It’s Sunday afternoon. I have already weeded my garden and walked my dogs around San Mateo, the neighborhood I call home. I suddenly feel the urge to eat great Pizza. It’s not any ordinary pizza. At these times, I feel like there is a hole in my stomach. It’s shaped like an enormous, pepperoni-topped, big pizza. The Spicy Spring is a Nolita-based pizza called Prince Street Pizza. It is the best slice of Sicilian-style (read thick and square) Pizza in New York City and the entire World. (I challenge you to fight me on this.)
The crust is dense, chewy, and filled with large bubbles, much like a baguette’s interior. It’s light for bread that is an inch thick. But it will still fill you up. The bread is baked in an oil-based baking dish, giving it a crispy, golden-brown texture that almost looks fried. Toppings include melted mozzarella cheese (layered underneath the sauce to prevent the dough from becoming soggy), sweet and spicy fra diavolo-style tomato paste, ground Pecorino Romano cheese, and, of course, some pepperoni. This is different from your average pepperoni. We’re talking spicy, natural-casing pepperoni. Adam Kuban, the former managing editor of Serious Eats, calls these pepperoni “crispy grease cups” because of the way they are fried around the edges. Their interiors sparkle with rendered pepperoni oil.
This Pizza is delicious, but it has two problems. It’s too heavy with all the toppings, and the olive oil-rich crust. You can only eat it once a month. It doesn’t exist elsewhere.
I would rather have the first problem than that of the second. And for those who don’t live in Lower Manhattan, the second problem solves almost all the problems raised by the first. So today, I will be focusing on the second problem so that we can reintroduce it. That’s right. My goal is to produce a (reasonably high quality) facsimile of this Pizza anywhere in the World. *
The Dough: How to Make the Right Crust
Bad bread can ruin a sandwich. The first step to making great Pizza is having great dough. I have spent enough time studying the dough to know what kind of field I want.
This pie was made with my basic pizza dough. It is very similar to my foolproof pizza dough. The recipe starts with bread flour or all-purpose flour. Add some yeast and salt. A little olive oil is added to give it flavor and tenderness. Then there’s water. My original recipe for pizza dough has a 70% hydration level. That means that I would add 700g of water to every kilogram of flour. This much water results in large bubbles within the dough. To make this particular pie more dense and chewy (and to be able to hold up to heavy toppings), I reduced the water to 65%. Use a scale to mix dough for pizzas. Volume measurements for flour are often inaccurate.
There are three main methods to mix water: The food processor, The stand mixer and the no-knead. If you want quick and easy results, the food processor is my favourite. A quality food processor can quickly form the gluten network that gives pizza dough its structure. Although a stand mixer is fine for pinch purposes, the quality of the gluten formation is not as good.
You don’t need any special equipment. The basic no-knead technique will work. Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it rest on the counter for a while. The dough will begin to bubble over the next 12-24 hours and develop its own strong gluten network.
Whatever your method, the next step will be the same: Place the dough on a parchment-lined baking sheet with an oil rim. Cover it and let it rest.
You’d notice a lot of elasticity in the dough if you tried to stretch it immediately. It would want to curl back into a tight ball. The dough will begin to fill the sheet pan as it relaxes over the next few hours. To allow air bubbles to escape, I make sure to lift each corner and edge. This is important if you want the Pizza to have a crispy crust.
After spreading it out so that it fills the pan, I place it aside for a second rise. This will ensure that the Pizza remains light and bubbly. I prefer to leave it uncovered at this stage.
At a Loss: Making the Sauce
Frank Morano, who is the owner of Prince Street Pizza, said that his sauce was made with imported olive oils, tomatoes, garlic and some spices. You can see the amount of garlic in the spicy tomato sauce by ordering a slice. I started with nine cloves, chopped finely and sauteed in olive oils. I added dried oregano to the Spicy Spring for more flavor. Oregano is a herb that packs great flavor even after being dried. We want it to be hot enough for you to notice, but not too hot to kill you.
After everything is well combined, I add the can of tomatoes. You will need high-quality canned tomatoes that have both a bright acidity and natural sweetness. The DOP San Marzano tomatoes remain a great choice. They are expensive but well worth the investment. If you have access to Chris Bianco diNapoli tomatoes they are also excellent. Look for tomatoes that are not infused with calcium-chloride, which is an additive that helps tomatoes retain their shape.
Whole peeled tomatoes are better than diced or crushed. It gives you more control over how the final texture is achieved. There are many ways to chop tomatoes. I used to squeeze the tomatoes through my fingers and mash them in the pot with a potato mashing tool. But, I recently discovered a better tool: a stiff-bladed pastry mixer. The firm blades allow you to chop the tomatoes into any consistency you like directly in the pan.
Topping Time: How to Choose Your Meat and Cheese
After the dough and sauce are done, you will need three ingredients: low-moisture (aged), mozzarella cheese, Pecorino romano cheese, and pepperoni.
The Mozzarella New York-style slices are usually topped with grated aged cheese sprinkled over the sauce. As opposed to the fresh mozzarella balls that are used on Neapolitan pizzas, this is the dry stuff in blocks. The Spicy Spring recipe calls for sliced mozzarella, and to place it underneath the sauce. This will provide protection for the dough and prevent the sauce from sogging. This is often called an “upside down Sicilian” in pizzeria lingo.
The Pepperoni: Use a high-quality natural-casing pepperoni. It curls and forms cups when it bakes. The bull’s eye-shaped pattern in pepperoni that curls is due to the varying meat densities within the casing. This pattern can only be found in pepperoni with natural casing. Vermont Smoke & Cure is my favorite brand, but Boar’s Head makes a great extra-spicy pepperoni. Find more recommendations in our sliced pepperoni taste test.
The Pecorino Romano – Don’t cut corners on the quality. You can buy real, imported Pecorino Romaino in blocks and then grate it at home. It can be chopped roughly and re-ground in a food processor or used the grinding faces of a box grater. (Those pokey bits on the faces that you didn’t know had any purpose. They’re there for a reason.
Serious Eats / J. Kenji Lopez-Alt
Once you have finished making the sauce, and prepared the toppings, your Pizza is ready to be assembled. Spread the mozzarella on top, then add the sauce. It must be covered. Pepperoni shrinks with cooking, so covering 70-80% of the pepperoni from the beginning is a good goal.
Prince Street Pizza uses ovens that reach temperatures up to 750°F (400°C). However, I believe they run slightly cooler. My oven is set at 550°F (290°C), which is hot enough to allow thicker pan-style pizzas to crisp up without drying out. This can be dangerous for thinner pizzas.
It is best to bake it near the floor of your oven. This will allow it to absorb the maximum radiant heat from the base. This will help the bottom turn a crispy golden brown.