Has anyone ever met anyone who doesn't like pizza? Every town, I do believe by law, has to have at least one pizzeria. The evolution of pizza in America in the 21st century has added allure to this staple of American consumption with the rise of Neapolitan pizzerias in major cities.
Understandably, nationwide delivery of gourmet pizza (as opposed to long-standing local chains) is on the rise as well as the presence of higher-end pizzas in supermarket freezer sections. And, inevitably, pizza making at home has become a popular and fun way to get a surefire crowd-pleaser on the table.
At Appetito, we will get to reviews of gourmet home delivery pizzas as well as the pizza ovens that are available for the home (amateur) pizzaioli, but we are going to start our pizza exploration with some dough.
Italian immigrant Vincenzo Birritella opened a bakery in Tarrytown, NY (just north of the city) in 1910. Birrittella's expanded with each generation, moving from local bread distribution to retail while adding pizza dough along the way. The original owner's grandsons sold the business in 2021 to a couple of Brooklyn guys who ramped up production through upgrades in technology and additional equipment. They expect to make 10,000,000 balls of pizza dough this year. I tested out four of those balls of dough, and here's what I discovered.
Birritella dough is really easy to work with. My previous experiences with store-bought dough involved a lot of sticky wrestling of an amorphous glob out of a plastic bag. The Birritella dough comes in a vacuum-sealed package (part of that technology upgrade) that easily separates from the contents. The dough is on a lightly-floured counter in no time. From there, shaping out a 14-inch disc with your fingertips is a breeze. I don't know: Can dough "behave"? Well, if so, the Birrittella dough is very well-behaved. Let's leave it at that.
The reason for this workability, once again, goes back to the packaging. Through the clear plastic you can actually watch the dough ferment in your refrigerator, knowing exactly the optimal time for use. This, obviously, has an impact on flavor as well. And, yes — you guessed it — the Birrittella's dough has great flavor, surely abetted by double zero flour and that quality New York water which also makes the best bagels.
Not to belabor the packaging thing, but another cool aspect of the Birrittella vacuum-seal is that it can last up to six weeks in the fridge and eight months in the freezer. I froze three of the balls and transferred each of them individually to the fridge until the rising dough and bubbles told me it was time to make some pizza.
Finally, a bonus of working with Birrittella's pizza dough is that their website is full of informative instructional videos and recipes, as well as the ability to order online or find a nearby store.
Recommending Birrittella's is a no-brainer. Can 10,000,000 balls of pizza dough be wrong?
