+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-12-14T20:32:58+00:00","og_image":[{"width":470,"height":246,"url":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/12\/Guest-Column-by-John-Arena.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"John Arena","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John Arena","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/guest-column-top-off\/","url":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/guest-column-top-off\/","name":"Guest Column, John Arena: Top It Off - Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-12-13T06:00:39+00:00","dateModified":"2016-12-14T20:32:58+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/#\/schema\/person\/654db614f577b3f7ccef6a1114f5fbee"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/guest-column-top-off\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/guest-column-top-off\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/guest-column-top-off\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Guest Column, John Arena: Top It Off"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/","name":"Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart","description":"A journey of self-discovery through pizza.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/#\/schema\/person\/654db614f577b3f7ccef6a1114f5fbee","name":"John Arena","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/959857ea723ba51f6d6609d60f345f42?s=96&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/959857ea723ba51f6d6609d60f345f42?s=96&r=g","caption":"John Arena"},"description":"John Arena is a third generation pizza maker. He began making pizza professionally in his family\u2019s New York pizzeria on his 13th birthday in 1967. John graduated from Adelphi University with a degree in communications, but skipped graduation ceremonies to open his first pizzeria in Las Vegas in 1980. Along with his cousin, Sam Facchini, he is the co-owner\/founder of Metro Pizza with 6 locations. John is also the instructor of the nations first University level pizza class, History and Culture of Pizza. The course, offered to upper level hospitality students, is an in depth exploration of the social, cultural and historical influences that have shaped the many regional variations of pizza. A frequent seminar leader, and contributor to trade publications, he is a staunch advocate of sharing the joy of creating, eating and celebrating pizza, as the world\u2019s greatest communal food. He can be reached at jcdurango@embarqmail.com or through his website at http:\/\/www.metropizza.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/author\/john-arena\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3573"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/350"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3573"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3638,"href":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3573\/revisions\/3638"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}