The Eater crew got dibs on a preliminary pizza tossing tutorial at Charleston's DeSano Pizza Bakery last week and came away with a few tips and tricks for the perfect Neapolitan pie.
Authenticity is paramount for the DeSano, whose pies are certified by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana and teeming with fundament Italian ingredients. There are San Marzano tomatoes, San Felice flour and buffalo mozzarella, straight from the milk of domesticated Italian water buffalo.
Then there are the ovens, clocking in at over 700 degrees and made of volcanic rock hailing from Mount Vesuvius. Each oven, named for a different patron saint of Naples, has its own attitude: there's San Paolino, a cranky character who takes a while to warm up in the morning; San Gennaro, prone to a hot temper; and San Felice, who cooks it just right. Each oven can fully bake a DeSano pie in about 90 seconds.
DeSano's dough recipe appears simple: San Felice flour, Mediterranean sea salt, water and yeast. Pound it out and toss the slim disk over for topping. Pizza tossing is an art that Eater has new found respect for. The pizza engineers can toss your dough with the skill of a Harlem Globetrotter and know just when to release the creations from the roaring ovens.
The pizza bakery is hosting a blessing of the ovens this evening for media types and is expected to be open for business within a week. No set date yet, but check back for an opening time as soon as Eater hears about.
Written and reported by Erin Ziegler
· DeSano Pizza Bakery [-ECHS-]