Spacca Napoli

For my last meal in Chicago before I headed back to Dominica, my parents and I went to Spacca Napoli in the Ravenswood neighborhood. Minus the big city pace, it does have a very authentic Italian feel with al fresco dining, Italian art and music, and a custom built stone (I think?) oven. They even serve wine in regular glasses, not wine glasses, just like in most casual places in Italy.


We started off with the prosciutto e bufala mozzarella antipasto. This was quite a generous portion, as they gave us an ENTIRE ball of bufala. The cheese was ridiculously amazing. I've been a huge bufala fan ever since my first trip to Italy, but for some reason, not many Italian places in the US use it, which is too bad. Spacca Napoli is quite liberal in their bufala servings, and that made me happy.


One of the pizzas we shared was the Salsiccia with Tomatoes, Fior Di Latte Mozzarella, Basil, Italian Sausage, Olive Oil. The pizzas are meant to be individual portions (like in Italy), but 2 pizzas and that big antipasto was good enough for my parents and I. This pizza was just like in Italy. It was very thing with a nicely charred 1" crust. The crust might be millimeters thicker than most pizzas I've had in Italy, but maybe that's being too picky. Either way, it was awesome. The pizzas here are VERY basic, so there aren't too many choices if you want meat on your pizza. This one was a great choice though.


The other pizza we got was the Bianca con Bufala, which was a Pizza Bianca with Mozzarella Di Bufala, Basil, Olive Oil. Even though this one was much more simple, I may have liked this one more only because the bufala and olive oil were brought out so well. They top the perfect amount of cheese, so the flavor of the bufala stood out. It really is one of my all-time favorite cheeses, so you can see why I'm a fan of Spacca Napoli.

When outsiders think of pizza in Chicago, they think deep dish, but honestly, most Chicagoans don't eat that kind of pizza, at least not on a regular basis. Spacca Napoli is one of the few great options for true, authentic Neopolitan pizza in Chicago (possibly even in the US), so I highly recommend it. Get there early or be prepared to wait. The restaurant is moderately-sized, and it was mostly full when we got there at 6:15 or 6:30pm, and that's early for a Friday night. By 7:15, a lot of people were waiting. Overall, fantastic Neopolitan pizza...just like in Naples!

Spacca Napoli Pizzeria
1769 W. Sunnyside
Chicago, IL

Pizza from scratch

I made Pizza Margherita from scratch the other day! It wasn't difficult, but making the dough and letting it rise does take some time. I used this Batali pizza dough recipe, except I accidentally put one cup of water. I realized this before I put the wine, so I opted out of not using wine since I didn't want to make anymore dough than what the recipe called for. I was also too lazy to adjust the measurements of everything else. This dough recipe is enough for two 10" pizzas, so I actually still have another batch of dough left. Next time I need to make more, I'll definitely have to use wine to see how it enhances the taste.

I was a little lazy to make homemade marinara sauce, but since I don't like my pizza really saucy, I just spread a couple of tablespoons of canned tomato sauce on the dough. The next layer was fresh mozzarella that I sliced, then topped with fresh basil which I'm now growing myself. I baked it for about 13 minutes at 400 Fahrenheit. Overall, the pizza turned out decent. I could've kneaded the dough more to make it thinner, and I definitely could have used more fresh mozzarella and basil. My dad really liked the dough/crust though, so at least I have that down now. I'll just have to see how much of a positive difference wine makes.

Yesterday, I used the other half of the dough. I didn't have enough fresh mozzarella left to make a full pizza, but since there's always a steady supply of different cheeses in my house, I picked aged gouda. My crust turned out better this time because I flattened it out a bit more on the pizza pan. Overall, this pizza turned out better. The only thing is that I sprinkled a little bit of salt before baking it which ended up being totally unnecessary since the aged gouda was pretty salty.

I'm glad I now have pizza completely from scratch under my belt. Not that it's difficult, but at least it's a little better and more fun than getting delivery.

Artichoke

I finally paid a visit to the hyped-up new pizza joint, Artichoke on 14th St near 2nd Ave. I went around 3pm last week, and it seems like the place had just opened up because there weren't any pizzas ready yet. After about 10 minutes of waiting, I ordered a slice of the first pizza that came out, and I honestly didn't even know what it was going to be. I was so hungry that I didn't want to wait for anything else. But hey, who doesn't like surprises? Unfortunately, I'm not positive if this one truly delivered. Clearly, I didn't do my research because even while eating it, I didn't know what the slice was called. I'm not sure if it was the signature Artichoke pizza, artichoke&spinach, or just spinach. Because there was only one piece of artichoke on it.

In any case, the slice was actually good if you like a lot of cheese and creamy stuff. For $3, it was a good deal because the pizza was a massive size. I don't think I would get this again though. It was too rich and creamy for my taste...although it did taste good. Sorry, no picture of that pizza. It was extremely messy though, so there's not too much to look at anyways.



But that's the slice I got yesterday - just a plain round slice, and this was way more suited to my taste than the creamy Artichoke pizza. While it may not be for everyone, I loved it. And the thing is that it wasn't perfect, but it's pizza, and as weird as it may sound, it's one of the edible things in life that's sometimes better with it's flaws. I know that totally doesn't even make sense, so I'll stop right there.

The pizza was good, and at $2.50 for a plain slice, it's certainly worth it when all the other plain slices at generic pizza joints are the same price, if not more expensive. Artichoke doesn't use fresh mozzarella, but they don't use generic shredded cheese either. Whatever it is, it's good (considering it's not fresh mozzarella). There was also a generous amount of fresh basil which I like. The narrow half of the pizza was slightly soggy while the wider half was really crunchy, but it's ok because overall, it was a really good-tasting pizza.

Artichoke
14th St. btwn 1st and 2nd Ave

Lou Malnati's

I went back to Chicago for a long weekend and ate a ton of good food. Since I was taking Gabe around, we had to go for some real Chicago deep dish pizza. First of all, the Uno's Chicago Grill chain around the U.S. is really awful compared to the real family-owned Pizzeria Uno and Pizzeria Due's. I mean really awful. Basically, you can't find real deep dish pizza in NY.

In Chicago, a lot of people like to debate who has the best deep dish pizza. Pizzeria Uno/Due, Lou Malnati's, Gino's East, Pizano, and Giordano's are some of the big names. Lou Malnati's is my personal favorite, though I have to admit that I've never had Gino's, Pizano, or Giordano's before. I just prefer the crust/dough at Lou Malnati's, and that's why it's my favorite deep dish pizza. Since it's my favorite, we took Gabe to the original Lou Malnati's in Lincolnwood which is a suburb right outside Chicago proper.


We started off with the Calamari Fritta as an appetizer. This was surprisingly very good, perhaps one of the better calamari appetizers I've ever had. It was ridiculously tender - definitely the least chewy calamari ever. This is very surprising for a pizza joint in the midwest. So if you happen to go to Lou Malnati's in Chicago, this is what I recommend if you want an appetizer.


We got a large (14") deep dish pizza with sausage and mushrooms. Between the 3 of us, we only ate half the pizza. I was full after only one slice. Like I mentioned earlier, Malnati's crust is what stands out to me, and that's why I like it more than other places. It's buttery and flaky, but at the perfect level. It's not to the point where it's greasy. Overall, it just has a really great flavor. It stays crispy and crunchy even with all the sauce, cheese, and toppings on top of it. This is important because a really soggy deep dish pizza is disgusting. They also have actual chunks of tomato in their sauce. This made the pizza a little watery on top, but it wasn't to the point of it being gross or soggy at all.

I'll be honest and say that I don't even really love deep dish pizza, but I have to admit that Lou Malnati's is really good. If anyone is visiting Chicago and wants to try real deep dish pizza (and I do think it's worth it to try at least once even if you don't think you'll like the heaviness of it), this is the place I would recommend.

Lou Malnati's

6649 North Lincoln Ave

Lincolnwood, IL 60712