VIEW SLIDESHOW: Top This: Il Greco (à la Tufino Pizzeria Napoletana)

[Photographs: Erin Mosbaugh]

Astoria's Tufino Pizzeria isn't just winning over the hearts of Queens' residents; those outside the borough have been flocking to Ditmars Blvd. for a taste of the restaurant's beautifully crafted Neapolitan pies. Chef and owner Stephen Menna started getting serious about pizza when his wife, Maria, surprised him with a beehive oven in their backyard. Soon, the couple was hosting weekly pizza parties, wowing guests with Stephen's superb topping combinations.

Maria's present sparked Stephen's pizza-making obsession, leading him to open Tufino last December. As an ode to his encouraging wife, he had the words "Di Maria" put on the pizzeria's custom-built Stefano Ferrara oven.

Maria and Stephen getting at a slice of the Il Greco

Stephen, whose family hails from Italy, created a pizza inspired by Maria's Greek roots. Topped with creamy, buttery Fontina, milky fior di latte, salty kalamata olives, and dried oregano, the "Il Greco" is a perfect flavor synthesis of two richly delicious cultures. Stephan finishes the pizza with a modest squeeze of lemon juice to brighten up the pie and tie the ingredients together.

Want to learn how to make the Il Greco at home? Click through the slideshow to find out how.

What You'll Need (for one pizza)

• 1 dough portion (Watch this video to learn how to make Neapolitan-style dough)
• Fior di latte, diced
• Sharp Italian Fontina, grated
• Kalamata olives, pitted
• Dried oregano (If you can find it, buy Greek oregano, which has a lovely floral fragrance)
• 1 lemon, halved
• Extra virgin olive oil

Tufino Pizzeria Napoletana

36-08 Ditmars Blvd, Astoria NY 11105 (map)
718-278-4800, tufinopizzeria.com

About the author: Originally from Los Angeles, Erin Mosbaugh writes Je Blague, where she captures her food adventures in NYC and beyond. Erin also writes for Robb Report New York City, First We Feast, and Food & Wine Magazine.

'Tis the season for national pizzeria round-ups. Today's listing? The 21 "hottest" pizza joints in the country, courtesy of Eater. Unlike the Travel and Leisure rankings, this collection is focused on who's making a splash in the pizza pool—it doesn't purport to be a definitive national ranking. In that spirit, they're also only ordered geographically (which apparently means winding a cosine curve across the US, from west to east). Here are Eater's top picks, with links to any coverage we've provided on our end.

America's Hottest Pies

1. Italian Family Pizza, Seattle
2. Capo's, San Francisco
3. Forge Pizza, Oakland
4. Wildcraft Sourdough Pizza, Los Angeles
5. Pitfire Artisan Pizza, Manhattan Beach
6. Buona Forchetta, San Diego
7. Novecento Pizzeria 900, Las Vegas
8. Via 313, Austin
9. Provisions, Houston
10. Lincoln Tavern & Restaurant, Boston
11. Serafina at the Dream South Beach, Miami
12. Crust Wood Fired Pizza, Houston
13. Ammazza, Atlanta
14. Garage Bar, Louisville
15. Flour & Stone, Chicago
16. Reno, Chicago
17. Burch Steak & Pizza Bar, Minneapolis
18. Wiseguy NY Pizza, Washington, D.C.
19. Gennaro's Tomato Pies, Philadelphia
20. Pizza Brain, Philadelphia
21. Speedy Romeo, New York

[Photographs: Roger Kamholz]

When Logan Square's Ciao Napoli Pizzeria closed last year, the restaurant group behind the neighboring Telegraph Wine Bar quickly snatched up the space. Since opening last November, their new restaurant and bar, Reno, has taken Chicago by storm (most recently landing on Eater's Pizzeria Heatmap). The osteria launched with morning, midday, and nighttime menus, offering up wood-fired bagels and pastries in the a.m., sandwiches at lunch, and an impressive array of pastas and wood-fired pizzas come dinner.

The tiled oven that anchors the low-key dining room is a Ciao leftover. You've got to wonder if its presence in the vacant space helped inspire Telegraph's executive chef, Johnny Anderes—who now heads Reno's kitchen, as well—to lead restaurant group's charge into pizza-making. What chef inherits that kind of hardware and doesn't figure out a way to put it to good use?

And Anderes has done just that. The style he's cultivated at Telegraph is one of rustic elegance; he's as confident in plating clean, modernist compositions as he is in building more hearty dishes. Now that he's working in the medium of pizza, he seems to be embracing more of the latter, with excellent results. The team manning the oven has been consistently hitting a nice, healthy char along the rim, bathing the pies in the smoky aroma of the wood-fired oven. Indeed, there's a lot to like here. I wouldn't go so far as to say they upset the pantheon of the city's finest pies, but factoring in their reasonable prices and the quality of ingredients, Reno certainly ranks as a go-to spot for pizza in Logan Square.

The Reno ($9), topped with mozzarella, fresh basil, and red sauce, is the restaurant's Margherita pie—my bellwether of choice when it comes to judging pizza quality. In this case, it signaled that Anderes has settled on a taut and elastic crust that transitions from chewy at the center, to crispy and flaky along the cornicione. At times that elasticity bordered on toughness, but for the most part I was digging how doughy and resilient the crust was—even with a well-done pie. The red sauce, while pleasantly rich, seemed short on punch and acidity. Its big, yet somewhat flat, flavor dominated, keeping the cheese from any memorable form self-expression.

The Paulina, shown half-covered with pepperoni by request.

The Paulina ($12) is a far more dynamic and balanced pie than the Reno. A bold and spicy pepperoni, sourced from Chicago's Paulina Meat Market, gives this pizza its name, but it's hardly the only star topping. A show-stopping jalapeño pesto emerges from the mozzarella and red sauce base. Frankly, I didn't expect the pesto—scattered in creamy, spicy little dollops—to work quite so splendidly as it did.

Checking the underside of Reno's pizza reveals a beautifully marbled pattern of char. Sure, that oven may be a hand-me-down, but Reno is rocking it with pride.

Reno

2607 North Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60647 (map)
773-697-4234, renochicago.com

Today, Baking Steel, the creators of one of our all-time favorite pizza products, launched an instructional video featuring Kenji's New York-Style Pizza Dough recipe. Check it out!*

*Anyone wondering whether this is a sponsored posts should rest assured that it's simply an honest endorsement of a great product—this thing has worked some serious pizza magic in our laboratory.

How to Make Pizza Dough at Home

[Video: Bakingsteel.com]

The good, the bad, and the ugly in pizza this week.

Horseplay
This month's uproar over the surfacing of horse meat in various beef products has wormed—or should I say trotted—its way into our favorite food. This Danish butcher is under investigation by local authorities for selling equine-laced meat to local pizzerias, according to Huffington Post.

Recipes
Henry Phillips, of Henry's Kitchen just dropped a gluten-free pizza recipe!

Do you desperately need more Henry? Right this way #&187;

Crime Watch
Pizza appears to be this week's weapon of choice—not one, but two individuals appear to have been attacked with pies—one frozen, the other nice and warm.

Best Pizza?
Both Eater and Travel and Leisure issued national pizza round-ups this week, with controversial rankings drawing some healthy skepticism.

Did we miss anything good? Let us know!

[Photographs: Robyn Lee]

It's a big, wide pizza world out there. And as much as we'd love to be everywhere at once, such feats remain stubbornly limited to the realm of imagination. What better way to bridge the divide than by asking you, dear readers, to tell us what's great?

So, starting today, we'll begin collecting submissions to be featured each month in an exciting new Slice community feature. We want to hear about the best pies and slices being enjoyed across the country, from the mouths of America's die-hard pizza fanatics. We don't care whether it's a humble corner slice or a fancy-pants pie, so long as you can tell us what makes it memorable. Rep. your regional style, share a hidden gem, or revisit old favorites—most importantly, just make sure to treat yourself to some damn fine pies.

Pizza of the People, commence!

Ready to get started? Send us one horizontal photo from a great pizza experience you've had in the month of March.* Include a brief description of what makes it special, along with the name of the pizza (if it has one), and where to find it. We'll select the highlights for a slideshow at the end of the month, and, with any luck, even pay some visits to these pizzerias ourselves.

*Send all submissions to pizza@seriouseats.com, with the subject line "My Best Slice." Please limit yourself to one submission per month. Self-promotion from businesses or their employees will not be accepted, nor will a single location be represented more than once in any slideshow.

[Photographs: Robyn Lee]

I felt like the luckiest kid in a candy store when Robyn returned from Hong Kong last week bearing a lovely bundle of gifts for Slice. Only, who needs candy when you can have Asian "pizza" products?!

It wasn't entirely clear to me exactly what flavors these snacks hoped to communicate, since "Pizza" is practically the only English word to appear on any of the packages. Obviously, there was only one way to find out. And no, that way was not finding someone to translate; it was the tried and true method of the American people. I stuffed my face.

Both bags of chips are produced by Calbee, the Japanese company responsible for Snapea Crisps and the like. Sure enough, I found some interesting parallels between Calbee's re-de-fry-hydrated crisps and these chips. I do not like them. I also cannot seem to stop eating them.

The first bag—the one featuring the self-important potato running for political office—tasted like a poor man's sour cream and onion. Wipe that smug expression off your face, Mr. Potato. Your chip children are perfectly edible, possibly even verging on addictive, but hardly evocative of pizza.

Bag number two, on the other hand, definitely had some pizza-reminiscent flavors going on. From the photo on the the package, not to mention the "Hot & Spicy" tag, it seemed clear(ish) that Calbee was looking to emulate a pepperoni pie. Sure enough, the chips had some punch to them. Barbecue notes had an undercurrent of tomato and the dusting of cheese product had me contemplatively nodding. In a blind taste test, would I have leapt to my feet and cried "Eureka! Pizza in a chip!"? No, probably not. But context, my friends, reigns supreme, and I am comfortable dubbing this bag pizza-ish, at the very least.

Pretz is another Japanese product, owned by Ezaki Glico. If you've ever had the opportunity to enjoy Glico's Tomato Pretz, then these are probably right up your alley (if you haven't, you should definitely get on that ASAP). An informal office taste test yielded comparisons to a slew of Italian-style dishes, like chicken parm and mozzarella sticks dipped in sauce—pretty darn close to pizza if you're dealing with dry snack food. We'll declare Glico for the win in this round of Japanese-by-way-of-Hong-Kong-pizza-snacks-showdown.

Any other pizza snacks we should be trying?

We told you about ThinkGeek's Star Trek Pizza Cutter ($19.99) back in 2010. But now there's some serious competition in the pizzanerd realm: The recently-released and completely bonkers R2D2 cutter ($19.61) comes ready to bleep-blop away. And just like the real R2D2, it simply won't shut up—no buttons required.

Think your mind is made up? Well, I'm here to tell you that things just got a tad more complicated. Because that Star Trek cutter? It just happens to come in 24 carat(-plated) GOLD. These limited-edition gems are *flying* off the rack at just $99 a pop!

So, will you be cutting your pies à la Star Trek, or Star Wars?

A parting gift...

Star Trek Pizza Cutter

VIEW SLIDESHOW: American Flatbread: A Dose of Sweetness at NY Pizzeria

[Photographs: Niki Achitoff-Gray, unless otherwise mentioned]

As longtime fans of American Flatbread's frozen pizzas, we were pretty jazzed to learn that the Vermont operation was opening a restaurant in our own backyard. The company got its start in 1990, as a hybrid pizzeria-wholesale bakery based out of a farmhouse in Waitsfield, VT. Owner George Schenk prepared his par-baked frozen pies Mondays-Thursdays, serving the fresh stuff to diners on Friday and Saturday nights. Over the years, he has gone on to open two successful franchise locations in Vermont; the new restaurant, run by Tribeca Rooftop owner Billy Reilly, marks American Flatbread's very first foray into New York.*

Schenk tapped into the locavore movement early on, with an emphasis on organic ingredients—often sourced directly from the farm adjacent to his flagship restaurant—and humanely-raised meats. Coupled with the fact that any of their pizzas can be ordered on a gluten-free crust from Peace of Mind Bakery ($4), American Flatbread's menu will undoubtedly be a draw to those seeking relatively healthful, eco-friendly pizza.

*A now-void licensing agreement with Flatbread Company also gave birth to a string of 11 markedly similar menus across New England, Canada, and Hawai'i.

The clay oven burns a mix of hardwoods.

Like much of Tribeca's commercial real estate, the space is cavernous, featuring high ceilings and wrap-around picture windows. During daylight hours, the sun-soaked dining room has a business-casual appeal in keeping with Reilly's goal of attracting the local lunch crowd. Come evening, the lights are dimmed, throwing the oven's glow into sharp relief. Bar-style seating gives curious diners the opportunity to watch American Flatbread's pies slide in and out of the wood-fired oven, made of clay hand-dug from Schenk's Waitsfield property. It's far from cozy, but considering its size, the restaurant manages to give off a warm, inviting atmosphere.

There's a definite Ben & Jerry's element to American Flatbread, and not just because these folks happen to hail from Vermont. Humble beginnings and boundless enthusiasm are part of it—both brands seem to reflect a genuine excitement for executing a classic American staple, with an of-the-people-by-the-people, can-do attitude. There are the fanciful topping combinations, like Mopsy's Kalua Pork ($16; $21), that come with eyebrow-raising descriptions—some long enough to fill a small pamphlet ("House smoked free-range pork shoulder, homemade organic mango BBQ sauce, organic red onions, pineapple, VT Butter & Cheese Chevre, whole milk mozzarella, Blythedale Farm Cooksville Grana, Grana Padano and fresh herbs," for example).

And then there's the more literal side—a touch of dessert-like sweetness to the pies. It's a trait that Ed Levine noticed back in '05, when reviewing their frozen pizzas for A Slice of Heaven. "The only slightly strange aspect of this pizza was its sweet smell," he recalls. "Sure enough, when we looked on the box for ingredients, there it was, pretty high up on the ingredient list: pure Vermont maple syrup."

That syrup makes its way into any number of dishes on the menu—American Flatbread considers it a signature ingredient, using it as their primary sweetener in everything from salad dressing to sausage. Luckily, sweetness isn't endemic to the pies at American Flatbread, nor is it always a bad trait, though it may not appeal to all palates. The aforementioned Mopsy's Kalua Pork, for instance, gets a pretty strong tart-sweet hit from the pineapple, not to mention the mango barbecue sauce. The pie itself is not for the weak of heart, and it's definitely not for the pizza purist. In fact, it's so toppings-heavy that the crust seems more afterthought than cornerstone. But risk-takers inclined toward dense, hearty meals and punchy, in-your-face flavors may find Mopsy's right up their alley.

A large pie, half New Vermont Sausage, half Mopsy's Kalua Pork.

The New Vermont Sausage ($15; $20), on the other hand, brings more of an earthy sweetness to the table, combining maple-fennel pork sausage, sundried tomatoes, and caramelized onions. Mushrooms, mozzarella, herbs, and Grana offer some counterbalance, but my sausage was dry and grainy, with a strangely bittersweet aftertaste.

Even the Spiced Pecan & Winter Vegetable Salad ($8.50) fell on the sweet side, with a syrupy orange-basil vinaigrette that over-emphasized the sugary roasted beets and squash.

The Spiced Pecan & Winter Vegetable Salad could have used more salt and acid.

The dough, at least, is free of sweeteners. The wood-burning oven hovers at about 800º F, for a 4-12 minute cook (depending on size and toppings). American Flatbread's pies are thin, verging on crackery near the center, with generous blistering at the edge and a smattering of dark, smoky spots beneath. Each pie is brushed in housemade garlic oil and sliced in a grid, party-style. The rise is nice, with an airy hole structure, and the interior is chewy, if a bit dry. Their formula seems to be a little low on salt, but since every flatbread on the menu comes topped with Grana Padano and Blythdale Farm Cookeville Grana, it's hardly the end of the world.

Mopsy's Kalua Pork, underskirt

If your tastes lean strictly savory, we recommend sticking to the basics. We found Schenk's Medicine Wheel ($11; $15) to be even-keeled and flavorful, neither too sweet nor too bland. Similarly, the TriBeCa Community Revolution Bread ($13; $18) hit a friendly balance. It was a bit difficult to find the tomato sauce under the thickly layered cheese, and it was definitely short on salt, but the dusting of herbs and mushrooms gave a warm, woodsy aroma to the pie; for a cold winter's night, it definitely hit the spot.

The Medicine Wheel. [Photograph: Max Falkowitz]

American Flatbread may not serve up the greatest pizza in town, or even downtown, for that matter. But in just over a month, the restaurant has garnered its fair share of praise. In a neighborhood like Tribeca, where options are limited, it's a dependable destination—perhaps the best in the area—that's bound to satisfy pizza cravings and appetites alike.

Click through the slideshow to see more photos »

About the author:Niki Achitoff-Gray is the editor of Slice and a part-time student at the Institute of Culinary Education. She's pretty big into pizza.

VIEW SLIDESHOW: My Pie Monday: Thai Chicken Karaage, 40 Second Pepperoni, Triple White Sauce Combo, and More

It's another beautiful My Pie Monday! Come feast your eyes on this week's collection of 17 brilliant homemade pizzas.

Jimmyg delivers one of his stunning Sicilian Rianata pies, and TXCraig1 whittles his cook time down to a mind-blowing 40 seconds (Check out this guy's oven. Holy...moly). Okaru pulls out a food processor for the quick 'n' easy crust of a dazzling fresh basil pizza. Thai chicken karaage makes a guest appearance on SonnyC79's latest creation, and boy oh boy does it look good. Meanwhile, Imwalkin combines smoked mozz and Scamorza cheeses with rosemary, and kengk goes sourdough. Alexwood shares a nice, blistery baking steel pie, derricktung piles on some tantalizing prosciutto and fresh mozzarella, and Norma takes a break from the Detroiters for a Mack's attempt. Pizzabakker goes all out with three different white sauce recipes from the Lahey cookbook, and Florida9 modifies Reinhart's Napoletano recipe, with mouthwatering results.

We've also got some chicken sausage and basil from Daajo and an inspiring Reuben-inspired pizza from Tscarborough. Millions covers the breakfast beat with a hearty bacon, egg, and cheese combo, and Paralleli heats things up with some sausage and mushrooms. Last, but not least, Tanner and Chrognac both share some meaty, cheddar cheesy pan pies.

But enough words! See the slideshow »

If you're making pizza, please do send us a shot for our next My Pie Monday! Just take one horizontal snapshot of your homemade pizza, briefly describe your cooking method, and follow these instructions to get it to Slice HQ by 8pm EST on Thursday night. Be sure to let us know your Slice/Serious Eats username!

Want to join the MPM crew? See our Pizza Making Guide »

Looking for inspiration? Take a look at past round-ups »

About the author:Niki Achitoff-Gray is the editor of Slice and a part-time student at the Institute of Culinary Education. She's pretty big into pizza. Also, she likes offal. A lot.

[Photograph: Adam Kuban]

That's right, folks. As of today, the new Joe's Pizza is officially open for business. And according to Eater, they're still hitting the classic New York slice on the nose. We'll be heading over to 14th and 3rd to check it out ASAP!

In the meantime, read why we think the Greenwich Village location is a NYC quintessential »

VIEW SLIDESHOW: The Pizza Lab: The Best French Bread Pizza

[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]

It's time for another round of The Food Lab. Got a suggestion for an upcoming topic? Email Kenji here, and he'll do his best to answer your queries in a future post. Become a fan of The Food Lab on Facebook or follow it on Twitter for play-by-plays on future kitchen tests and recipe experiments.

"Is there anyone who doesn't like French bread pizza?," I asked my wife the other day, as I pulled another tray of garlic-scented, oozy, toasty, cheese-covered, sauce-smothered bread from the oven.

No response. Figuring she didn't hear me the first time, I walked a little closer to where she was sat at her desk, concentrating intently on some sort of mathematical business (or was it computer science-y business?) on her computer screen. I said it again, louder, using my hands to try and waft some of the scent towards her.

"Mmhmm," she said, raising her hand in that "I love you, but please don't talk to me now" move that she's now got down pat, and that I've finally started recognizing as a legitimate form of communication.

I contemplated flinging a bit of molten-hot mozzarella, imagining its parabolic trajectory towards the back of her head, but then realized that the trail of extra-virgin olive oil it would leave in its wake would finger me unmistakably as the culprit. Instead I resorted to eating a slice myself and letting the dogs lick a bit off my fingers. If she won't acknowledge the awesomeness of my pizza, at least I'll be sure that the dogs love me just a little bit more than they love her, I thought to myself. But the fact remains: It was darn delicious French bread pizza.

Created by the late Bob Petrillose at Cornell University in the legendary Hot Truck in Ithaca, New York, French bread pizza has been a staple of hungry students and busy parents since 1960.

I know that here on Slice, we're all about homemade dough, cold fermentation, hydration level this, protein content that, and all other manner of obsessiveness. But if the data is correct, even serious pie-heads like you, my dear readers, are happy to give themselves a break and admit the simple pleasures of a virtually work-free pizza alternative: According to our polls, French bread pizza is the second most popular choice in such situations, just behind heating up a frozen pie.

When it's great, it can be fantastic. Crisp and soft, with just the right amount of tender, doughy, sauce-soaked bread under its oozy cheese surface. It's tangier and more heavily seasoned than most regular pizza, but that ain't a bad thing.

On the other hand, bad French pizza can be truly abysmal. Bland, leather-like cheese, with a crust that's either too soggy or too crisp. My goal was to up French Bread pizza's game and make it into a dish that you'd be proud to serve any time—not just when you're rushed, and to do so just about as quickly as you can defrost and heat up a frozen pizza.

The Bread

It's called French bread pizza, but what it really should be called is "that stuff they call French bread in the supermarket, or sometimes they call it Italian, but either way it's soft and squishy and sort of big and and not too crusty, and it's not really European at all but it's still good for pizza" pizza. I tried making pizza out of real French bread—a nice crusty baguette—and found that it was all wrong. Not only is a baguette too crusty and chewy (French bread pizza should be crisp and tender, not crunchy and hard to bite through), but its open hole structure also makes it difficult to top properly. Sauce and cheese fall into the craters.

Traditional supermarket "French" it is.

The Sauce

My most basic pizza sauce is nothing more than crushed canned tomatoes seasoned with salt. It's what I use on my Neapolitan pies, and even my New York-style pies these days when I don't feel like making a full-blown cooked sauce. But with French bread pizza, that intensely flavored sauce is part of its basic flavor profile.

I started off making a standard simple marinara with garlic, oregano, and a pinch of red pepper flakes cooked down in extra-virgin olive oil before being simmered with some crushed tomatoes, but the sauce needed some more intensity. I decided to increase the amount of garlic to about quadruple my normal ratio, along with using a mixture of butter and olive oil in place of the straight olive oil (those milk solids in butter add a ton of flavor—I add butter to many of my tomato-based sauce). A sprinkling of fresh parsley and basil finished it off.

With a good sauce, the right bread, and some quality fresh Mozzarella, I figured it's as easy as layering it all together and baking it. But I wasn't particularly happy with those results.

Here was the problem:

When you throw sauce directly on top of the soft bread, is soaks in, turning the whole thing unpleasantly mushy and soggy. I tried simply toasting the bread beforehand, which certainly helped, but then I realized—hey, I'm making this tasty garlic butter, why not start with a garlic bread base before I layer on the other ingredients?

I spread the garlic mixture on top and gave the bread a preliminary pit stop in the oven before adding my sauce and cheese.

The pre-toasting helped in both the flavor and sogginess departments—my best pizza yet—but there was still some amount of sogginess occurring, along with another problem:

There's this odd curling phenomenon that occurs when you pre-toast your bread before topping and baking it again, the centers sinking down rather than laying flat. Seems that the soft bready part shrinks as it toasts, causing the bread to curl up like a bi-metal strip. To combat this problem, I engaged in a simple bit of brute force:

That's right, stay down, I said to my bread. Compressing it pre-baking under a rimmed baking sheet tamed it just enough to get it to stay flat. It also made it much easier to top.

As for handling the remainder of the sogginess issues? Turned out to be simple enough: I added a preliminary layer of cheese that was just thick enough to prevent too much sauce from seeping in, but not so thick that it formed a completely impenetrable barrier—after all, I wanted a bit of that soft, doughy texture at the sauce-bread interface. Par-baking it helped it to spread evenly across the surface.

After that, all it needed was a layer of sauce and more cheese before a second trip to the oven. To bang up the flavor even more, I took some tips from DiFara in Brooklyn:

Adding a sprinkling of rough-grated parmesan cheese, along with a sprinkle of fresh herbs and a drizzle of olive oil, after it comes out of the oven, so that the flavors stay bright and fresh.

Even before you bite into it, it looks like good pizza. And unless you are irrationally obsessed with computer science conundrums as my dear wife is, the smell will probably knock your socks off as well.

Just in case anyone is questioning whether all these little extra steps really make a difference in the final product, let me just show you first a French bread pizza made on untoasted bread with no garlic butter, and no finishing aromatics. Just sauce on bread with cheese:

Not terrible looking, but you can tell it's going to be soggy and bland. Now compare that with this:

The bread stays, well, bready, with just a hint of garlicky olive oil and butter soaking in for flavor. The sauce stays put above its protective layer of pre-melted cheese, while the cheese on top is enhance by a layer of parmesan and fresh herbs. I dunno about you, but I know which one I'd rather eat.

In all honesty, this stuff is pretty darn delicious. Better than a good deal of the real pizza I've eaten in my life, even when I've made it myself. The fact that it's on the table hot and gooey in about 20 minutes is just a bonus. A sweet, sweet bonus. You know what? I'm glad I have an excuse to eat it all myself. The dogs can share if they want.

Get The Recipe!

• Get the recipe for The Best French Bread Pizza »
• Click here for a step-by-step slideshow »

About the author: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is the Chief Creative Officer of Serious Eats where he likes to explore the science of home cooking in his weekly column The Food Lab. You can follow him at @thefoodlab on Twitter, or at The Food Lab on Facebook.

[Photographs: Casey Barber]

College towns are stereotypically riddled with cheap slice joints, but for each underwhelming hole-in-the-wall, there's a local favorite known and loved by all the other people who live and work in these picturesque 'burgs.

So it is with Conte's, a pleasantly lived-in, un-fancified joint a mere two-minute drive from the Princeton campus. Like its kindred spirit Vic's, Conte's is the kind of place that remains unchanged by trends or the passage of time. No freshly made, hand-pulled mozzarella blankets the pies; no artisanal hand-milled flour goes into the crust; and the craziest topping on the menu is anchovy. And that's why people love it.

My lunch date, Christine, who's been living and working in Princeton for nearly a decade, gave me the skinny before we converged on one of Conte's formica tables. When the restaurant's crowded, the servers will ask for your order while you're being seated to keep up with the flow of pizzas entering and exiting the ovens, so we planned our topping combinations in advance: Roasted red peppers and garlic, house-made sausage and onion, and half a plain cheese pie. We skipped the meatballs, though; the New York Times called them "unremarkable," and Christine agreed. "My kids actually like mine better," she admitted.

Unlike the overcooked bitterness that keeps many people, myself included, away from green peppers as a pizza topping, the strands of roasted red peppers were sweet and tender. Coupled with the pungent flecks of garlic sprinkled across the pie, the two toppings were like Joe Fox and Kathleen Kelly in You've Got Mail: one sharply acidic, the other softly sweet, but perfectly suited for each other. If more pizzerias offered roasted red peppers instead of their banal green counterparts, what a wonderful world it would be.

The onions were an equally happy surprise. Expecting a hit of breath-busting flavor with my first bite, I was instead greeted by a mellow, almost genial onion taste. The sweet, wafer-thin Vidalias weren't caramelized or deeply cooked, but the near-raw slices still maintained a gentle bite that balanced and soaked up the rich pockets of pork fat from the sausage. Another masterful pairing of ingredients that proved you don't need a huge roster of toppings to make a great pizza; just a few really good ones that play well together. The sauce and cheese are standard enough—though satisfying on their own, they ultimately work better as a canvas for the more interesting tastes of the veg and meat piled on top.

I'd be tempted to pair all four of my chosen toppings—sweet onions, roasted red pepper, salty sausage, and sharp garlic—on a single pizza on the next go-round. The thin crust, brittle and crunchy at the edges, might groan a bit under the weight of this multi-tiered wonder, but overall it maintains enough crispness that I'm confident it could handle the uber-Conte's pizza I've been constructing in my mind.

About the author:Casey Barber is the editor of Good. Food. Stories. and the author of Classic Snacks Made from Scratch: 70 Homemade Versions of Your Favorite Brand-Name Treats. Find her on Twitter: @GoodFoodStories

[Photographs: Erin Jackson]

Good news for people who want a pizza on the cheap and in a jiffy: Project Pie is primed to expand in a major way. With two sites now up and running—the flagship in Vegas, and the latest in San Diego—it looks like NYC, Boulder, Atlanta, Washington D.C., and multiple cities in Texas are slated to follow close on their heels...not to mention an additional 25 stores in the Philippines. The fast-casual concept comes from pizza maven James Markham, who also launched Pie-ology and MOD Pizza. Markham joins a host of other competitors in the burgeoning field of Chipotle-style pizza chains (subject of some heated discussion), including Top That! Pizza, Pie Five, and 800 Degrees.

The premise is simple: order a pre-designed pie ($7.50 before any additional items or tweaks) or create your own, wholly from scratch. That, by itself, is nothing new. So what sets Project Pie apart from your average chain pizzeria? The kitchen is open, the pies come out quick, and, most significantly, the technology is a bit different than what you'll find at your typical neighborhood pizzeria. Namely, dough is squished into a perfect circle by a modified tortilla press and par-baked to hold its shape.

The press doesn't just speed up the process, it changes the pizza in a fundamental way, making it thinner and more dense than hand-stretching would. The end result is less chewy than a New York style crust and more like a flatbread. A crisp, charred, and very delicious flatbread.

I took two pies for a test-drive: the #7, a Margherita-inspired white pie with mozzarella, basil, tomatoes, and garlic, and a #2 meat-lover's pie, with tomato sauce, pepperoni, mild Italian sausage, and meatballs. Both were surprisingly delicious.

The combo of milky mozz, sweet, juicy slices of tomato, and fresh basil is an established winner, particularly when the ingredients are this fresh and tasty. It's no Neapolitan-style margherita pizza, nor does it claim to be. If you can set aside your expectations for a soft, chewy crust, I think you'll be satisfied, because that 800-degree oven delivers a good amount of nice, smoky char.

As much as I liked the white pie, the pepperoni, sausage, and meatball-topped #2 had the edge. Salty, savory, and slicked with oil, this pie was undeniably tasty. What texture the crust may lack (depending on your pie preferences), the toppings made up for, especially the signature red sauce, which brightened up all of the fatty pork products.

Pizza's the main attraction, and even bleeds over into other segments of the menu, like the Pizza Salad (mixed greens, cheese, tomatoes, chicken, and olive oil served up on a round of baked pizza dough), and dessert pizzas ($4.50), referred to as "strips" on the menu. I tried the banana and Nutella version. Pizza dough gets a good coat of butter, a sprinkling of sugar, and is dotted with caramelized bananas before being baked. Afterwards, it gets a generous drizzle of Nutella. Before taking a bite, I thought the chocolate-hazelnut spread was a bit on the skimpy side, but it turned out to be plenty. Split between two, it may be too much of a good thing; with a larger group, it would be a great finale.

The pizza marketplace is a crowded one, with so many different variations on the theme, let alone operators competing for your buck. And while Project Pie won't supplant my favorite pizzeria, I did like it enough to put it in my regular rotation.

About the author: Erin Jackson is a food writer and photographer who is obsessed with discovering the best eats in San Diego. You can find all of her discoveries on her San Diego food blog EJeats.com. On Twitter, she's @ErinJax

Are you a commander of greatness? With strong managerial skills? And a smartphone? That you know how to use? With The Twitter on it? That you tweet with?

Then this may just be your lucky day! Because Pizza Hut is looking to hire a Manager of Greatness. Oh, sorry, Manager of Digital Greatness. Obviously analog greatness is another thing entirely, so don't feel not-great if you don't get the job.

The Hut's latest marketing ploy is headed to SxSW, where the empire plans to hold open 140-second speed interviews to fill a Digital Marketing Manager role. According to Forbes, candidates have been told to bring nothing but identification, a smart phone, and a stellar pitch to the Austin Hilton this Sunday; no resumes, no references, and no suits required.

Wanted: Manager of Greatness

Of course, @pizzahut is just coming to the people. #Becauseyouregreat!

About the authorNiki Achitoff-Gray is the editor Slice and a part-time student at the Institute of Culinary Education. She's pretty big into pizza.

VIEW SLIDESHOW: First Look: WildCraft Sourdough Pizza, Los Angeles

[Photographs: Kelly Bone]

Note: First Looks give previews of new drinks and menus we're curious about. Since they are arranged photo shoots and interviews with bars and restaurants, we do not make critical evaluations or recommendations.

Just one week into service, and WildCraft Sourdough Pizza is already a hot contender in the Los Angeles pizza scene.

The team behind WildCraft comes from Abigaile Restaurant, a fusion-style operation in Hermosa Beach. The lack of pizza on Abigaile's menu might raise some questions, but it turns out that these boys have done their fair share of homework. Chef Tin Vuong earned his pizza stripes at the Americas branch of the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, where he studied under Peppe Miele. General Manager Michael Barson and partner Chris Stone headed to Italy, where they, too, studied at the VPN, before working with Massimo Di Porzio at Ristorante Umberto. The trio took their well-honed respect for the craft of Neapolitan pizza and decided to carry it into sourdough territory.

The pizzeria's name refers to the wild yeast in Vuong's 30-year-old sourdough starter, a live culture that the staff fondly refers to as 'Betty.' Chef Tin has been cultivating his crusts for the past 8 months, with friends like Dean Kim of OC Bakery offering advice along the way. He lost some time when Betty first came to WildCraft—it turned out that she wasn't so pleased with the sudden climate change—but with a little love and twice daily feedings, she bounced back a week later.

Vuong took me into the dough room, explaining that his sourdough's pungent scent and tart-sour flavor are owed to a 3-day period of fermentation and proofing. Working with live cultures presents unique challenges, especially with a starter as temperamental as Betty; the chef aims for a finished dough that is glossy and relaxed.

The open kitchen holds a naked Stefano Ferrara, under a shelf of Ciao San Marzano tomatoes. And while WildCraft doesn't offer takeout, on the principal that pizza travels poorly, the restaurant is spacious and designed to seat large crowds. Diners in the mood for a drink can order from Vuong's selection of West Coast wines and craft beers.

See the slideshow to check out the menu »

WildCraft Sourdough Pizza

9725 Culver Blvd Culver City, CA 90232 (map)
310-815-8100; wildcraftpizza.com

About the author: After nearly a decade in Brooklyn, Kelly Bone landed back in Los Angeles where she writes The Vegetarian Foodie. She spends the rest of her time designing office cubicles... you might be sitting in one right now! Follow her on Twitter at @TheVegFoodie

Most of have strong cheese feelings, especially when it comes to topping a pie. When I find Gruyère on a pizza menu, my eyes light up. My pulse quickens at the sight of blue cheese. Cheddar, on the other hand, gets a dismissive wave of the hand. Thanks, but no thanks.

When mozzarella's off the table, what cheese gets you going?

[Photograph: Scott Wiener]

Hordes of pizza fanatics are poised to invade Las Vegas on March 19 for the 29th Annual International Pizza Expo.

I just have one question.

What, seriously? No go? Here, try this:

2013 International Pizza Expo Promo

Sounds pretty incredible, right? Because there's nothing like deep-bass-tribal-gregorian-warfare-metal to get you in the mood for pizza.

If you're still on the fence, give this a good chew: $180 will buy you a three-day pass to the convention, where you can enjoy loads of free samples (though Scott Wiener recommends proceeding with caution), take educational seminars, watch the highly competitive International Pizza Challenge and, my personal favorite, attend the Wold Pizza Games. They're kind of off the chain.

Not convinced? Here's a little somethin' to sweeten the deal:

2012 Individual Acrobatics Champion Kazuya Akaogi

About the author:Niki Achitoff-Gray is the editor of Slice and a part-time student at the Institute of Culinary Education. She's pretty big into pizza. Also, she likes offal. A lot.

[Photographs: Todd Brock]

At first glance, Westside Pizzeria sure didn't look like one of the better pizza joints in Atlanta. Hell, sitting in the parking lot, I wasn't even positive it was a pizza joint. And to be truthful, after my first slice, I was pretty sure I'd been punked into going there at all.

But this blink-and-you'll-miss-it spot redeemed itself mightily with its second offering, restoring my faith in the idea that sometimes the unexpected surprise of a hidden gem is worth more than the shining jewel. When it comes to popularity, Westside may never be on the same level as the Anticos and Ammazzas of the Atlanta pizzascape, but if you order the right pie, it may well be among the city's tastiest.

I'd heard the Westside name a few times, but it was a recent article in the local newspaper that finally cemented a plan. The paper spotlighted two buddies who had made a pact to try every pizzeria in Atlanta. With four years and 99 expeditions under their belts, the pair described Westside as "the kind of place you sort of hate to tell people about."

With a near-total lack of signage, the restaurant itself seems to share that hush-hush mentality. Inside, it's more sports bar than pizza shrine—to the point that I started seriously tempering my expectations.

The first pie up, the Margherita ($13.95 for a 14-inch medium), did little to assuage my concerns.

The sauceless white pizza is topped with fresh buffalo mozzarella, Roma tomatoes, basil, and aged balsamic vinegar. Owner Ryan Ferrara outlines the Margherita's construction in terms of clearly defined layers. "The basil goes on first, and then the mozzarella cheeses, ensuring that all of the basil is covered so it doesn't dry out in the cooking process," he explains. "Then very thinly sliced large tomatoes are placed side-by-side, covering the entire pizza. We next apply a generous amount of aged balsamic vinegar that soaks into the tomatoes. The balsamic cooks and evaporates in the oven, leaving a glaze on top of the pie."

All great...in theory. In reality, the supersized ingredients are far from a cohesive entity. Those huge Roma slices certainly make for a pretty picture; they also guarantee a wet pie. Excess water from the tomatoes bled through our pizza almost instantly, turning the underside soggy before we even grabbed a slice. My teeth often pulled away more tomato or basil than intended, leaving me with difficult, uneven bites. The overall effect was like trying to solve a faulty mathematical equation; all those discrete parts simply didn't add up to a whole.

Ferrara's Italian-style dough is made fresh daily and stretched into his signature thin-crust pies. A first glance at the pie's undercarriage showed no signs of spotting, and the edge had virtually no rise or microbubbles. So imagine my surprise when I found the cracker-like texture and dense chew of the crust to be a real treat.

Balancing these delicate crusts with the menu's heavy topping combinations is a challenging endeavor. Ferrara has settled on par-baking his hand-tossed pies before adding toppings, using a conveyer belt convection oven to firm up the base. Westside's pizzas cook at just 420°F for at least 10 minutes to get that crust cooked firm enough to hold up under the weight of combos like this:

That's the Cajun ($14.75), the pie that completely turned me around on Westside Pizzeria. Breathtakingly gorgeous, this thing turned out to be even better than it looked.

The sauce is thick and flavorful, and sparingly applied (the mix that marinates overnight for maximum zest). Plentiful chunks of blackened chicken breast and thin slices of smoked Andouille sausage deliver a subtle, smoky heat to the party. My tablemate and I picked at the Margherita out of a sense of polite obligation; we devoured the Cajun with unbridled pizza lust.

For me, Westside was definitely a tale of two pies. Had I stopped after the Margherita, this would be a very different kind of post. I'd wonder what my friends and neighbors had been thinking when they recommended Westside, not to mention how those two dudes could eat so much pizza with such terrible palates. Thankfully, I stuck with it and found the Cajun. I'll most definitely be back for more.

About the Author: Todd Brock lives the glamorous life of a stay-at-home freelance writer in the suburbs of Atlanta. Besides being paid to eat cheeseburgers for AHT and pizzas for Slice, he's written and produced over 1,000 hours of television and penned Building Chicken Coops for Dummies. When he grows up, he wants to be either the starting quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys or the drummer for Hootie & the Blowfish. Or both.

Meet Scott Oelkers. Scott is the President and CEO of Domino's Pizza Japan. He stars in commercials sometimes. Here are some of those commercials.

Now, now. Don't be afraid! Just try to remember, none of it is real.

Oh wait, yes it is. It's all real.

Scott Introduces Hatsune Miku!

Scott Goes to Taiwan!

Scott Goes to the Moon!

About the author:Niki Achitoff-Gray is the editor of Slice and a part-time student at the Institute of Culinary Education. She's pretty big into pizza. Also, she likes offal. A lot.