My Pizza Guru

by Stephanie Sherrill
on Friday, December 11, 2009

When at home and craving a pizza, is the best option a tried and true Italian restaurant takeout, a fast delivery, or perhaps a frozen specimen from the fridge? It's these little life dilemmas that keep some people up at night. Luckily for those people, this week I decided to solve the irksome quandary. I also invited Angelo Morano, owner of That's Amore, along for the wacky experiment, hoping to learn a bit more about pizza along the way - any reason to invite a dark, handsome Italian to the office should never be passed up willingly. Angelo claims to have eaten pizza nearly every week since birth and is an unabashed devotee.

Our gourmet sampling journey commenced with frozen pizzas from Dr. Oetker, which provided us with some interesting food for thought. Though the overall flavors were actually quite satisfying, the sauce atop the dough seemed unusually sweet and I could only taste three cheeses on the four-cheese Quattro Formaggi. According to our expert, the Mozzarella pizza deviated from the traditional-style by its use of pesto sauce instead of basil.

After a few bites of the fast-food pizza (later revealed to be Melrose), I was craving a beer. Its toppings were plentiful, though rather greasy - perfect if it was about 2am and I had just come home from the bar. Angelo explains that the parched feeling is a result of using additives and pre-mixes for the dough. Another trivia tidbit is that authentic Italian crusts won't leave you with that bloated, just-roll-me-to-the-sofa feeling.

Perhaps rather unremarkably, the pizza that came out top in our poll was the Italian restaurant takeout from Da Papa Mario. This fine Italian pizza could never be mistaken for the fast-food or frozen offerings. The ingredients were all top notch, the crust hand rolled and the cheese undoubtedly the genuine article.

It would be no great crime to grab a frozen pizza and pop it in the oven as an easy alternative. Nonetheless, if you're looking for the real deal, there's ultimately no replacement for an authentic pizza from an Italian-run trattoria.