Finding Italian food in New York City is never an issue; the real challenge is finding authentic Italian cuisine. While pizza may need no introduction, panzerotti are receiving their first moment in the American spotlight. For those who don’t know what panzerotti are: they’re a regional pizza-like food of the Apulia region with a crescent shape, traditionally stuffed with cheese and finally, deep-fried to perfection. Words don’t do it justice; you simply have to try it... you'll fall in love at first bite, we promise.
And now, you have the opportunity to try traditional, authentic panzerotti made at I Love Panzerotti – an Italian street food venue with three locations across New York City. The third (and largest) location was opened just last week with a new 20-seat restaurant in the East Village. Serving panzerotti and wood-fired brick oven pizza in the true Naples style, I Love Panzerotti is a locale with real Italian flair – featuring traditional recipes juxtaposed against contemporary avant-garde design. White walls, raw wood and augmented reality projections displaying real-time photos taken inside the store (that are then posted to Instagram) alongside videos of how (and where) the ingredients are produced in Italy – and more specifically, in the region of Apulia.
Perfect for meat-eaters, vegetarians and vegans alike, the menu includes almost twenty panzerotti available made-to-order, either fried or baked, with several delicious options like the Pepperoni pizza made with real soppressata, mozzarella and fresh tomato sauce or perhaps the 'Nduja – a pizza with a very spicy salami spread and mozzarella. Another option is the Pesto pizza featuring pesto, mozzarella, and pecorino. And then there’s always dessert… how does sweet S’mores pizza with Nutella, peanut butter, graham crackers and marshmallow sound?
Also featured on the menu are eight 12" Neapolitan pizzas made in the same wood-fired brick oven that was used by the space's last tenant, Tramonti Pizza, that is currently expanding to a larger space. 12” pizzas on offer include the Tartufo with truffle purée, fresh mozzarella, arugula and pecorino while the Montanara features fresh mozzarella, gorgonzola, sausage and walnuts.
Angelo Magni
To really get to know this specialty Italian street food, we asked owner Angelo Magni three to-the-point questions on how best to enjoy panzerotti, the motivation behind bringing them to the U.S. and finally, an inquiry into Magni’s personal nostalgia for Italian food (and panzerotti in particular):
What are your three favorite types of panzerotti and why? Is there an order in which you’d recommend trying them – if you’d like to do a “tasting,” for example?
My favorites are: the Pepperoni (actually Calabrian soppressata) then the Jala Honey (mozzarella, jalapenos, 'nduja, mike's hot honey) because it’s a "match made in Heaven" between sweet and savory – tending more towards the savory side with a spicy “spike” [from the] 'nduja, a tasty salami cream. And I would finish up with a S’mores for sweetness. If I had to eat all three of them at once, I would take them in Half Size format. Otherwise, after a panzerotto and a half, I would explode!
Why did you decide to export panzerotti to the USA?
It is a product that we Italians love and that is not yet known in the USA. When Italians come into our shop, they smile because the food we serve brings back childhood nostalgia: simpler times, happy memories, and the mother country. It is also positioned in the same market segment of pizza, but offers an interesting alternative – both in terms of shape and taste.
Do you have a memory related to panzerotti, perhaps while you were growing up?
In Milan, we have a historical panzerotteria – Luini. In the summer of 2000, I was doing an internship at BMG Ricordi by the Duomo, and I often stopped by Luini for lunch. There I started to think that it would be great to bring panzerotti to New York, but [I] never took the idea seriously until last year.
Moreover, I Love Panzerotti offers more than just good food. Crowdsourced by around 170 friends in Italy, the I Love Panzerotti stores are run by their investors with a mission of feeding not only New Yorkers. A portion of every order is always donated to the international NGO working to end child hunger, Mary's Meals. In just eight months, I Love Panzerotti has already provided over 16,000 nutritious meals to children in need. This initiative has [created] such an echo that the Vatican invited I Love Panzerotti to present testimony at a conference in Rome in December about sustainable human development. Too good to be true, congrats!