Welcome to the first Pizzavania of spring!

I’ll be headed to see the Phillies take on the Texas Rangers at Citizens Bank Park Saturday, which means I’ll likely be housing a Manco & Manco pizza at some point. I think it’s one of the better foods on offer at CBP these days. The roast pork at Tony Luke’s was my go-to for years, but the quality has slipped to the point where it’s essentially a school cafeteria-grade ham sandwich. Do better, Aramark.

Speaking of school, a couple of quick homeroom announcements:

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Between our profile of Ferri’s Pizza and backstory on the NEPA Lenten fave pagach pizza, there was a lot of talk about potato pizza in the last edition of Pizzavania, which prompted our poll question: How do you feel about mashed potatoes on pizza?

In a Pizzavania first, the responses were split down the middle, with 50% saying ‘Absolutely! Bring on the cholesterol!’ and the other half in the ‘Absolutely not. Mashed potatoes are a side dish.’

This week’s poll question: 

If I’m having an adult beverage with my pizza, my first option is always a nice, crisp Italian pilsner, like a Peroni. If we’re doing wine, a dry white, like a Grüner Veltliner, is nice. Water’s always good, too. I’m not much of a soda man anymore.

Let us know what you like to drink with your pizza, and we’ll run the results in our next edition.

The Roma pie from Apizzeria 888 by Sebastian in Elkins Park. (Patrick Berkery/The Keystone)

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: you, the reader, are a big part of this Pizzavania community. I’m always interested to hear about the pizzas you like, the pizzas you don’t like, and why.

With that in mind, I recently visited some pizzerias from NEPA down to Philly, recommended to me by Pizzavania readers. I wrote about my five favorites, like the credit card-thin and crispy pie from Apizzeria 888 by Sebastian in Elkins Park (see above). 

Going forward, I’ll be doing more best-of reader recs round-ups, so keep ‘em coming.

The three stages of preparing a homemade pizza based on a recipe from Joe Beddia’s book “Pizza Brain.” (Patrick Berkery/The Keystone)

A few editions ago, I wrote about my first attempt at making my own pizza. The results of which were, well, kinda ‘meh.’ 

I suspected the ‘meh’ factor was because I used a dough mix from the bake-at-home pizza supply company Urban Slicer. It gave the pie a very pre-fabricated taste and feel, kind of like a decent frozen pizza.

So I took another shot based on a recipe from Lancaster native Joe Beddia’s Pizza Camp book and sure enough, making your own dough and letting it proof 24 hours made a HUGE difference. Dare I say, the results were pretty great. I’d just use a lower-moisture mozzarella next time (the top was a little liquidy). Before-during-after results above.

Joe’s step-by-step instructions on how to make the dough (and how to prep it once it was ready) and the sauce, and what kind of ingredients to use, are super simple. He writes about the process in a very approachable way that made me confident in my abilities to make a pie that looked and tasted great. 

We had some of the ingredients on hand (like the flour, sugar, olive oil, and salt for the dough, crushed tomatoes and garlic for the sauce) so factoring in the other stuff I had to get—active dry yeast, mozzarella, pecorino—it cost about $30 all-in to make two 14” plain pies. Not a bad deal, and a whole lot of fun.

I’ll let you know how the next experiment goes.

Want to showcase your homemade pie? Share a photo and tell us about it. 

Time for more of your recs. Tell us about the Pa. pizzerias that you love!: 

“Marina’s Pizza in Fishtown (Philadelphia) lives up to the hype. They do big ‘ol, New York-style slices. It’s hard to find great places that serve slices in addition to pies.”

— Joey, Philadelphia

“I almost want to keep it a secret, because they’re not open much and they run out of dough sometimes, but, man, Moonlight Pizza in Pen Argyl rivals anything I’ve had in New York or Philly. You definitely need to check it out.”

— Thomas N., West Bangor

“Affinito in Emmaus is my favorite, and I’ve eaten pizza all over NEPA, the Lehigh Valley, the Philly area, and even some of the really good spots in North Jersey. Affinito beats them all.”

— Bruce, Easton

“Jo Jo’s in Hummelstown. Best grandma pie anywhere!”

-Sheila, Hershey

“My family has loved Vocelli Pizza in Meadville forever. It’s our neighborhood spot!”

— Bryan Harris, Meadville

You can find plenty more reader recommendations in this story.

Thanks for reading. This newsletter was written by Patrick Berkery. It was edited by Paula Solis.

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