Forcella- Lower East Side, New York City

"La Pizza Napoletana non ha inventori non ha padri ne padroni, ma è il frutto del genio del popolo napoletano"

This quote is from Antonia Pace the president of the AVPN.
This became instantly my favorite quote because it relates to all of pizza. In english the translation is.

"The Neapolitan Pizza has no inventors, no fathers, neither any owner, but it is the result of the geniality of Napoli's People"
Genuine this place is.

The head pizza man Giulio Adriani is the creator of fried pizza in NYC. He won 4 world champions and is the head instructor of the VPN. Giulio's pizza is very unique and has two kinds. One is the regular pizza that goes straight into the oven and the other is the pizza fritte, where he dips the dough in sunflower oil and then he lightly bakes it.

He has three locations in NYC. One in Williamsburg and two in the Lower East Side. The third one is a new installation called La Montanara which only specializes in fried pizza.

I ordered three things: Pizzele Di Nonna, Margherita Extra and La Montanara.

The Pizzele Di Nonna was pretty amazing. After being disappointed they didn't have the Mozzarella En Corozza anymore I ordered this.It's deep fried pizza with sauce and parmesan cheese on it. Think of a Zeppole sprinkled with sauce instead of sugar. It packs a flavor in your mouth and what's come to see when you look at fried pizza







This is the Margherita Extra. It has both Buffalo and Fresh Mozzarella. You can really taste the distinction between the two cheeses and it melted in my mouth. The San Marzano sauce gives it that extra zing and what I come to love in Neapolitan Pies. This instantly became my favorite pie on the menu.

I kinda dug in too early and forgot to snap the La Montanara. The dough was deep fried then baked. It has fresh mozzarella and San Marzano sauce.

Overall the food was outstanding. Had a little trouble in understanding the waiter when I wanted the tap water not the bottled. I had the opportunity to talk to Giulio and praised him on his work with the three places. This will be a fixture in one of my favorite spots and will be number 4 on my all-time favorites list!

Rossopomodoro (Eataly)- Flat Iron District, New York City

(This was an older post from my tumblr)

After my little mishap with Monster Pizza I was in much need of some good pizza. After finding out that Donnatella’s was closed, I ventured deeper into 23rd street to Eataly. Eataly’s masterminds are no other than Mario Batali, Joe Bastianich, Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Oscar Farinetti.

After a 15 minute wait (originally told 30-45 minutes but received bar seats) I was well underway to get my beautiful Neapolitan pie that I have been craving all morning. Now let me tell you this…they have a wood-burning brick oven that is designed to have heat travel a great distance inside the oven to perfectly char the pies and have that rich doughy charred flavor.

I have always loved Neapolitan pies because most use San Marzano tomatoes in their sauce to get the it nice and sweet and have that light texture. They also use Buffalo Mozzarella to have that nice creamy cheese melt in your mouth.

Neapolitan pies are all about the sweet. With having sauce made from San Marzano tomatoes, fresh basil and either using Fresh Mozzarella or Buffalo it achieves that flavor. Rossopomodoro has no contest in making the finest pies because everything is imported from Italy. That’s what makes it so great.

Overall this is the perfect spot for a starter in Neapolitan pies. At $15 a pie you cannot go wrong. I highly suggest you go with a small group because like all restaurants it can result in a longer wait for your party.