If you’re lucky enough to have tasted one of the more than 700,000 pizzas Chef Anthony Mangieri has made in his lifetime, you’ll see why the New York Times called the pizzas he produces at Una Pizza Napoletana the best pizza from a sit-down restaurant in all of New York City. Just think about that for a moment. The best. Pizza. In New York City. You could say that’s like finding the best baguette in Paris or the finest Texas ribs, but frankly, it’s even higher praise than that.
How does Mangieri manage to make such amazing pizza? He started young. Born and raised in New Jersey, the Italian-American chef was already making pizza when he was a kid, inspired by his regular family trips to Italy. In the early 90s, he opened a bread bakery in his home state.
“Wood-fired, all hand-mixed dough,” Mangieri said. “Then I opened up my first Una Pizza not long after that.”
The rest is the stuff of history. And television shows, as it happens, but we’ll get to that later. For now, although you may not be able to go back in time and start making pizza in your childhood, what you can do is benefit from the lifelong experience and skills Mangieri has honed, because, unlike many chefs, he’s not jealous when it comes to his methods.
How to make a great pizza from scratch, according to the master
Pro tip #1: You need heat. A lot of heat. If you’re passionate about pizza, invest in a pizza oven or get yourself a great range that can create the super-high heat needed for great pizza. Now, let’s walk on through.
Create the starter
“We make our starter with just flour and water,” Mangieri said. Combine equal parts flour and water, mix them vigorously, and then let the starter sit, partially covered, for 24 hours. “It’s naturally leavened, there’s no yeast, and it sits at room temp.”
Make the dough
Once your starter has sat for a day, it’s time to make the dough. “I take the starter, and I add it into flour, water, and sea salt. Then that’s mixed, and once it’s all mixed, I ball [the dough] and then that sits for about another eight hours,” Mangieri explained. Again, this will be done all without refrigeration or yeast.
Stretch the dough
Once your dough is ready, put it on the bench and gently flatten it with your fingertips. No need to flip it in the air. “That usually means the dough was refrigerated, and I’m not a fan of that,” Mangieri said. Instead, gently open up the dough and try not to push too much of the air out of it so that the pizza.”It can do its own thing, to have its own life, and to come out kind of crazy looking, with a crazy shape and air pockets and all.”
Use sauce
“For my favorite, our marinara pizza, I use San Marzano tomatoes, ” Mangieri explained. “They just have a more complex flavor.” He tops the pizza with crushed tomatoes and then advises using simple toppings, like oregano, fresh garlic, fresh basil, and extra virgin olive oil.
Cheese time
For the record, the marinara pizza mentioned above does not use cheese. But you probably want cheese on yours. So add it now, and use a good, fresh mozzarella if you can, and don’t overdo it. When in doubt, use less cheese than you think you need rather than risk going over the top.
Bake it hot and fast
Ideally, you want to generate between 700 and 800 degrees Fahrenheit to bake the perfect pizza, and if you can get it that hot, you’ll only need to bake for about three or four minutes. Otherwise, get the oven cranking as hot as you can and bake for 10 to 12 minutes.
Learning to make great pizza takes time (fortunately, you’ll make good pizza in the meantime)
Anthony Mangieri makes pizza so good that he and his restaurant landed recurring roles on the Showtime show Billions. So look, your first few pizzas might not be quite on his level. “Just keep trying, keep working on your dough, try different ingredients,” he said, and soon you’ll find the take on the process that leads to a pizza you love.
As for Mangieri, pizza is a great love of his, of course, but it’s not the only one. He also spends as much time as he can on a mountain bike, having grown up racing BMX bikes in his childhood. Mountain biking is the reason he moved to California for nearly a decade and largely what made it so hard for him to leave the state. “I love it out there so much,” he says. But pizza and New York just go together.
What is Neapolitan pizza?
The pizzas that Mangieri crafts are a distinct type of pizza known as Neapolitan-style pizza, or pizza Napoletana, which has its roots in Naples, Italy. This style of pizza is small, generally in the range of 10 to 12 inches, unlike some of the giant ones seen in places like New York City. It’s usually made with fresh ingredients and will often have more sauce than cheese. This is the reason for another quirk of Neapolitan-style pizza, because there is more sauce than on other types of pizza, the middle can get soggy, so it’s hard to serve it by the slice, which is why if you go out for Neapolitan-style pizza, it will most likely arrive at your table uncut.
