Chau, this will be hard for me, but I will try my best. And I get asked these questions about Da Michele almost ever day. But, for you I will try my best!
So, the crust/crumb. I'll refer to it as the cornicione. Close your eyes and imaging a fresh cooking pita bread. Puffy and light and a slight tang of sour. Don't focus on the fact that it's pita bread, just imagine the pocket it creates when it's baked. Imagine fluffy and light. This "crust" has little to no doughy qualities whatsoever. It's incredible because neapolitan pizza is so thin and when you have the real deal you could imagine seeing it infront of you and it being a cracker with toppings, but it is the complete opposite. It is a heavenly creation that made me understand instantly why this pizza is a phenomenon and the reason behind me coming back to the states and trying to learn and understand this art.
No crisp, it is easily foldable. You don't even had to try to fold it, and this pizza needs to be eaten with a knife and fork. Although I tried my best to cut it into wedges and attack it like a normal slice, it just doesn't work! This pizza is also so easy to cut through, even the crappy achient dull butter knives they give you can slice through this thing with ease. In the states we need a hacksaw to cut into some of our pies..
The cornicione is chewy but not in a "doughy" way.. It's like the perfect balance of everything. As I said the crust isn't crispy and cracker like, so the only other way to describe it is by saying that it had some chew, but "chewy" isn't the word. The whole pizza is extremely soft. Like its incredible, theres actually a picture of my holding the cornicione in between my fingers, and that's actually me squeezing the cornicione and there's nothing inside but air. Soft and airy are the words for sure.
The second pizza I got was to take away for the train ride to florence and I didn't touch the pie till I got the the train which was about a 10 min walk, plus 5 min to get situated on the train and I was walking through the streets in the winter, probably 40-45 deg f. I would say total time before I examined this pizza was 20 min, which is way longer than the 20 sec I waited to dig into my first pie! Haha! The pizza never dried out. It was coated in oil from the mozz and the finish. I couldn't believe it when I found out they use soybean oil?!? That's crazy talk!! Does anyone know what brand they use by the way? Anywho, the pizza did get a little tough from sitting out in the cold. It wasn't as good as fresh when it came to texture but the flavor was still incredible! And obviously fresh cooked pizza right from a WFO is going to be better no question about it!
The pizza had an incredible cornicione as described early and the flavor is basically what was said in the beginning of this.. Slight tang. It's also a salty pizza and that just might be from the mozz and the Parmesan on top, but I think the dough was quite salty, salty in a good way that is..
I really only have great things to say about my two da Michele pies! This is actually the style of Neapolitan ive been trying to mimic, so I would appreciate if anyone knows some more about this pie that you can share! Thanks! And Chau, I hope this helped you get an understanding of the legendary Margherita at da Michele! If you or anyone else has questions on my visit, please feel free to ask! Enjoy!
