New Haven-style Pizza (“ah-beetz”)

New Haven style apizza, or “ah-beetz” is special and as a pizza-loving (and making) Chicagoan, I’m happy to admit it. Thin, “charred” (not burnt) crust. Vibrant, fresh, bare bones sauce. Simple, high-quality toppings. That’s that.

New Haven is a small city in Connecticut. Say it with me “connect-ih-cut”, the identity is right there in the name of the state itself. Connecticut is the state in the New England region just north of New York City that connects it with Boston. Two major American powerhouse cities with Connecticut caught in the middle. But let me tell you, pizza in Connecticut or apizza (“Ah-Beetz”) as they call it, has enough character to compete with the best pies in NYC and elsewhere.

I took it upon myself to go deep into the topic of New Haven style apizza. Research took me to far reaching corners of the internet, from old videos on websites that haven’t been updated since the early 2000s, to PDFs of old newspaper cutouts; I even watched a feature-length documentary on the topic. I’m not claiming to be an expert, I haven’t flipped my 20,000 pies, and haven’t worked in a pizzaria my entire life. What I am claiming to be is curious. Curious to how I, here in Chicago, can bring a little piece of New Haven pizza goodness to my apartment; and I hope to help you do the same.

This my take on what they might do on Wooster Street - at Pepe’s, at Sally’s, at Modern and everywhere else great apizza is slung. As usual, let me know your questions/comments below. Thanks for watching another episode of Cooking the States. I hope you like it. 🤘🏻Adam

STUFF I USE...

Pizza Stone (affiliate link): https://amzn.to/3OeGUCZ

Home-Kitchen Proofing Trays (affiliate link): https://amzn.to/3Qjk2nm

Oven (not affiliate link): https://us.gozney.com/products/dome 

Dough Docker: https://amzn.to/3HeZWGQ

Wooden Pizza Peel (affiliate link): https://amzn

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New Haven-style Pizza (Apizza)

IngredientsUSMetric

Dough (enough for 3-4 pizzas)

• Bread Flour 750g (100%)
• Water 510g (68%)
• Fresh Yeast 3g (.4%)
• Kosher Salt 17g (2.26%)

Sauce (enough for 4-6 pizzas)

• 28 ounce can San Marzano Tomatoes, peeled and whole
• 1 tsp Fresh Oregano
• 1.5 tsp Kosher Salt

Cheese (enough for 4-6 pizzas)

• 1 pound Full-fat Mozzarella Cheese
• 1 pound Part-skim Low Moisture Mozzarella Cheese
• 1/2 pound Pecorino Romano, crumbled

Toppings

• A "plain" apizza does not have any cheese. It's made with sauce, olive oil and maybe a touch of dried oregano to top.
• A "mootz" apizza is made with mozzarella and Pecorino Romano. That's it. New Haveners tend to stay away from calling it "cheese."
• A "clam" apizza includes fresh clams, garlic, olive oil and dried oregano. It's sometimes finished with fresh parsley and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. My inner Mid-Westerner says no, but my body, my body keeps telling me yes. It sounds wield, it tastes killer. Trust me.

Instructions

Dough

1. Combine Flour and salt, mix and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the water then crumble in the yeast. After 5 minutes add the flour salt mixture and mix with a wooden spoon just until combined. Let rest for 20 minutes.
2. Attach the dough hook to the mixer, and knead the dough on medium speed for 7 and a half minutes, or until smooth, shiny and the dough pulls away easily from the sides of the bowl. Turn the dough out onto a floured counter, shape it into a ball, then let it ferment for 5-7 hours at room temperature in a covered container.
3. Turn the dough out onto a liberally dusted work surface. Add a touch of oil to your hands then measure and shape the balls of dough according to the size of the pizza you’d like to make, see notes below. Transfer the portioned dough to the fridge, cover and let the dough rest overnight in the fridge.

Sauce

1. Add the tomatoes, salt and oregano to a food processor. Cover and pulse 3-4 times, until a semi-chunky vibrant red sauce forms. Refrigerate until needed. This can be done 2-3 days in advance.

Shaping and Cooking the Pizza

1. Preheat oven to 650-750F.
2. Remove dough from proofing container. Shape the dough into a rough disc, dust the work surface and dough ball with plenty of all-purpose flour then stretch it out to a 12 inch circular shape using the "tree" technique (See video).
3. Sauce Pizza a half inch or so from the edge, add toppings of choice.
4. If cooking the apizza in a wood fire, or outdoor gas oven use the peel to place the back edge of the pie towards the back of the oven, shake it off the peel, pull away slowly. The pizza will cook very quickly. Turn it 3-5 times 90 degrees each time to ensure that it chars evenly. Remove from the oven and finish with more olive oil and an optional sprinkle of Pecorino Romano cheese.
5. If cooking in a regular oven. Place a pizza stone or steel on the top rack of the oven and preheat it to 500F. Let the oven charge with heat for one hour before cooking. Follow the same steps as above for launching the pizza. Let the pizza cook for a total of 7-8 minutes, turning it twice throughout it's initial cook. Once cooked through, turn on the broiler and char the pie until it's blackened and spotted with char.
6. Let the apizza cool slightly then cut into irregular slices before serving.

Adam's Notes

Dough:

• Substitute the Fresh "cake" yeast for 1g Dry Instant (divide fresh by 3 to get dry measurement)*
• Portioned Ball of Dough: 320g (4-12 inch pies) / 426g (3-16 inch pies)
• We use bread flour for extra strong dough that can stretch but won’t break as easily as all-purpose flour would.
• Fresh yeast seems to provide more flavor and rise then dried varieties, but you can substitute Instant Dry Yeast for Fresh in this recipe. Sub 3.75g (.5%) of Instant Dry Yeast for the fresh in this case.
• This can all be done by hand, it’ll just take longer to knead.
• The long, cold fermentation in the fridge allows the dough to develop a specific flavor and texture that you just can’t achieve without it. Be patient!
• High hydration doughs like this are great for elasticity and can stretch much easier than dryer doughs.

Sauce:

• This sauce couldn't be easier. It's uncooked. No reduction necessary. Most spots in New Haven don't even add sugar to balance out the acidity. It just works. Actually. There's something about the intense brightness that contrasts beautifully with the charred crust. Trust the process.

Cheeses:

• The mixture of full-fat and part-skim Mozzarella, or "Mootz" as they call it in New Haven, is to balance out texture, flavor and "char-ibility." The full fat helps tame some immediate blackening while adding unctuousness to the pizza, while the part skim chars nicely and gives us a nice stretchability.
• Parmigiano Reggiano here, they prefer the tangy, salty Pecorino Romano made from sheep's milk in Connecticut... but Parm would still be delicious. No shame in the game if you want to use it instead.

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