Since New York is well known for its pizza, and since we’ve tried a lot of pizza lately, we’re devoting an entire post to some awesome slices we’ve eaten.  The pizza we’ll show you is from all over the city – Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan – and comes in a lot of different forms topped with many different flavors.  We’d recommend any of these places, but be aware that we do have some meat pizzas we’ll feature here.

First, here’s some pizza from Fornino, which has three locations in Brooklyn.  We decided to visit Fornino’s rooftop restaurant in Brooklyn Bridge Park, where Miriam had a white pizza with ricotta, spinach, and pine nuts …

… while Cyril got a pizza with prosciutto, arugula, and shaved Parmesan.

We also split a bonus order of their crispy smashed potatoes.

We visited Prova Pizzabar in Grand Central Terminal one day right before catching a train upstate.  We each had two slices:  Miriam’s were a plain cheese …

… and a slice with eggplant, mushrooms, and roasted peppers.

Cyril tried a slice with meatballs …

… and a slice with prosciutto, ricotta, and cherry tomatoes.

At Rizzo’s in Astoria, we decided to split a square pizza with eggplant and pesto sauce.

We also got a square “grandma” pizza at Williamsburg Pizza – this is their version of margherita.

At San Matteo Pizza Espresso Bar we tried the patate e porcini, a white pizza with potato and mushrooms …

… and also had the ortolano panuozzi – which is like a pizza folded in half into a sandwich – with mozzarella, eggplant, roasted red peppers, and arugula inside.

And for something a little different, we got a deep dish with jalapeños at Emmett’s, which specializes in Chicago-style pizza.

This is just a small sample of all the delicious pizza there is out here in New York.  We might add more places we recommend to this page, so check back later to see other good pizza and good food from around the city!

Pizza, Two Ways

Last week we showed you two different ways to make vegetarian dumplings – so today, we’ll show you two different pizzas we made recently.  One is a super spicy version, made with hot peppers, and the other is a balsamic vinaigrette pizza.   They’re each pretty easy to make, and they’re really tasty.  Here’s what you’ll need for both pizzas:

• Yeast
• Salt
• Flour
• Olive oil
• Red sauce
• Mozzarella
• Spicy peppers
• A package of baby arugula
• Balsamic vinegar
• Red pepper flakes
• Rosemary
• Parmesan cheese

We first made our pizza dough using the tried and true dough recipe we’ve come to rely on, which you can find here.  Once the dough was done, we divided it in half and stretched one half onto a pizza pan.  Then we covered it in a thin layer of sauce.

We tore about 4 ounces of mozzarella cheese into slices and placed them on top of the sauce.

To make the first pizza, we took an entire package of spicy peppers and placed them over one of the flames on our stovetop, turning each pepper over with tongs to blister evenly on all sides.

This is what the peppers should look like when they’re done:

We sealed the peppers in plastic bags for about 10 minutes to steam and then sliced the skin off under cold running water so only the tender flesh underneath remained.

We cut the tops off the peppers, deseeded them (because these were really spicy peppers, and taking out the seeds helps make them less hot), and sliced them open so we could lay them flat on top of the sauce and cheese.

We baked the pizza on our pan for 10 minutes at 400°F, then transferred it directly onto a pizza steel on the top rack of our oven and baked it for another 10 minutes.

Here’s the pepper pizza when it was done:

For the second pizza, we baked everything the same way as above, except with only the sauce and cheese.  Once it was done, we took the pizza out of the oven and let it cool for a few minutes.

While we were waiting, we prepared the vinaigrette by pouring a cup of balsamic vinegar into a saucepan, along with a bunch of red pepper flakes and some rosemary leaves, and brought everything to a boil.  Then we let this mixture simmer for about 10 minutes, until it had thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon.

When the pizza had cooled down, we arranged half the bag of baby arugula on top of the pizza …

… then drizzled the vinaigrette on top of everything and finished it all off with a healthy sprinkling of grated parmesan cheese.

Each of these pizzas turned out really delicious.  The pepper pizza was pretty spicy, which was a nice contrast to the creaminess of the mozzarella.  The balsamic vinaigrette version, meanwhile, had an interesting tang and texture that you don’t usually find in pizzas.  The dough does take some time to make, so you can’t just whip these pizzas up in a minute, but once the dough is done it’s pretty simple to put everything together.  So if you have a craving for unusual pizzas that are spicy or salad-y, or both, try these ones out.

Eggplant Pizza

Eggplant is one of Cyril’s favorite foods, and he especially loves to get it on pizza.  Considering our unhealthy obsession with pizza, we decided to make our own version one night.  Here’s what we used:

• An eggplant
• Eggs
• Breadcrumbs
• Parmesan cheese
• Yeast
• Salt
• Flour
• Olive oil
• Red sauce
• Mozzarella cheese

Usually, when you get eggplant pizza, the eggplant comes as thin breaded strips.  We decided instead to cut the eggplant into round slices to make the pizza more like what you might eat in Italian dishes.

To bread the eggplant, we dipped the slices in beaten eggs and then a mix of bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese.  We made sure to cover both sides of each slice so the eggplant would be nice and crispy.

Then we brushed a skillet with olive oil and pan fried each slice until they were nice and brown on both sides.

Next, we made our standard pizza dough, for which you’ll need the yeast, salt, flour, and olive oil, plus some water.

Once the dough was ready, we spread red sauce over it, then plenty of mozzarella cheese, and then placed the eggplant slices on top of everything and baked it.

Although the big pieces of eggplant were a little hard to bite into, we think this pizza turned out a lot better than the ones we’ve had before with just measly little eggplant strips.  It was like a reverse eggplant parm, in pizza form.  If you like eggplant, or if you’re just looking to switch up some of your usual toppings, definitely give this pizza a try.

Staten Island Pizza Tour

Staten Island is New York’s forgotten borough – we hardly ever (or never) go there, and it’s easy to forget about that it’s out there, south of Manhattan.  But recently, New York magazine published a multi-page spread about all the different things to do in Staten Island, and one of the things they highlighted was the great pizza there.

So one Sunday, Cyril and I decided to venture to the island and spend all day hunting down the pizza that New York recommended – in both vegetarian and non-vegetarian varieties.  This is our journey, and it began with two subway rides and then a trip on the ferry to Pier 76.

We got to Pier 76 right as they opened, so they only had a few pizzas ready that we could get as slices. Miriam chose the plain cheese and Cyril got buffalo chicken, which was nicely sweet and spicy.  Both slices had a thin crust, which was good underneath all the toppings but maybe a little too crispy on its own.

Next we hopped on a bus to Joe and Pat’s, where we got a slice of margherita pizza and a slice of vodka pizza, which is apparently a Staten Island specialty.

The crust on these pizzas was somehow even thinner than at Pier 76, and the topping-less ends were almost like a cracker.  The vodka sauce, however, was delicious underneath the cheese, and the margherita tasted great with fresh mozzarella on top.

As you can see, Cyril enjoyed his slice.

After another bus ride, we arrived at Pizzeria Giove.  They didn’t have slices there, so we sat down and got a small pizza.  We chose the Ortolana, which is a white pizza topped with zucchini, roasted red peppers, mushrooms, breaded eggplant, and chopped cherry tomatoes.  The crust here was thicker than at the other pizzerias we had visited so far, which we liked.  Miriam especially loved this one because it was a nice departure from the boring toppings that you usually find on a veggie pizza.

From there, we walked around the corner to Nunzio’s.  At Nunzio’s, when you order a slice you start out with plain cheese and then get to add whatever toppings you’d like.  Miriam got garlic – a LOT of garlic.

Cyril chose pepperoni – but as we were leaving he saw someone order two slices with sausage and meatballs and got a little jealous.

Nunzio’s turned out to be the best of all the pizza we had:  the crust was thicker but not too thick, the toppings were generous, and we liked that we had so much choice in what to put on our pizzas.  It was also the least expensive of all the pizza we had that day, and the people working there were super nice.

Our next stop was all the way at the bottom of Staten Island, so it was a long bus ride to Reggiano’s.   Once again, we went for one margherita slice and one vodka slice.

The vodka pizza here was absolutely delicious – if you can’t tell from the picture above, the cheese and the sauce are layered in diagonal stripes, which creates a nice blend of flavors.  The margherita pizza was also constructed in the same way.

Finally, our last pizza of the day came from Lee’s Tavern, which is more of a bar than a pizzeria.  Cyril insisted on having Staten Island’s other well-known pizza:  clam pie.  As a compromise, he ordered it half-plain so Miriam would have something to eat.

In all, we ate six different types of pizza and then dragged our stuffed selves home.  We both decided that Nunzio’s was our favorite place of the day, but all the pizzas we had were good, and we got to try some new flavors.  So, if you ever have the chance to visit this borough, or you’re looking to spend a day gorging on sauce and cheese, give Staten Island pizza a chance.

Potato Rosemary Pizza

Miriam grew up with the tradition of having pizza on Sunday nights, so when we moved in together we decided that making pizzas would be a part of our what we make at home.  But we don’t just want to slap some cheese and sauce on a crust and call it a day – we want to make our pizzas interesting.

So here’s what we used to make this pizza:

• Yeast
• Salt
• Flour
• Olive oil
• Red sauce
• Mozzarella
• Baby potatoes
• Rosemary

When we make pizzas, Cyril first makes the dough several hours beforehand – you can find the recipe he uses here, and you’ll need your yeast, salt, flour, and olive oil to make it.

Then we lay down your red sauce.  You can get some really good brands in your grocery store or you can make one yourself.  For cheese, it’s your mozzarella.

Then comes the toppings.  For a while, we’ve been talking about making a potato pizza.  Yes, it’s carbs on top of carbs, and Cyril was initially skeptical.  Miriam was too, until she a few years back she had an excellent potato rosemary pizza from Pizza Rustica in Philadelphia.  So we tried to recreate that.

The trick is to get baby potatoes and slice them thin, because you don’t want large, chunky pieces of potato to overwhelm the rest of the pizza.  We put those on top of the cheese and then sprinkled rosemary over everything.

The potatoes ended up slightly crunchy, which was a nice contrast with the gooey cheese.  It’s not a traditional pizza topping, but potato pizza ended up being a good addition to our rotation of pizzas.