What Goes Into Our Pizza: The Italian Ingredients Behind Every Pie
Ask an Italian what makes a great pizza and you will not hear about secret sauces. You will hear about the tomato. The cheese. The flour. Italian cooking has always been simple on purpose. When there are only four or five things on the plate, each one has to be good.
That is how we built the menu at The Goodfellas. Here is what goes into it.
The tomato: San Marzano
Our Margherita, the Corleone, starts with San Marzano tomatoes. They grow in the volcanic soil near Mount Vesuvius, outside Naples. They are sweeter and less acidic than most tomatoes, with fewer seeds, so the sauce tastes like tomato and nothing else. We use the same San Marzano sauce for our Italian beef meatballs.
The cheese: more than one kind of mozzarella
Not all mozzarella is the same. Fior di latte is made from cow’s milk. It is soft and clean, and it melts beautifully on a Neapolitan pizza. Mozzarella di bufala is made from water buffalo milk. It is richer and a little tangy, and it is what we put on our Insalata Caprese and the Scarface Deluxe.
Then there is burrata: a shell of fresh mozzarella with a soft, creamy center. Cut it open at the table and you will understand why people order it twice.
For the rest of the menu we go north: Gorgonzola, fontina, smoked provola, stracchino and Parmigiano Reggiano DOP. That last one is aged for many months in a small area of northern Italy, and the DOP stamp means it could not have been made anywhere else.
The meats: guanciale, mortadella and prosciutto
Our signature pizza, The Goodfellas, is built around guanciale. It is cured pork cheek, the same cut used in a real Roman carbonara. We crisp it, then add egg cream, pecorino and black pepper. If you like carbonara, order this one.
The Sopranos pizza uses mortadella IGP from Bologna, with burrata and crushed pistachio from Bronte, a small town on the slopes of Mount Etna in Sicily. Bronte pistachios are bright green and taste almost sweet. Sicilians call them green gold.
On the salumi board you will find prosciutto crudo, prosciutto cotto, salame, spianata and speck, served with rosemary focaccia.
Two crusts, your choice
Every classic pizza comes two ways. The Neapolitan crust is thin in the middle with a soft, airy edge. The deep dish is thicker and more filling. Same toppings, two very different pizzas. Our advice for a table of two or more: order one of each and trade slices.
And for after dinner
Cannoli filled with ricotta, chocolate chips and pistachio. Tiramisù made with mascarpone and espresso. Bonet, a chocolate and amaretti pudding from Piedmont that most people in Florida have never tried. And a real Italian espresso to finish, because that is how dinner ends in Italy.
Come taste the difference at 1917 Hollywood Blvd. Welcome to the family.