Anatomy of a great pizza

By Las Vegas Weekly Staff (contact)

Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009 | midnight

• Carmine D’Amato, Settebello’s pizza chef with 12 years of experience, D’Amato trained at the Pizza School in Naples before joining Settebello in 2006. “In Naples, they say if you don’t have eight years experience, you’re nobody.”

• Pizza. Most of the ingredients are from Italy, including the flour, San Marzano tomatoes, prosciutto and crudo. The mozzarella comes from Mario Batali’s father in Seattle, because its lack of preservatives “wouldn’t allow us to keep it more than three days,” D’Amato says.

• Flame. There are no controls for this oven. All the heat comes from burning wood. Settebello keeps two types handy: oak for heat and apple for flame. Because of the temperatures achieved—1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, far more than traditional ovens—pizzas can be cooked in just under a minute.

• Oven Made to the specifications of the Verace Pizza Napoletano in Italy. The baking floor is made with biscotto di sorrentina brick, and it’s surrounded by a 2 1/2-foot-high brick dome. It’s encased in concrete and can last up to 100 years with proper care.