Comment by scoofy | Hacker News Reader

Comment by scoofy | Hacker News Reader

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I used to live above Best Pizza (Williamsburg) and lived there when they opened. In my opinion, the best heuristic for good pizza is just the quality of tomatoes they use. San Marzano or Roma for the east coast, but on the west coast you have a ton of local options. I'm not saying you can't have good pizza from processed tomato sauce, I'm just saying that a place that cares about the quality of tomatoes also cares about the quality of their pizza.

A lot of quick order places will just have the cans visible. A great way to experiment with pizza is to just experiment with local tomatoes. I never wanted to become a pizza snob, but living on top of one of the most quality pizza joints in town and knowing the guys there and their favorite spots... well... now i am.

Here's a basic recipe from Frank. Anyone can make extremely high quality pizza at home by following his advice: https://youtu.be/whnvQBhXh3A

The funniest thing that happened there was probably when this interested guy was asking 'the locals' how we liked it, and what was popular... we found out a week later that he was very probably this NYT food reviewer: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/dining/reviews/09under.ht...

I finally got to try Frank Pepe's a while back, having never visited New England before at all, so it was also my introduction to New Haven style, period.

I'd previously thought the idea of a "tomato pie"—just sauce with a little parmesan, no other cheese, no toppings really—seemed kinda crazy. Like, I was willing to try it, since that's one of a couple "classic" pies in the style, and it's well-regarded, so I figured I must be wrong, but I couldn't reckon how that'd work out well.

It all came down to the quality of the sauce, and mostly to the quality of the tomatoes. And boy was I wrong. That sauce was absolutely enough to hold up an entire pizza (almost) on its own. I mean, damn. I've made some excellent sauces from home-grown San Marzanos (I know, I know, I don't have the volcanic soil or whatever, but they were good) but this was next-level. So much complexity when, as far as I could tell, there was hardly anything in the sauce other than the tomatoes.

the other nyc frank has good pizza advice on his instagram sometimes, on youtube anyway you can see his limone at least https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBPVwdEmkco

i also lived around the corner from best pizza from their first year and frequented there. (though my true love was saltie.) sometimes frank experimented with the dough/bake method and asked what i thought, friendly people. i love their sicilian. rip bill

>rip bill

Uff... yea. I think Bill and I might have been the two biggest bike nerds in the neighborhood. I always wanted to join him on RAGBRAI. Sadly, I waited too long.

Why can't you buy the same canned San Marzano tomatoes anywhere?

Oh, you can indeed find canned San Marzano's anywhere, though many (if not most) sold in the US are fake (but probably the same species): https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/san-marzano-tomatoes-probabl...

My point is that along the west coast, passionate pizzerias have more direct access to tomato growers, and might just be using fresh tomatoes rather than canned tomatoes. It's pretty safe to say that along the east coast, most tomatoes are going to be canned, so they'll be easier to spot.

the popular one now is bianco dinapoli from CA. you can find them everywhere including canada.

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