9/18/2023 0 Comments Villa nova stickney![]() “The majority of the pizzas will have sausage on them,” says Sonny Adamczyk, whose wife co-owns the shop. 1 topping at Villa Nova Pizzeria in Stickney, another practitioner of tavern-style thin crust. We get shipments in throughout the week, so nothing is sitting in the freezer.” “It’s the same recipe as my dad (Nick Pianetto Sr.) first wrote down,” she says. “We usually end up going through 100 to 150 pounds of sausage a week,” Pianetto says.Īlthough she has no idea why sausage is so popular in Chicago, she’s proud that Pat’s house-made sausage, which contains fennel seeds, hasn’t changed since the restaurant opened in the 1950s. Co-owner Gina Pianetto agrees that sausage is the most popular topping choice. Pat’s serves an extra-thin crust, often referred to as tavern-style, that’s cut into square slices. On the other end of the pizza spectrum, both in style and number of restaurants, is Pat’s Pizzeria, which has just one location, in Lincoln Park. I think they use (fennel) to cover up bad meat,” Malnati says. One ingredient it doesn’t have is fennel seed. ![]() Lou Malnati’s also seasons the mixture simply, mostly with salt, pepper and garlic. Malnati estimates its lean-meat-to-fat ratio at about 90/10, when the standard is closer to 80/20 or 75/25. The Italian sausage at Lou Malnati’s differs from most in that it’s relatively lean. It was just passed on from family to family.” But “I think it became a habit,” Malnati says. ![]() Of course, that poem was published a century ago, and the Union Stock Yards closed in 1971. “The fact that pork was prominent in Chicago back then led to (sausage) being a staple.” That theory certainly checks out with poet Carl Sandburg, who memorably dubbed our city “Hog Butcher for the World” in his 1914 piece “Chicago.” “I think it started with the Union Stock Yards a couple generations ago,” he says. Malnati has a theory about Italian sausage’s local popularity. “We buy a couple million pounds of sausage a year,” Malnati says. What does that mean for a restaurant chain with 48 locations in the Chicagoland area, plus three in Arizona? ![]() To help better understand this sausage-fueled hysteria, I reached out to four local pizza restaurateurs to figure out why Italian sausage rules Chicago.Īccording to the owner of Lou Malnati’s, Marc Malnati, Italian sausage is “by far the most popular topping” at his restaurants. Many places either make the ground pork mixture in house or have a trusted local butcher shop make it for them. (Don’t call it healthy, but it is gluten-free.)Īnd this isn’t just any Italian sausage. ![]() Not to be outdone, Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria offers a “crustless pizza,” on which the dough is completely replaced by a thick base of Italian sausage. At Gino’s East you can order Italian sausage flattened into a thin disc so big that it covers the entire pizza. To be blunt, Chicagoans are obsessed with the stuff. Italian sausage enjoys a popularity at odds with the rest of the country. That’s a slice of pepperoni pizza.īut stop by many cherished pizzerias in Chicago, and it’s a different story. In poll after poll, pepperoni has the No. Pepperoni is America’s favorite pizza topping. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |