Dave Gulino, Justin Sloj-kowski and Demian Repucci are pizza heretics. The team is behind the delicious, divisive new East Village pizzeria Bruno (204 E. 13th St.).
It takes its name from a 16th-century Dominican friar in Italy who was burned at the stake for heresy. They are serving the sort of perfectly charred, crusted pies common to traditional Neapolitan joints. And they’re not using imported ingredients — no San Marzano tomatoes or 00 flour.
“[The Neapolitans] used what was around and seasonal and delicious, so why not take that idea and apply it to a modern American setting?” says owner Repucci.
Their top-selling tasso ham pizza is a sort of high-class Hawaiian pie, mixing sweet fruit with salty, spicy ham. Have a look.
1. Tiny Seckel pears are “not too sweet, not too tart, and you definitely want to cook them,” says Bruno’s Justin Slojkowski, who sears his in a pan until the sugars start caramelizing, then deglazes them with apple vinegar.
2. Oma cheese, a soft, raw, cow’s-milk cheese sourced from a family farm in Vermont, “gives the pizza bursts of funkiness,” says Slojkowski.
3. Thinly sliced red onions, cured with salt and sugar, add a bright sweet-tart flavor to the pizza.
4. Julienned leeks are seared in a hot skillet with oil and finished in the 900-degree F pizza oven. “I’ve always loved the flavor of charred onion,” says Slojkowski.
5. “Parsley and bronze fennel definitely add a fresh element to the pie,” says Slojkowski. “They balance out the creamy sauce and fatty-smoky-spicy ham.”
6. “It’s a Cajun [style] ham,” says Slojkowski of the house-cured Tasso ham. “It definitely has a kick to it.”
7. For the crust, the chefs use a stone mill to grind organic hard red spring-wheat berries from upstate farms. The coffee-colored flour goes into the dough, which ferments for two to three days. “It’s more flavorful than bleached white flour stripped of all that freshness,” says Bruno’s Demian Repucci.