Washington Post food writer and editor Kristen Hartke went on a mission to find pizza recipes that are easier to make than Neapolitan or deep dish-style.
That mission led her first to the Midwest, and then to St. Louis, for a story that’s sure to shock the pizza purists who say New York and Chicago can’t be beat.
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In her story “Why your next homemade pizza should hail from the Midwest, not New York,” Hartke breaks down the components to a perfect St. Louis pizza, treats Provel with a reverence rarely seen of outside the Gateway City, and explains the symbiotic relationship between square-cut pies and Budweiser beer. The story even ends with a recipe for St. Louis-style pizza, which comes with an explainer about the fundamental ingredient: “This pizza is all about the cheese, Provel, which is made only in St. Louis and can now be found for purchase online.”
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Miguel Carretero, owner of Guido’s Pizzeria and Tapas, makes the case for Provel to Hartke from St. Louis. “The crust and Provel have to be together to make it a St. Louis pizza,” he told the Washington Post. “Provel is a St. Louis institution. We even put it on salad.”
In her research, Hartke finds that St. Louisans don’t just love Provel cheese for the taste, which includes what WaPo calls “a touch of ‘smoke flavor,’ or for the texture, which she says forms “a gooey blanket” over the rest of the pizza.
There’s also the all-important spark of nostalgia, especially since online deliveries only recently made Provel available outside of St. Louis.
“When I think of [Provel], it just brings back a really good feeling,” said Dawn Reeves, a St. Louis native who talked to WaPo about her childhood memories of Luigi’s pizza. “I can see its dark wood and turquoise curtains and almost taste the pizza, which my parents would always order with hamburger and onion, light on the tomato sauce.”
Reeves, who now lives in Maryland, tells WaPo she ordered Cicero’s St. Louis-style for her rehearsal dinner.
“I think I would have served pizza at the wedding if I could have gotten away with it,” Reeves said.
Contact Lindsay Toler by an email at [email protected] or on Twitter @StLouisLindsay. For more from St. Louis Magazine, subscribe or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
