Termyn8or
Posts: 18681
Joined: 11/12/2005
Status: offline
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Using FR, jus couldn't stay away.
I know an ex OTR truck driver who told me there are more pizza places per capita in Cleveland than almost anywhere. And as expected many of them simply suck. One of the best in town for a meat pizza is called Nunzio's. They are, of course on the west side, there are no good pizza places on the east side as far as I can find, and I have worked on the east side for well over a decade.
But there was one exception in the past, however this place did not make pizza the way many people think of it. I would tend to say it's more like classic Italian but I am not 100% sure. I heard that pizza started out as simply sauce on the dough, that is until somebiody decided to throw more stuff on it. The DiCarlo's classic was just sauce with a light sprinkling of romano cheese. The sauce was hot and spicy, too much for some actually. We always got it with pepperoni, and they piled it on. This was AFTER it came out of the oven though. We were on the far west side and DiCarlo's was on the far east side, so we usually ordered alot, sometimes as many as ten sheets. On the long ride home with it, the pepperoni would rend just enough grease to make it really good. Note that the pepperoni was piled on about three times the thickness of the crust, and it was sliced thin, just about shaved.
There were no microwave ovens back then, but Grandma's patience with the oven made it come out quite good. In fact on the day of her funeral, we polished off all the existing stock in the deep freeze - for the very last time. The place went out of business. One of the managers did start a new place using the old name on the west side, but was making more the US style pizza, with melted cheese and all. They did retain the hot and spicy sauce though and we liked it. One day we wanted one made the old way. Talk about expensive !
Another thing is what kind of pizza do you want ? For meat it's Nunzio's now. The flavor is excellent, and that is partly the sauce, I find most pizzas out there these day have a very bland sauce that wrecks them. For a deluxe though, Nunxio's does not have the best veggies. For that you go to Carmino's or Angie's. Pizza Joe's makes a good pie as well. Of course so do I. I doctor up the sauce, cooking pepperoni in it with spices. I have used different blends of cheeses and the about best I found is a combination of mozzarella, provolone, aciago and romano. I use all fresh veggies with the occasional exception of canned mushrooms, although I prefer fresh. When fresh I sautee them in butter. When I assemble the pizza the pepperoni goes on top, everything else is embedded in the cheese. The sausage is also patially cooked first to get rid of some of the grease. The grease should come from the pepperoni.
I wrecked pizza for myself. Back when I was a kid one of the things we did when we saw the olman was to make pizza. Then there was about a five year period of my life when I ate so much pizza, well I got pizzaed out. Like three times a week.
I did develop a knack for finding a good place though. People would hand me the phone book when it was time. I came in handy on road trips. I am very very picky when it comes to pizza, and I don't order from the big chains. I have never found good pizza on a TV commercial. Most of the best places are like Mon and Pop's, with at most three locations. To pick one I look at the size of their ad, if they have a full page I just skip them. Those small ads are where you find the good pizza, at least around here.
One thing in Cleveland though, if you get a Nunzio's, you have to eat it right away. It is so flavorful and juicy when you first get it, it's great. Once it gets cold it loses something. Luckily I am a pretty good tipper and my order gets here fast. There is no reheating this pizza, sure you can do it but it is not going to be the same. I've tried every trick I know and I can't restore this pizza to it's former greatness. Others I can. I'll even run cold water over it and throw it into an oven preheated to 500 degrees F, but it just doesn't work on a Nunzio's.
I rarely have pizza anymore, partly because I have been disappointed so many times. Of course the fact that I probably ate a ton of it in the past might not help either.
So usually I try to make them, but finding good sausage is getting to be a chore. Sometimes I think every butcher and cook in this town is adopting a McDonald's attitude. Put some damn spices in there. Let the people who don't like it buy ground pork. Everything seems to get more and more bland as the years go by. Those big chains, some of them I would throw the pizza away and eat the box. And another thing about pizza, I think if it needs salt it needs to be thrown out, or given to the dog or something. Pizza should not need salt.
T
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RE: The CM Pizza Discussion - 
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