Since mid-February four new titles about pizza have appeared on bookstores’ shelves or to order on the internet. They all tell the stories of the owner-pizzaioli’ and their restaurants, and each volume contains several recipes, some traditional and others unique.
We the Pizza: Slangin’ Pies and Savin’ Lives ($28.67) was created and launched by Philly born-and-bred entrepreneur Muhammad Abdul-Hadi, who studied criminal justice. Published on February 11, it tells the story of Philadelphia’s Down North Pizza, which is owned and operated exclusively by formerly incarcerated people. The pizzeria’s mission is to reduce recidivism by giving former inmates a second chance through training and meaningful work. For this outstanding contribution Muhammad received the 2024 James Beard Leadership Award.
In addition to classic pizza recipes in square cuts with crispy edges, a chapter of We the Pizza is devoted to vegetarian and vegan pizzas like “No Better Love” made with four cheeses and the arrabbiata-inspired “Norf Sauce”. Instead, the meat and seafood pizzas chapter feature the iconic “Roc the Mic” pepperoni pie as well as the smoky berbere-brisket “Tales of a Hustler” and “Say Yes”, which is topped with jerk turkey sausage, roasted butternut squash, kale, ricotta, and lemon-honey drizzle. Additional recipes are by Philadelphia’s well-known chef, Marc Vetri and New York-based Marcus Samuelsson, strong supporters of Muhammad’s project.
Besides pizza, the book includes detailed historical information about incarceration in the United States and first-hand accounts of their prison life from Down North’s staff.
In Pizza from the Heart ($28.67) Paulie and Mary Ann Giannone write in conversational style about their love for each other and their mutual love of pizza so you feel as if you are there at the table with them at Greenpoint Brooklyn’s beloved Paulie Gee’s pizzeria. The story begins in 2010, when at the age of 56, Paulie left a career in corporate IT to turn his hobby into his retirement plan. Now he and Mary Ann have pizzerias and slice shops all over the US: Philadelphia, Baltimore, Columbus, New Orleans, and Chicago, to name just a few.
Pizza from the Heart is the couple’s first cookbook. Here they share their secrets not only about how to make pizza at home, both in a conventional oven as well as a wood-fired pizza oven, but also how to have a successful marriage and jointly-owned business. The book features over 100 recipes, the most popular being “Hellboy” (a soppressata pie topped with hot honey) “Mo Cheeks” (a tomato and pecorino pie with guanciale), and “In Ricotta da Vegan”(a ricotta pie made with vegan sausage and cheese).
Like Pizza from the Heart, The Scarr’s Pizza Cookbook is Scarr Pimentel’s first cookbook. After learning the trade at some of New York’s Famous pizzerias: Ballato, Lombardi’s, Artichoke, L’Asso and Joe’s, in 2016, Scarr, of Dominican descent and born and bred in Manhattan’s Harlem, opened Scarr’s Pizza at 35 Orchard Street in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, in an atmosphere more like a bar or a diner than a comfortable sit-down restaurant. It’s the only pizza-by-the-slice restaurant in New York City that mills its own flour.
Scarr’s Pizza Cookbook of 30 recipes is a well-illustrated step-by-step, from start to finish, on how to make great pizza at home. Here you’ll learn how to mill your own flour as he and his staff do at the pizzeria, where to source the freshest ingredients, and how to make the best sauces and toppings.
Michele Pascarella, the founder of London’s “Napoli on the Road”, was named the best pizza maker on the planet at Ferrarelle World Top Pizza Europa Awards 2023 and Best Pizzeria in Europe in May 2024. Born in 1991 in Maddaloni, in the province of Caserta, at age 11 he began working as a dishwasher in a pizzeria there until one day the owner asked him to make a pizza.
After graduating from hotel school, in 2016 Pascarella moved to England and the next year started his business making pizzas at markets across London from his three-wheel Ape Piaggio truck complete with a wood-fired oven. Now, 8 years later, he owns two hugely popular restaurants, both named Napoli on the Road: one in Chiswick and the other in Richmond. The first pizzaiolo to introduce the typically Neapolitan high-crust pizza to the UK, he changes their menus completely at the start of every season. His iconic pizze are “Ricordi d’infanzia” (“Childhood Memories”) inspired by his mother’s ragù, and “Cheesewick” with its topping of different Italian cheese and Stilton. His new and first book Napoli on the Road: Classic & Seasonal Recipes for Neapolitan-style Pizza Plus Antipasti, Desserts and Drinks, includes 65 recipes organized by season as well as recipes for Neapolitan street-food and stories of his youth in southern Italy.
