What I Got: Pizzarte Pizza, Esagerato Sandwich Pizza

Price: $$$

Location: NYC

Review:

I believe that Neapolitan style pizza is the best style of pizza.  The thick, puffy crust makes it heavenly. Although PizzArte’s pizzas are not cheap, these are the least expensive Neapolitan style pizzas I’ve found in NYC. They are worth a splurge now and then for that wonderful crust.

Pizzarte Pizza – The Pizzarte Pizza is a Neapolitan style pizza with mozzarella, butternut squash, spicy sausage, and thyme.  I have had my share of Neapolitan pizzas, and this Neapolitan style crust was quite good.  The crust was nice and thick on the edges and incredibly thin in the middle without being too delicate.  The edges were crisp on the outside and airy and light with a great amount of chew on the inside. It had a wonderful, slightly smoky flavor you can only get from a wood fired oven.  The crust was a little salty, but I only noticed that when eating the crust on its own and didn’t mind it too much.  The toppings were delicious.  The butternut squash is pureed and spread on the pizza in place of a sauce.  It is subtly sweet and smooth.  The sausage is salty and certainly has a kick of spice.  The salty and spicy flavors are balanced by the sweet squash.  The mozzarella was fresh and perfectly melty.  This was a great Neapolitan pizza with unique flavors.  It is perfect for fall or winter.

Esagerato Sandwich Pizza – The pizza sandwiches are made with Neapolitan pizza dough for the bread.  The “pizza bread” is a large, rectangular shape.  The Esagerato sandwich includes broccoli rabe, sausage, red chili pepper flakes, and smoked buffalo mozzarella.  I am a huge fan of broccoli rabe.  This broccoli rabe was wonderfully tender and delicious.  It had a great slight crunch but was not stringy.  The sausage was salty and had excellent flavor.  The broccoli rabe complimented and balanced the sausage.  The red chili pepper flakes brought a lot of spice.  It was spicier than I was expecting yet not overwhelming.  The smoked buffalo mozzarella was perfectly melty and slightly salty.  The smokiness added incredible depth to the flavors.  Buffalo mozzarella can sometimes be a bit soggy when cooked, and this was not soggy at all.  The bread was just as airy and chewy as the pizza crust and crispy on the outside. It had an incredible woodfired flavor.  It brought the sandwich to the next level of deliciousness.  I love a broccoli rabe and sausage sandwich, and this was the best one I’ve had.