Pizza

Pizza

By now I'm sure everyone knows I'm from New York. I would imagine that most people know that New York has a very large Italian population. Niagara Falls; where I'm from is no exception. Italian food was a staple of my upbringing. We ate spaghetti all the time and even to this day I can really put away a plateful. Pizza on the other hand was a treat that we would probably have about once a month. When I was a kid we would stop at the local grocery store and buy a slice of cold pizza wrapped in Saran wrap and a bottle of pop instead of candy bars. I was told many years later that olive oil was used to keep the pizza moist.
But the pizza of old was not the pizza today. In fact I'm willing to bet that most people who might read this have no idea what I'm talking about. To begin with pizza in New York has a completely different flavor than a does in Kansas. From start to finish the ingredients are different. The crust is based on Italian bread dough, which is soft and moist on the inside and crispy on the outside. It has a totally different flavor than the Italian bread sold at Dillons. I never made the pizza but I've been told they sweeten the deal with sugar and use olive oil to make it moist. Because the dough is sweetened when it's rolled in flour the flour on the crust is also sweetened; which adds a unique flavor. The tomato sauce is the heart of the pizza and the ingredients are different and better tasting than the best I have had in Kansas. The tomatoes grown in New York are a rich red color and the flavor is different because of the minerals extracted from the soil. By comparison homegrown tomatoes in this region seem mostly to come from Texas and they are pale orange/red in color and lack distinct flavor. I have to laugh when I hear Papa John's commercial about better ingredients that are pizza. If he is ever been to in the New York, he has never tasted better ingredients. For people who love fresh garden tomatoes I hope you get the opportunity to try some grown in New England. Tomatoes make the sauce but Italian spices are what set of New York pizza apart from any other. I can't remember the last time I tasted pizza that had oregano and the sauce. Add mozzarella cheese was absolutely never put on a pizza when I was growing up. Mozzarella was the ingredient used by frozen pizzas that have the flavor of a Frisbee. In case you're wondering its Parmesan cheese that belongs on a pizza. I remember the first time I had a pizza with mozzarella I thought somebody must've ran out or tried to make a lasagna with pizza dough. It just plain tasted weird.
I was 19 years old and joined the Air Force before I ever ate a pizza from Pizza Hut or any other fast food pizza joint. It wasn't good. Each time I get the opportunity to go to New York I call in advance to have an old-fashioned pizza made from the best pizza place in Niagara Falls, the Pizza Oven