Calzones don’t get a lot of love in the world of pizza lovers. The folded dough structure turns pizza into a turnover, and this is a turn-off, apparently, to pizza enthusiasts who might obsess over America’s best pies and slices but spend very little time considering pizza’s cousin, the calzone. Ironically, one of the most coveted calzones in America can be found at one of the country’s most iconic pizza destinations.
Lucali in Brooklyn is nearly as famous for its celebrity visitors as it is for its celebrated pies. The list of mono-names who have been in the antique storefront on a leafy Brooklyn block includes Beyoncé, Bono, Taylor (Swift), and more. But the calzone on the menu is courtesy of an everyday woman named Rosemarie and a moment of serendipity in the days before the shop opened in 2006.
Mark Iacono (ph Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for Hwood Group)
Owner Mark Iacono, soon to be a celebrity himself, was practicing his pies at the pizza table in the company of his landlord, Rosemarie, who would come downstairs to keep her tenant company.
“You gonna make calzones?” she asked him out of nowhere.
There was no plan for calzones on the menu at Lucali, but the ever-respectful kid from the neighborhood didn’t want to disappoint. “I dunno,” he told her. “Want me to make you one?” “Yeah,” she said.
Mark cobbled together a collection of cheeses on hand, including fresh ricotta which he didn’t plan on using on his pies but the cheese purveyor had left as a sample and made Rosemarie a calzone. He brought it over to her and went back to doing what he was doing.
A few minutes later, Rosemarie turned her head, with what Mark interpreted as a look of disgust on her face and asked, “You taste this?”
“No,” he said. “Why? It’s no good?”
“This is unbelievable,” she said. “It’s the best calzone I ever had.”
Mark put it on the menu.
photo credit: Rachel Drehmann
Fourteen years later, there’s a lot of Lucali lovers who would agree with Rosemarie. And while the calzone paled in popularity to the pizza at first, today, they account for 40% of the orders. “People tell me the calzones are better than the pizza,” Mark says.
The reason for the lofty comparisons is these are not typical pizza parlor calzones, standard dough stuffed with bland, soupy ricotta. Mark makes a calzone using five cheese (low-moisture mozzarella, buffalo mozzarella, fresh ricotta, Parmigiano Reggiano, and…a secret ingredient he won’t share, so don’t ask). The result is sublime, the cheeses warm and harmonious, full of flavor, and snuggled in Mark’s signature dough crisped in the brick oven fired by wood.
The calzone at Lucali comes in two varieties: Large or Small. “I make a plain calzone, and that’s all I make,” Mark says. “If you want something else in it, I’ll put it in there, like a topping, but I don’t recommend anything because of the flavor from the cheeses.” When asked which he prefers, the pizza or the calzone, Mark shrugs: “I dunno,” he says. “I love them both.”
And that calzone love at Lucali, shared by regular patrons and A-list celebrities alike, is courtesy of an unknown legend named Rosemarie.
photo credit: Rachel Drehmann
Want to make calzones at home? Here’s some tips from Mark Iacono: “Buy it from me instead. It’s a lot better, and a lot easier…”
If you insist on making your own: “Get the oven as hot as you can get it. Use a blend of cheeses, not just ricotta. Don’t poke holes in the dough until after you take it out of the oven. No “toppings.” Ok, maybe a little garlic, but that’s it.”