New York City’s Best Pizza – News & Updates on the Pizzerias of Manhattan (NYC, NY) | Scott's Pizza Tours
Trip Advisor Ranks Scott’s Pizza Tours Among Top 10 Tours in the US!
TripAdvisor, the world’s most popular and largest travel community, has announced America’s top 10 tours and SPT made the list! We have been ranked among the top 10 attractions in New York for the past six months, currently at the #2 position. This new list is super exciting because we are sharing the honor with our friends at Real New York Tours and City Food Tours!
Italy Trip Part V: Naples
I am privileged to have been raised in the Land of Great Pizza. My home state of New Jersey lies right in the middle of a constellation of industrial cities that dot the northeastern USA, which attracted so many Italian immigrants in the early 20th century. Those immigrant communities provided our nation’s earliest pizzerias, many of which are still in business today. But these immigrants did not simply come from Italy, they came from Southern Italy. Vastly different from the Northern region of the country, Southern Italy holds within its boundaries the roots of our beloved pizza.
When attempting a pilgrimage to Italy’s sacred pizza hotspots, all roads lead to Naples. The bulk of my trip was spent observing and absorbing the culinary traditions of various Neapolitan pizzerias, all of which boasted nearly identical wood burning ovens and ingredients (Caputo “00” flour, salt, water, yeast, mozzarella di bufala, San Marzano tomatoes, fresh basil and extra virgin olive oil) that caused their pizza to remain pretty similar. When in Naples, don’t expect a New York slice with its crispy exterior and foldable crust. The Neapolitan pies are served whole and unsliced. While people used to enjoy an entire pie by picking it up and folding it into a tight cone-shaped street food, the current accepted method is to attack the 33 cm pie with fork and knife. Attempting to pick up a slice often leads to a sauce-cheese avalanche.
The crust (corniccione) of a Neapolitan pizza is a tender and puffy lip, filled with air and soft as a pillow at the end of a bed. It gives way to a pool of crushed tomato and moist mozzarella di bufala. The image is stunning.
Since these pizzas are baked on 800 degree bricks just inches away from a well-tended wood fire… Read More
Scott’s Pizza Tours 1 Year Anniversary Charity Event (Featuring $1 Slices!)
Celebrate the 1st birthday of Scott’s Pizza Tours with $1 slices! We’ll be serving slices from the city’s top pizzerias (Lombardi’s, John’s of Bleecker Street, Joe’s, NY Pizza Suprema, etc) for donations of $1 each with all the money going to city harvest! There will also be raffles for some of the best prizes ever (pizza books, pizza movies, pizza tours, pizza shirts, etc). It’s going to be a pizza-filled evening for a good cause.
Slice Out Hunger!
Thursday, May 21, 7 – 9 PM
GAP Adventures
364 Avenue of the Americas (between W 4th & Waverly Place)
$1 slice and prizes galore
FREE to get in
Italy Trip Part IV: Mozzarella di Bufala
Before setting out on this epic journey of epicurean delight, I listed my goals in order of importance. Of course I wanted to eat pizza in Napoli’s oldest establishments, explore the preserved bread ovens of Pompeii, investigate small-production San Marzano tomatoes and taste the best olive oil in the world. But above all these thing remained one activity that would make the others pale in comparison.
I wanted to milk a water buffalo.
Unlike the cows milk mozzarella we have come to know and enjoy here in the US, Campania’s use of the word “mozzarella” refers only to that which is made from the milk of a water buffalo (pictured below). This isn’t the same animal we call buffalo in the US, but an animal first introduced to Italy by knights of the crusade over 1000 years ago. In Campania, the phrase “fior di latte,” or flower of milk, is used when referring to cows milk mozzarella.
My quest began in Pizzeria Notizia with the extremely passionate pizzaiolo Enzo Coccia… Read More
Italy Trip Part III: Olive Oil
Of all the ingredients that make up a pizza, the least visible are the most often overlooked. Much heralded are the flour, tomato and mozzarella, which offer variation most obvious to the naked eye. But a pizza would not be celebrated if the sum of these parts equaled less than the parts themselves. Thankfully, we have a brilliant moderator in this festival of flavor: olive oil.
Sadly, my trip did not fall within olive season (Summer – Fall). But I did have a chance to tour a boutique olive oil producer hidden beside the tiny village of S. Agata sui due Golfi, between to Sorrento and Massalubrense on the Western tip of the Amalfi Coast. Le Tore abides by strict organic farming procedures and is certified by the AIAB (Italian Association for Biological Agriculture). The farm’s owner, Vittoria Brancaccio, is extremely proud of her facilities, which include a grove of 500 year old olive trees (see photo below) and a 17th century farmhouse.
After harvesting their olives, Le tore uses a co-op to press the oil from the fruit…. Read More
Italy Trip Part II: Fruits of Campania
Southern Italy is pizza territory. This is the place where pizzaioli are born into pizza-making families, raised with the highest level of appreciation of what has become their most valuable export. The ingredients that are essential to true neapolitan pizza are produced in the region around Naples called Campania. The area’s natural resources that lead to the birth of pizza are now protected by the European Union. I had the pleasure of meeting with several gastronomes (food lovers) who helped me to understand the incredible effort that goes into making a neapolitan pizza.
The first, and only meeting I had scheduled before boarding the plane to Italy, was with Enzo Coccia. Never before have I met a man so passionate (in a very serious way) about pizza and the traditions associated with the dish. Enzo owns Pizzeria La Notizia, which is located in an area outside of Napoli’s already pizza-packed central district. Besides operating the pizzeria, Enzo also runs Pizza Consulting, which provides a series of private courses in neapolitan pizza production. The course is extremely intense and detailed, so it is more popular with pizzaioli looking to improve their skills than home cooks looking for a cooking lesson. But I wasn’t there to learn how to make pizza. I was there to learn more about its ingredients!
(Enzo and me in the center, flanked by two Pizzeria La Notizia employees)
Before I could even ask a question about tomatoes,... Read More
Italy Trip Part I: Pizza in Rome
January is a pretty low-key month in the world of pizza tours, so I decided to spend 11 days researching my favorite dish in the place where it all began: Southern Italy. My travels brought me to a San Marzano tomato farm, a boutique extra virgin olive oil producer, two mozzarella di bufala dairies and about a dozen pizzerias. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting my findings.
First Stop: ROME
Flying into Rome is anticlimactic. There are no pizzaioli stretching dough right there at the terminal, anticipating every arriving flight with fresh pies. I wasn’t actually expecting freshly pressed olive oil fountains at baggage claim. I only half hoped for plates of fresh mozzarella at the customs checkpoint. Instead, the first pizza one sees after landing in Rome is the same exact airport pizza they sell at every major US transportation hub: sloppy, greasy, spongy wedges of filth. At first I thought I had boarded the wrong plane, but I doubted I crafty enough to fool all of the security checks along the way. Just as excitement started to turn into dread, I snapped back to reality and remembered that airports are not true representations of a city’s culinary skill. After leaving the airport, my mind settled a bit and I began a two-day quest for pizza.
Every pizza experience I had in Rome seemed to fall into one of two categories.
Pizza al Metro – Rome’s version of pizza by the slice. Loooooooong pies are baked in gas or electric ovens and patrons indicate the length they wish to purchase, which is then weighed and priced. New York has a couple of this type of pizzeria: PIE and PINCH (Pizza by the Inch). Patrons either eat their slice flat or fold it in half. They folded mine in half for me!
Thin Crust – There is no one definition for “thin crust.” People often refer to only a pizza’s circumferential bread as its crust, but the entirety of the bread portion actually qualifies. Thin crust pizza in Rome is mostly baked in a wood-fired brick oven and resembles some of the thinnest cracker-crust pizza I have had in the US. The circumferential crust, or cornicione, is just as flat as the rest of the pizza. It is crispy all the way through, without any tender regions, much like a matzoh cracker. The pizza below is pretty indicative of the pizza I ate in Rome, with processed mozzarella applied over a thin layer of sauce.
Overall, the pizza in Rome wasn’t mind-blowing. It was fun to see so many wood-fired ovens around but they were all making the same cracker pizza I usually avoid. If you think New York has a lot of pizzerias, wait until you see Rome. It is virtually impossible to stand on any street without seeing at least three pizzerias. I was tempted to stop at every one of them for at least a quick look but there was much work ahead. I was about to leave Rome for the true birthplace of pizza and all its European Union-protected ingredients: Campania!
Scott on the Coop and Tobin Morning Show
WPDH in Poughkeepsie has been giving away pizza tour tickets all week so they invited me on air to talk about pizza. I even brought some pies from Lombardi’s, Patsy’s (Harlem), John’s of Bleecker, and Ray’s (Prince St). They had so many callers that the segment lasted over 30 minutes! Dang, we could have had a Domino’s pizza delivered in that time. Click play to hear us chat about reheating slices, dipping crusts, traffic and weather.
Click play to listen:
Win Scott’s Pizza Tour Tickets!
If you live in the Hudson Valley region of New York state, listen to WPDH 101.5 FM this week for your chance to win a pair of tickets to the NYC Pizza Bus. Coop and Tobin will be running contests every day this week on their morning show all week from 5:30 – 10 AM! Turn your dial to 101.5 FM or listen online.
Manhattan Diner’s Deck
We are proud to announce inclusion in the 2009 Diner’s Deck by City Shuffle. This handy “deck of cards” is packed with $10 gift certificates for 52 of New York’s best restaurants. We’re not exactly a restaurant, but the kind folks at City Shuffle thought we’d be a fun addition to the deck. Beautifully priced at $29.95, it’s an incredible deal, especially when you think about the $520 worth of gift certificates in the deck, including a $10 coupon good for Scott’s Pizza Tours. It’s the best deal on the planet and your taste buds will thank you for it.
