Chapter 2 · Pizza e Calzoni

Every pizza here starts from one of the two doughs in the last chapter -- take your pick between the one that waited three days and the one that didn't, and everything below works the same way regardless of which you choose. A calzone is simply a pizza that has decided to keep its filling to itself.

• Pizza Margherita This is Matteo's dough, stretched thin and topped with almost nothing, which is exactly the point, though not everyone agrees with it at first glance. ◆ includes a story from the dining room
• Pizza Marinara Customers ask for this one more cautiously than any other pizza on the menu, usually because they've heard the name and assumed, reasonably enough, that it involves the…
• Pizza Quattro Formaggi There is a version of this pizza with tomato sauce underneath, and there is our version, which has none, and my mother will tell you -- has told me, more than once, at…
• Pizza Diavola Ask for this expecting American pepperoni, and you will be handed something related but not the same thing -- ours is cut thicker, cured differently, and carries real… ◆ includes a story from the dining room
• Calzone Classico This is the one I ate more of than any other dish in this book, growing up -- folded shut, easy to eat standing at the pass with one hand, which mattered more to a kid… ◆ includes a story from the dining room
• Calzone di Verdure Not every calzone in this restaurant needs meat inside it to earn its place on the menu, and this is the proof -- wilted greens, roasted tomatoes, and enough cheese to…