il Lazzarone KC

Well, Kansas City … we’re coming for you!
As I’ve said before, Erik originally looked at putting a pizzeria in Kansas City but when we moved to St Joe, it made sense to start here! And we’re very excited to announce that il Lazzarone will be expanding to Kansas City Spring 2015!
We will be located in the River Market at 412 Delaware right next to our favorite coffee shop and friends, Quay Coffee.

Please visit our Facebook page for updates or follow us on Twitter and Instagram!

We look forward to joining the neighborhood and sharing some awesome pizza!

il Lazzarone: What to expect

 

Now that the restaurant announcement has been made, here’s some things you can expect from an authentic Neapolitan pizzeria and more specifically, what to expect from il Lazzarone!

Oven
At il Lazzarone, our wood fired oven is an Acunto Mario, made on the main street of Naples, Italy by a fifth generation oven builder. Why this oven? For true Neapolitan pizza you must have a wood fired oven capable of achieving over 800 degrees constant temperatures. The mouth of the oven and the oven dome height must all be constructed within specific ratios to achieve a true pizza Napoletana. Our oven is constructed of all hand laid brick made from the soils of the Campania region of Italy. In our opinion, there is absolutely no oven in the world capable of producing a better product. We are very lucky to have received the first one imported into America.

Size
Neapolitan pies are traditionally 11 inches round. For an average appetite, you'll likely want one pie per person.

Cook Time
Due to the extreme temperatures and the craftsmanship of the oven, the pizza will cook between 50-90 seconds.

Ingredients
Less is more. A good Neapolitan pie is minimally topped with the freshest natural ingredients to strike the perfect ratio of flavor.

• Dough: the dough is made simply of water, flour, yeast and salt with no added preservatives or additives
• Sauce: San Marzano tomatoes are a very rare tomato native to Italy. At il Lazzarone, we use only DOP certified San Marzano tomatoes which insures the tomatoes have been grown in a specific historical region outside of Naples. The magic of the San Marzano comes from the soil which they are grown in. These specific tomatoes are considered the richest and sweetest in the world and are grown around the base of Mt. Vesuvius in a soil extremely rich in minerals. This very soil is where the material for the oven is harvested and made into bricks for our oven’s hearth and dome, creating a symbiotic relationship between ingredient and oven.
• Flour: Our flour is a 00 flour which holds an 11.2% protein ratio. This 00 flour refers to the size of the mill. 00 is the finest mill on earth and creates a soft silky crust. 00 grade flour is also a requirement for true Neapolitan pizza.
• Cheese: For our cheese, we hold true to Neapolitan standards as well using only fior de late (fresh mozzarella) or mozzarella de bufala. All of or cheese hold true to the artisan roots of old and are completely hormone free.

 

Charring
Also due to the high temperature cook time, the crust has a slight charring on bottom and edges characteristic to Neapolitan pizza giving it another depth of flavor and texture.

  

Wet or Soupy
Unlike typical American pizza, a delicious pool of flavor forms in the middle of a Neapolitan pie during its short time in the oven making it  what one might call wet or "soupy".

Knife and Fork
As to not disrupt the "soupy" middle (thereby making the crust soggy on the way to the table) these pies are meant to be served whole, uncut, and eaten with a knife and fork.

Organic/All Natural
At il Lazzarone, we're passionate about authentic real food therefore our ingredients are organic and all natural incorporating both local ingredients with special authentic Italian imported items. Our cheese is always rBgh free and our meats are antibiotic and hormone free.

Dante Ristorante Pizzeria

Okay, so it seems the only thing I can blog about when I actually am able to blog is pizza … but I suppose that’s nothing all that new, now, is it??

Amidst all the craziness of everything going on in life right now, we decided to drive up to Omaha for a day just for fun.

But mostly to eat Neapolitan pizza.



It’s been nearly a year now since we took our road trip up the west coast, thus a year since a “Great Neapolitan Pizza Quest” post has been seen. Check the above link in case you’re new here or have forgotten about our delicious Neapolitan pizza adventures!

Since then, we’ve been wanting to try Dante’s in Omaha, one of the very few authentic Neapolitan pizzerias in the Midwest (also VPN certified).

 

True to form, the margherita pizza is always a must …yum! And of course we can’t go to a Neapolitan pizzeria without sitting as close to the oven as possible and timing how long it was in the oven.  These pizzas came out in approximately 100 seconds.

(See my Pinterest album for comparison pics!)



We also tried Dante’s Bianco pizza which included: “papa’s sausage, olive, chili, garlic, basil & mozzarella”. 

It was very good as well, but I ended up wishing we would have just gotten two margherita pizzas because we love them that much that nothing else compares!



The Quick Stats (Erik’s notes)

Oven: Mugnaini

Cook Time: Approximately 100 seconds.

Dough: The dough is made in a spiral mixer, put into a cooler for 24 hours, balled into 9 ounce dough balls and put back in for 48 hours.  To my surprise, the pizzaioli stated that they were using a 00 ConAgra flour blend.  I must say whatever flour they’re using, the crust was top notch in flavor and consistency.

Taste: Immediately, the flavors brought us back to that unforgettable Neapolitan pizza taste that once one has, one never forgets. Sauce was spot on, the crust was spot on and the fior di latte (made using local, hormone and antibiotic free milk) complemented the pizza very well.  My only complaint would be a slight lack of sauce and the fact that our pizzas sat on the counter finished -- about three feet away from us -- for at least 5 minutes and were getting cold when we received them.

 

We will definitely return to Dante’s next time we’re in the Omaha area!

 

Pizza Party

Hey everyone who is still there!

Thanks for being patience with us during our blog hiatus. (See previous post). Hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! Our house is coming along nicely (though not quiiiiite as fast as I would like) and the more I see done, the more I can’t wait to be able to move in and hopefully get a few things settled before the baby arrives in just 3 more months.

This past week, Erik brought his pizza oven over to the house so we decided to try it out this weekend! He got this Renato wood fired oven at auction months and months ago and hadn’t had a chance to even use it yet.  His plan is to build a nice home for it in our new backyard, but for now it’s just sitting there amongst the mess, as you will see.  Here’s some pictures along the way:



That is our work in progress in the background.  Luckily, the outside of the house looks MUCH better than the inside does right now, ha.

(Note Erik’s last minute chopping of some wood in the background, ha. I love it.)

 

My pregnant self hangin’ out while we wait for the fire to heat up enough for pizza time. Again, don’t mind the messy yard. It’s a work in progress, remember?



When you don’t live in your house yet and there is no kitchen or sheet rock or running water, one has to improvise.  Insert: the pizza station, ha.



Ingredients for Pizza Napoletana:

 

Margherita pizza before:



And after:



Yum! Not too shabby for the first go around. We’re going to love this oven!!

Until next time …

Pizzeria Locale

And finally, the last installment of  The Great Neapolitan Pizza Quest (at least for now)! This last stop wasn’t originally planned but on our trek back to KC, we happened to be in Boulder and we couldn’t pass up one more pizza stop. So without further ado …



Pizzeria Locale

Pizzeria Locale is located downtown Boulder at 1730 Pearl Street. The first thing we immediately loved when walking into Pizzeria Locale was their décor.  (Due to my lack of energy and motivation from so much time on the road, unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures besides oven and pizza).  But some things we really liked were the subway tiling behind the oven, the large area of bar seating in view of the pizza making, the simple clean color scheme, and the great attention to detail.

They were really busy upon arriving and thankfully, we got the last two seats right in front of the oven – our favorite place to be!

 

As if you haven’t guessed it by now … we got a marinara and margherita pizza. Cook time at Pizzeria Locale was approximately 87 seconds.



The Quick Stats (Erik’s notes)

Oven: Stefano Ferrera

Cook Time: Approximately 87 seconds.

Dough: This dough had a high hydration accompanied by a cold rise method; looked cold and a bit stiff to the touch.

Taste: We found that the crust at Pizzeria Locale was just slightly underdone compared to the other Neapolitan pizzerias we visited on our trip, and would have preferred a bit more char. (I must add, though, we’re likely the only ones who have ever asked for more char, ha). The ingredients were still all delicious!



We’re happy we were able to make Pizzeria Locale our last stop on The Great Neapolitan Pizza Quest!

Thanks for following along, and hopefully you will be seeing more Neapolitan pizza very soon one way or another
 

Via Tribunali Portland

Only two stops left on The Great Neapolitan Pizza Quest!  Visit our intro to Neapolitan Pizza and check out the other pizzerias we’ve visited to get caught up!



Via Tribunali Portland

Our second to last stop was to Via Tribunali in Portland.  The first Via Tribunali opened in 2004 in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, and since turned into six different locations across the country.



Per each stop, we ordered a marinara and margherita DOC pizza:

Marinara: pomodoro, oregano, garlic, olive oil
Margherita DOC: pomodoro, mozzarella di bufala, grana padano, olive oil, basil

The cook time during our visit at Via Tribunali was about a minute and fifty seconds.



We’ll just go ahead and keep this simple … these pies were our absolute favorites of the journey! (See below notes for more details).
 
 

The Quick Stats (Erik’s notes)

Cook Time: Approximately 1 minute, 50 seconds

Dough:  Was using Caputo Blue at the time of our visit. The dough was warm risen between four and twelve hours and though I don’t believe one was used, the taste had a sense of a poolish to it. Moderate hydration and rose well.

Taste: The taste was utter perfection. Every ingredient seemed to burst with flavor. On a day towards the end of our pizza journey where the last thing we felt like eating was more Neapolitan pizza, we quickly changed our minds and found all the flavors that we had grown to love on our trip all in these two amazing pies. Truly this was a place that got every aspect completely right!

So basically, we love you, Via Tribunali!

Tony's Pizza Napoletana

Time to get the rest of The Great Neapolitan Pizza Quest online! I’ve been trying to get back into a nice routine of working as we got home from our road trip and life gotten a little bit busy. It’s quite evident that my posts have suffered!!

So without further ado, I bring to you the next stop on The Great Neapolitan Pizza Quest.

 
Tony's Pizza Napoletana
 
Our next stop in San Francisco brought us to Tony’s Pizza Napoletana. Erik has been a faithful follower of owner Tony Gemignani online, so it was certainly one of the stops we were looking forward to the most!



Tony has been in the pizza industry since 1991 winning numerous awards:

• Best Pizza Margherita at the World Pizza Cup in Naples, Italy (First American and non Neapolitan to win this award)

• Best Pizza Romana at the World Championship of Pizza Makers in 2011

• 9 Time World Pizza Champion

• 8 Time World Champion Pizza Acrobat 1995,1996,1997,2000,2001,2005,2006,2007

• 1 Time World Champion Pizza Maker 2007

• President of the World Pizza Champions Inc.

• 2 Time Food Network Gold medalist

• 2 Time Guinness Book World Record Holder

What is a pizza acrobat, you ask?? Check out this video of Tony on The Rachel Ray show for a preview. It’s pretty awesome!

Tony’s pizzeria is a full service restaurant and is unique in that it offers several styles of pizzas other than Neapolitan including Classic American, Italian, Sicilian, Pizza Romana, Gluten Free and New York, Detroit and St. Louis Style with seven different pizza ovens. They import authentic Neapolitan and Italian products each week and support several locally grown organic farmers and artisan cheese makers.



And his pizza definitely lived up to its hype. We were certainly not one bit disappointed!  Per usual, we ordered the Margherita and Marinara pizzas.

Marinara: dough made with caputo flour, san marzano tomatoes D.O.P., sea salt, oregano, garlic
Marherita: world pizza cup winner naples, italy -- dough mixed by hand using san felice flour then proofed in napoletana wood boxes, san marzano tomatoes D.O.P., sea salt, mozzarella fior di latte

 
Our pizzas cooked in approximately 80 seconds and were quickly devoured in what seemed like just about the same amount of time, ha!   

 
We got a chance to talk with Tony after our meal and just as on all his online videos, he’s always so eager to help others learn more about and cultivate their own pizza skills!

If you’re in the San Francisco area, you MUST stop at Tony’s Pizza! His wide variety menu of awesome pizza will certainly cater to making any taste bud happy!