Oven Progression. Clockwise from top left: Just shipped from Napoli (Paulie Gee), The first curing fire (Paulie Gee), First pie ready to go! (Jennifer Galatioto of Morta di Fame)

Yesterday’s Slice announcement contains the first widely distributed full picture of the fire breathing, high temperature, beautiful Stefano Ferrara built wood fired oven which will be on full display to diners at Paulie Gee’s. As you can see, the oven is a direct “descendant” of the home made brick pizza oven Paulie built in his backyard.  The two lemon bunches, sun and Napoli live on for what I’m sure will be many, many days to come.

An early sneek peek at the menu shows that 12″ pizzas will run from roughly $10 to $16 in price and will feature about nine regular offerings, of which approximately five are vegetarian friendly and the other four feature salumi such as sopressata picante, proscuitto di parma and guanciale.  Vegan options may be available and Paulie will also rotate seasonal pizzas into the mix. Aside from the pizzas, a couple of salads will be offered as well as a couple of deserts (a bosc pear and Nutella pizza is included as a desert).

Stefano Ferrara tiling Paulie's oven at his shop in Naples, Italy (Paulie Gee)

Anthony Mangieri at now closed Una Pizza Napoletana in Manhattan's East Village, arguably the best pizza I have ever eaten. Photo by Hannah Whitaker of New York Magazine.

Apparently, UPN will open a block or so away from 11th Street (map of approximate location), although the UPN website has not been updated to reflect these changes.

Before moving to San Francisco, Mangieri has been recently spotted on a few occasions at New Jersey’s Nomad Pizza and one has to wonder if Mangieri opted to go with a Stefano Ferrara wood burning pizza oven, which is used at Nomad and also at soon to be opened (March 6th) Paulie Gee’s, or if he purchased another Acunto oven like the one he installed at his New York location (pictured above). Either way, San Francisco is set to have the pizza ante upped in a big way.

Good luck the rest of the way.

From Prospector Website. Click on the picture to transport to site.

Feeling a little snowbound? Cat gotcha tongue pizza peeps?

This is a slower time of the year for The Prospector and, if Martino has time, he will talk to you and answer questions you may have, so turn up the sound while viewing the webcam and typing in your chat.

Martino is friendly and is also quite knowledgeable about wine. The Prospector hosts a monthly wine and food dinner, apparently with the featured winemakers themselves attending the event at times.  The ongoing menu changes a little each night and wine and food pairings play a vital role at The Prospector.

As Martino says, “Once at the webcam, to login just click on the login button, choose any username, put in a valid email address and voila! you”re in.  Turn on the sound if you want to talk …..you type and I’ll talk unless I am not busy then I will type”.

It’s always fun to see someone making pizzas, particularly in a wood or coal fired oven. Check it out Tuesday through Sunday from 5 to 8pm PST by clicking here. [via pizzamaking.com]

Burnt Pistachios and Crust Getting Closer....

Unfortunately, I nuked the hell out of the pistachios, which obviously don’t like hanging out inches from an open flame, sliced the red onion too thin and the crumb was a little too open and not quite as “fluffy” as I would prefer. But the crust was also pretty good as well, being light and airy and having a very pleasant flavor somewhat similar to hearth baked bread. The sourdough notes were noticeable, yet did not overpower the other flavors. Almost a beautiful pizza, but I’m taking steps in the right direction. If I am eventually able to get repeatable, proven results, I’ll post them here. We’ll call this round a draw.

Pizza Notes:
“Rosa”
Toppings: Parmigiano-Reggiano, Red Onion, Crushed Pistachios, EVOO, Sicilian Sea Salt, Fresh Rosemary
Cook Time: 1:54
100.00% Caputo 00 Pizzeria flour
   60.00% Water (going to up this next time)
      2.60% Sicilian Sea Salt
      5.00% Ischia sourdough starter (as percentage of formula water)

17hrs fermentation @ 68°F
 5hrs proofing @ 68°F

…where the truly wonderful parts of human civilization comes from is these lunatics at the fringe –Jim Koch, Founder of Boston Beer Company from the movie Beer Wars

• Ellicott City’s Coal Fire Pizza lost in the first round to San Antonio based Dough Pizzeria Napoletana

• DC’s 2Amys won its first round game by beating Dallas based Campania Pizza & More only to lose in the round of 32 to Dough Pizza Napoletana.

• Bethesda’s Mia’s Pizzas made the deepest run of the area pizzerias by making it to the Sweet 16 after dunking on Houston’s Dolce Vita and then Miami’s Casale before losing to famous home pizza maker turned pizza shop owner Jeff Varasano’s Atlanta based Verasano’s in the round of 16.

The final four have been revealed and what a doozy it’s gonna be! The all wood-fired oven line-up of the Final Four are sure to heat up the road to the championship:

• NYC based Motorino will represent the East Coast and face off against Nick Lessin’s Chicago based Great Lake out of the Midwest bracket.

• The West Coast will be represented by Pizzeria Mozza, who will face-off against iconic Phoenix based Pizzeria Bianco out of the South-Southwest bracket.

It’s gonna be a clash of the titans type shoot-out for the championship. Lot’s of PTPers on the floor, babyeee! Who is the winner? Find out in the March edition of Rachael Ray’s Everyday Living, which is set to hit newstands on February 14th. Check out the full brackets here.