Video of Pepe Franco making some pizzas at Spacca Napoli, Chicago

[ringkingpin]

I had a great dinner tonight at Spacca Napoli.  The owner John had a friend in from Italy who was making some interesting pizzas.  It was amazing to watch how quickly he works the dough!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvfmPKnQnuo" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvfmPKnQnuo</a>

[Jackie Tran]

That dough looks great.  Nice opening technique, kinda like Chris Bianco.

[andreguidon]

Pepe is a true Master... there is a great video of a fresh escarole calzone...

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ_VWpXCIO0" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ_VWpXCIO0</a>

[ringkingpin]

we had one of those calzones last night!

[ringkingpin]

and some others we had!

[andreguidon]

what a great opportunity!! how was the calzone?? i am very curious about it? next time ill make pizza i am going to try to make one...

[ringkingpin]

The calzone was really good.  When they said one of the specials was a calzone, that really piqued my interest!  I ate one first and then went to see how it's made.  Calzone and neopolitan pizza in my mind just don't go together, until last night. 
I think there was some lard, capers olives and some cheese in it.  It was very tasty and the capers were a nice acidic bite for the escarole. 
It was very cool to watch how he made it.  He basically put the ingredients on one side and then added the roughly chopped up greens to give the calzone it's body.  He folded the second have over, sealed it up with his fingers, just pushing down and then trimmed the edge.  Of course the greens steam away and drop so the calzone is really more like a balloon and not a stuffed pocket the way I've thought of it before.   

[ringkingpin]

One thing that I learned which was very interesting is that they don't use flour for the bench, they use a super fine semolina.  He said they use the semolina because the pie can sit raw on the counter and not absorb flour which in turn might burn.  He also pointed out the peel they use to introduce the pizza in to the oven.  It has a lot of slits in it like a big fly swatter and that takes a lot of the bench flour (in this case semolina) off as it falls through the holes on the peel when sliding off. 

[andreguidon]

thats new for me, fine semolina flour, i have never heard about that in Neapolitan pizza... was that said by Franco Pepe? thanks for all the pics, and info!! again great opportunity!!

[jeff v]

Sorry I missed this event-great video. It's so great to see a true pizzaiolo in action.

Jeff

[ringkingpin]

thats new for me, fine semolina flour, i have never heard about that in Neapolitan pizza... was that said by Franco Pepe? thanks for all the pics, and info!! again great opportunity!!

Yeah, that's new for me too!  I saw that the bench flour was a slightly different color (darker) and coarser than the 00 flour and asked what was up.  I was very surprised to find that it was extra fine semolina.  You can see Pepe working the dough and there is a pile of the fine semolina right there.  It makes sense why they use it.  I'm going to try experimenting with it. 

[dellavecchia]

These pies are just beautiful. The perfect balance between leoparding and lightness of crust.

John