We pay tribute to the delicious marvel that is cheese, sauce and dough with a menu of 12 gourmet pies you absolutely must try. by Jennifer Bowen, Elaine Cicora, David Searls, Beth Stallings, Carly Toyzan and Jim Vickers; Edited by Beth Stallings
10. White Pizza with Artichokes and Kalamata Olives
Valentino’s Pizza $14.45
The
aroma alone is worth a trip to the Little Italy landmark — particularly
on a cold Cleveland night when the very act of stepping inside the tiny
storefront stirs up eddies of toasty fragrance, redolent of olive oil,
garlic, cheeses and baking breads. Deliciously rustic, those scents
serve as an enticing backdrop to the shop’s assortment of carryout
pizzas: thin-crusted, lushly endowed and baked on stone inside a
gas-fired oven. According to owner Mike Iammarino, son of the namesake
Valentino, pepperoni is the perennial best-seller among the college
crowd. Refined palates, however, gravitate toward the White Pizza, a
tomato-free pie that begins with a slather of garlic-and-Romano-infused
olive oil, proceeds to a thick strata of nutty mozzarella and concludes
with nuggets of marinated artichoke hearts. (We recommend adding
kalamata olives for saltiness.) While you wait, pass the time watching
staffers roll fresh dough into perfect rounds, toss them into the air
for translucent thinness and whisk them in and out of the oven on
traditional wooden peels. “It’s a nice little show,” Iammarino
concedes. “That’s how the Italians do it.”
With
the reassurance a mother gives a child afraid to jump off a diving
board, Danny Boys asks us to leap into an unknown world where pineapple
and sauerkraut combine on one crust. But trust them, the menu urges;
our taste buds will land safely. The house specialty pizza — a spicy
union of kielbasa, sauerkraut, jalapeños and pineapple — is strange in
a good way. The unconventional toppings play off a meal we Clevelanders
already love: Polish sausage and sauerkraut. “We try to think of a
home-style meal from days gone by and recreate it, maybe put a twist on
it, and put it on a pizza,” explains Rob Grendow, who co-owns Danny
Boys with his wife, Renee. Here, jalapeño peppers pair with kielbasa
for a zing that leaves any thrill-seeking mouth burning. The decision
to finish the pizza with pineapple came from Grendow’s love of all
things both spicy and sweet. It’s the exact effect he achieves, and
even though the ultra-sweet canned pineapple doesn’t quite
counterbalance the heat, it does complete the spicy, smoky, sour, sweet
flavor that deserves a try. Trust us.
If
you can walk past the showpiece of the Highland Heights pizzeria and
not crave a slice of thin-crusted pie, you are stronger than we are.
It’s worth ordering one of John Quagliata’s authentic Neapolitan pizzas
if strictly for the show of watching the pizza-maker shove dough into
the blazing 900-degree oven. It took two men from Naples three 14-hour
days to construct the centerpiece of Crostatas — an 8-foot-tall,
6-foot-wide stone wood-burning oven that turns out thin-crust pizza in
a fiery 90 seconds. Quagliata uses milled oak to fire up the oven,
meaning every slice has a smoky oak taste a conventional oven could
never recreate. On the margherita pie, big chunks of fresh mozzarella,
spicy salsiccia that Quagliata’s been making by hand since 1955,
sauteed mushrooms, roasted red peppers and artichokes marbleize the top
for coverage, but not too much. This is Quagliata’s philosophy for even
distribution in every bite, giving diners a chance to taste and
appreciate all of the hearty flavors on each pie. “If you put too much
on it, you kill the pie. Less is more,” he says.
558 Bishop Road, Highland Heights, 440-449-7800, crostatas.com
Comments:
Thursday, January 07, 2010 8:08:51 AM by Anonymous
How on earth can you do a top ten pizza list without Romeo's pizza!
