Pizza Napoletana

Sorry the picture is a little blurry but I was so excited to eat the pizza that I forgot to take a picture before I started eating and did it in a rush! Now onto the details!

Naples is the birthplace of pizza. I'm not exactly sure when it was birthed but "Google" pizza and I'm sure a Wikipedia article will show up explaining it all. In my opinion pizza is one of the greatest culinary dishes of all time because it's base is dough and and you can literally add anything you want on top and call it pizza. Nowhere in the world does this better than Europe. I remember my third night in Sweden where I went to dinner with my friends and we were going to split a pizza until a swede informed us that it may be better to share two since these pizzas were thin. If we wanted thick crust they had it but it was called Americansk pizza. Yes thats right, pizza wasn't intended to have thick crust, that was one of America's takes on this dish. Anyways, they have so many different types of pizza that it's impossible to choose because of the random combinations but there is nothing compared to the classic Margherita pizza. A Margherita pizza is just mozzarella, basil and tomato sauce; it's simple but sensational! Naturally since Naples is the birthplace of pizza when I visited Naples in December 2008 I HAD to try pizza Napoletana. Ironically, when I visited Naples with my friends Leah and Alex we stayed with some Americans in the Navy so we got an Americanized Naples experience. This also made it difficult to try some pizza because we were busy enjoying all the American amenities we missed the past 4 months. Finally, on our last night we got that taste of Neopolitan pizza. We hopped in the car, sped down the highway because people drive like maniacs in Naples and took a turn toward the country. As we traveled down this country rode I started thinking about how many people the mafia has buried here because I recognized this area as being out in the boonies. We continued along and passed a castle the French had built when they occupied that part of Italy and drove until we saw this sign for a farm. This farm also had a restaurant and all the food served there came straight from the farm. Every single dish was delicious and in true family-style fashion, the portions were made to share. Yet the pizza was devoured by Leah and I mostly because we were so excited for it and it was worth every carb. I am happy to say I have found another pizza closer to me that is also worthy of being true Neopolitan Pizza.

Tony's Pizza Napoletana is in North Beach in San Francisco, Ca. This restaurant opened in 2009 and had high expectations since Tony's pizza has won awards in the Pizza World Cup, in Naples Italy for several years. The restaurant opened to rave reviews and last Friday I went home to try it. By the way, even if you don't live in San Francisco this pizza is so amazing that it is worth the drive. The prices range from $17-$51 dollars for a pizza but that is expected for delicious pizza. The ambiance didn't bring me back to Naples but the people at the restaurant were friendlier than the people of Naples so it makes up for it. Besides nowhere in the world is like Naples so I doubt anywhere could recreate that ambiance. The pizza is perfectly thin and the crust is not too thin. Through the flavors of the pizza it is easy to tell that all ingredients used are fresh. In addition to trying the margherita pizza, I tasted the truffle pizza (the most expensive pizza on the menu) that featured truffles imported from Italy and Cowgirl Creamery cheese. It was delicious as well, but it was a rich pizza. Overall I say that on your first trip order the margherita pizza because it's amazing and it's important to try the pizza's from the wood-burning oven. Also be sure to get there early because it get's packed reallll fast.