Ninety seconds in a 900°F oven
Margherita
A puffed, leopard-spotted rim, fior di latte in patches rather than a blanket, basil and a thread of olive oil.
This is Marco's pizza and it is made in a completely different oven from everything else on the menu. Ninety seconds on a 900°F brick floor does something a twelve-minute bake cannot: the water in the rim flashes to steam faster than the crust can set, so it inflates, and the spots of black on it are sugars burning in the seconds before the pizza comes out.
The centre is meant to be soft — soft enough that a slice will not hold itself horizontally, which is why this pizza is eaten with a knife and fork at a table. That is not a defect and it is not undercooked. It is a different pizza with a different set of intentions, and putting it in a box to travel across Woodside destroys it within ten minutes.
So: we will make it for collection, we will happily make it for you to eat here, and we will politely try to talk you out of having it delivered. There is a New York pie on this menu that is built to travel and this is not it.
What goes on it
The dough
Sixty per cent hydration, a day of ferment split between the bench and the cold room, opened very thin in the middle with all the gas pushed to the rim.
The tomato
Crushed plum tomato and salt. Nothing else, and not cooked.
The cheese
Fior di latte — a fresh cow's milk mozzarella — torn and placed in patches, so there is bare tomato showing between them.
The finish
Basil leaves, and a thread of olive oil poured in a spiral as it comes out.
How it is made here
Opened by hand only
Pressed from the centre outward, never touching the outer inch. Everything the rim will become is in the gas you leave in it.
Dressed sparsely
Far less of everything than a New York pie. In ninety seconds nothing heavy will cook through.
Ninety seconds
On the brick floor next to the fire, turned twice with a small steel peel. Left four seconds too long it is a burnt pizza, not a well-done one.
Served immediately
It is at its best within about ninety seconds of leaving the oven. This is a pizza with a very short window and we will tell you that.
Margherita — what it costs
- 12" pie$22
Prices include every topping listed above. Extras are $3 for vegetables and $4 for meats. Prices change when our costs do; the menu here is the menu in the shop.
Before you order this
A shared flour kitchen, and what that rules out. Our kitchen handles wheat flour in open air all day, along with milk, eggs, soy, tree nuts and fish. Flour becomes airborne every time a dough ball is opened, and it settles on every surface in the room, including the peels, the oven floor, the cutting board and the wheel. We can tell you what we put on a pizza, and we will tell you honestly. We cannot tell you that anything leaving this kitchen is free of an allergen, and we will not say it. If a reaction would send you to hospital, this is not a safe kitchen for you, and we would far rather say so than take the order.
The kitchen is one room. Every pizza here is opened on the same bench, baked on the same floor and cut with the same wheel, and that is true of this one as much as any other. The pages on allergens and cross-contact and vegetarian, vegan and dietary questions set out plainly what we can and cannot tell you, including the things most shops leave you to assume.
The rest of the menu
Other things worth ordering
Marinara
No cheese, and none missing: crushed tomato, sliced garlic, dried oregano and olive oil on a blistered Neapolitan base.
From $18
Diavola
Spicy soft salami and chilli over tomato and fior di latte, hot enough to notice and not hot enough to hide the pizza.
From $25
Prosciutto & Arugula
A margherita that leaves the oven and is then covered in dry-cured ham, a handful of rocket and shavings of hard sheep's cheese.
From $27Asked at the counter
Margherita — questions
Why is the middle wet?
Because it is meant to be. A Neapolitan pizza is baked so fast that the centre stays soft; it is eaten with a knife and fork. If you want a base you can fold and carry, the New York cheese pie is the one.
Can I have it delivered?
We will send it if you ask, and we would rather you collected it. It is very good for about ten minutes and ordinary after twenty, and in a bag across Woodside it will spend most of that time travelling.
Is this certified Neapolitan pizza?
No. We hold no certification from any Neapolitan pizza association and we are not going to claim one. Marco learned this outside Naples and makes it the way he was taught; that is the whole of the provenance.
Twelve to fifteen minutes, and worth the wait
Order a pie
Telephone the shop and we will tell you honestly how long the kitchen is running before you commit to anything. Collection is always quicker than delivery and the pizza is always better for it. If you are ordering for a crowd, the catering page has the trays and the notice we need.