<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3R0F08_0vj9FHeV00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3R0F08_0vj9FHeV00" width="1440" height="885" ><figcaption>CNY Pizza Tour: Peppino's John and Franky Vigliotti with a PPP from Peppino's, the 38th stop on our CNY Pizza Tour. (Charlie Miller | cmiller@syracuse.com)</figcaption></figure>(It’s a debate every Central New Yorker has had at some point: Who’s got the best pizza? This year, we’ll do our best to find out. I’m on a quest to find the best pizza shops in the Syracuse area. Throughout 2024, I’ll visit 50-plus pizzerias. At each, I’ll sample their most popular pizza, or whatever they recommend. As I go, I’ll score each one, and tell readers a little bit about the shop itself.)****Syracuse, N.Y. — The dough John Vigliotti made Monday was different than the batch he made the day before.“Of course it was,” he said Monday afternoon. “The recipe requires adjustments every day. It has to change. But the pizza. ... The pizza comes out the same. Every time. You want it consistent. Right? So yes, the recipe changes.”What he’s trying to say is that he has to modify the ingredients depending on the weather so the pizza we get today at Peppino’s on the city’s North Side is just like the pizza we got last week or last month or last year.Give him 20 minutes, and he’ll explain it to you. He loves talking about the dough. Just ask him.See, the temperature outside Sunday topped out at 79 degrees. On Monday, it was 12 degrees cooler, and it was humid from all the rain. Oh, and the unbleached and unbromated flour had just been unloaded from a refrigerated truck. The water needed to be warmer for it to work well with the yeast, and it has to last three days.Most pizzerias make their dough a day in advance, letting it proof overnight. Vig requires a three-day cold fermentation.“You’ll taste the difference, and your body will feel the difference,” he said, whirling his hands and moving up to the edge of his seat. “Yeast is alive. Over that three days it’s going to eat the sugar. The gluten relaxes, and it ends up good for your digestive system.”His system prevents his pizzas from developing a gum line, that thin firm layer of goo just above the crust before the sauce, cheese and toppings.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=34TO02_0vj9FHeV00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=34TO02_0vj9FHeV00" width="1440" height="734" ><figcaption>CNY Pizza Tour: Peppino's The PPP from Peppino's has no 'gumline, that soft layer of dough between the crust and the rest of the pizza. (Charlie Miller | cmiller@syracuse.com) (Charlie Miller/(Charlie Miller | cmiller@syracuse.com))</figcaption></figure>Anyway, the arduous process Vig goes through for his dough is just the beginning for each pizza he makes. That’s how he’s done it since he started making pizzas as a teenager at his dad’s pizza shop, Franco’s in the long-gone Camillus Mall. “I fell in love with watching people smile when they ate something I made,” he said, thinking back.In 1997, he bought Peppino’s, a pizza shop at 1849 Grant Blvd. that’s been around since 1968. He has since won international contests for his pizzas and was even named the best calzone maker in the world.But we’re here to talk about pizza, not its distant calzone cousin.Let’s grab a slice ...<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=32b7f1_0vj9FHeV00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=32b7f1_0vj9FHeV00" width="1440" height="810" ><figcaption>CNY Pizza Tour: Peppino's The PPP from Peppino's, the 38th stop on our CNY Pizza Tour. (Charlie Miller | cmiller@syracuse.com) (Charlie Miller/(Charlie Miller | cmiller@syracuse.com))</figcaption></figure>Address: Peppino’s, 1849 Grant Blvd., Syracuse; (315) 474-3663. You can order online here.Do they deliver: Yes. But use his delivery people. They use the right bags that will ensure your pizza arrives hot. But better yet, get off the sofa and pick it up when it’s right out of the oven. You can also dine at the restaurant.What I ate: The PPP pizza, winner of the Northeast Pizza Competition in 2021 and the International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas.Why this pizza? Owner John Vigliotti says you can measure a pizzeria by its cheese pizza. “There’s nowhere to hide,” he said. “But then we came up with this.”It’s his variation on the plain theme.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1tn25v_0vj9FHeV00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1tn25v_0vj9FHeV00" width="1440" height="1368" ><figcaption>CNY Pizza Tour: Peppino's The PPP from Peppino's, the 38th stop on our CNY Pizza Tour. (Charlie Miller | cmiller@syracuse.com) (Charlie Miller/(Charlie Miller | cmiller@syracuse.com))</figcaption></figure>RATINGS (out of 5)Crust: 5/5. Let’s not belabor the point: Vig has figured out the crust. Early in life he figured out that a pizza constructed on dough mixed the same day will wreck your digestive system. Giving the yeast a few days to eat up the sugar relaxes everything. But indulge me on just a couple more points.He will only use a specific yeast, flour, sugar, salt and olive oil. He measures each ingredient by weight, not by tablespoons or half-cups. Sugar, after all, is a browning agent, so it has to be the perfect proportion.When his son, Franky, started making my PPP pizza, he sat the dough on a pizza pan atop the oven for 30 seconds to bring it up to room temperature. “Of course I did,” he said, sounding just like his ol’ man. “You don’t want it cold when I stretch it. That would ruin everything.”Once he stretched the dough to 16 inches, he aerated it with a spiked roller. Then it was ready for the few toppings that it would shoulder.Toppings: 5/5. Vig created the PPP in 2020, right about the time our government was handing out cash as part of its Paycheck Protection Program. He rearranged the order of ingredients, starting with a couple ounces of aged sharp provolone, then about ⅓-pound of Patria-brand mozzarella and finally grated parmesan cheeses. Finally, he finished with 10 dollops of sauce made from crushed Piennolo tomatoes with sugar added.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2XAU4P_0vj9FHeV00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2XAU4P_0vj9FHeV00" width="1440" height="891" ><figcaption>CNY Pizza Tour: Peppino's Franky Vigliotti carefully places dollops of the sweeter sauce for my PPP from Peppino's, the 38th stop on our CNY Pizza Tour. (Charlie Miller | cmiller@syracuse.com) (Charlie Miller/(Charlie Miller | cmiller@syracuse.com))</figcaption></figure>A quick side note about the mozzarella: Patria is a farmer-owned dairy co-op in Wisconsin. Vig tried out their crumbled-not-shredded cheese years ago and liked how it melted and browned. He later visited the farms in the cheese state, and he left committing to using it on his pizzas. Patria now sponsors him in competitions.When the pizza comes out of the 525-degree oven, he gives is some more parm and a swirl of olive oil.Value: 4/5. I paid $24 for this 16-inch pizza. Pricewise, that is slightly above average. But considering the time, thought and quality of ingredients that went into this, it’s worth the nearly 12 cents per bite. For crying out loud, the guy considers the outside temperature on a Monday for the pizza he’s going to make on Thursday. Who the hell does that? Vig does.Charisma: 5/5. Every bite of this kaleidoscopic pizza whacks your tastebuds with a different flavor profile. Because they dollop the sauce, you might get some sweet tomato in one bite with some parm and no sauce in the next bite with more cheese.The sauce is deceiving too. It’s slightly sweeter than the crushed tomatoes, herbs and garlic Vig and Franky spread on their traditional pizzas. “Our regular sauce also is a whole-day process that I’m sure you don’t want to hear about,” Franky said.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3seyHy_0vj9FHeV00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3seyHy_0vj9FHeV00" width="1440" height="810" ><figcaption>CNY Pizza Tour: Peppino's The PPP from Peppino's, the 38th stop on our CNY Pizza Tour. (Charlie Miller | cmiller@syracuse.com) (Charlie Miller/(Charlie Miller | cmiller@syracuse.com))</figcaption></figure>Total: 19/20. I had never eaten more than one, maybe two, slices on my first 37 stops on this 52-week tour of our pizza shops. Vig appreciated that and gave me advice on how to stretch my pizza-eating dollar.He suggested plopping a slice onto a heated-up frying pan, adding a few drops of water and covering it for about 30 seconds.“The heat brings back the crisp of the crust, and the water creates a steam that re-melts the cheese,” Vig said.Hallelujah! This pizza came back to life. It was just as good as the slice I ate on my way home from Peppino’s.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=15ucRe_0vj9FHeV00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=15ucRe_0vj9FHeV00" width="1440" height="822" ><figcaption>CNY Pizza Tour: Peppino's Reheating a slice of PPP from Peppino's at home in a frying pan with a few drops of water. Peppino's is the 38th stop on our CNY Pizza Tour. (Charlie Miller | cmiller@syracuse.com) (Charlie Miller/(Charlie Miller | cmiller@syracuse.com))</figcaption></figure>Charlie Miller finds the best in food, drinks and fun across Central New York. Contact him at (315) 382-1984, or by email at cmiller@syracuse.com. (AND he pays for what he and his guests eat and drink, just so you know.) You can also find him under @HoosierCuse on Twitter and on Instagram. Sign up for his weekly Where Syracuse Eats newsletter here.[ CNY Pizza Tour: Here are all the places we’ve visited so farOpens in new window ]</div></body>

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CNY Pizza Tour, stop #38: The recipe changes daily to keep this award-winning pizza the same

(It’s a debate every Central New Yorker has had at some point: Who’s got the best pizza? This year, we’ll do our best to find out. I’m on a quest to find the best pizza shops in the Syracuse area. Throughout 2024, I’ll visit 50-plus pizzerias. At each, I’ll sample their most popular pizza, or whatever they recommend. As I go, I’ll score each one, and tell readers a little bit about the shop itself.)