[Music]
i'm fran and i'm sal and we're here in
williamsburg brooklyn at the big rat goo
so at the big regular we specialize in
milan style pizza milan style pizza is
similar to a sicilian pie but it's
cooked more like a souffle because they
cook in such a hot oven they have to use
a lot of sauce on the top so the crust
doesn't burn and as it cooks the sauce
reduces and then they take it out and
they just put the mozzarella on top so
it's almost like a pizza souffle it's
light it's airy it's you know it's full
of sauce and cheese fattening it's
delicious undeniably delicious it's
something that a lot of people that have
never been to milan have been
experienced yet
and you know we just hope everybody
loves it not that many pioneers out
there
very good answer sal very good answer
so the way we make our dough we do a
simple dough with uh water salt yeast
and we throw a little shortening instead
of oil i kind of use my hand you know
for ingredients i kind of feel it i've
been doing it my whole life it's like
bakshi ball it's all feeling sounds good
about
i let it mix for a while not too long
and then i roll it up with the hands
old-school style we let it sit for a
long period of time put it in oil
put it in the proofing box take it out
of the proofing box i stretch it in a
pan nice and nice put a little sauce on
it in the oven
we use a recipe from the 70s from a
cookbook her name was matchella hazel
she used to hang with like julia chow
she introduced the sauce that's so
simple that it you know mixed up the
whole cookbook world and it went i guess
from back then viral and everybody was
making it because it was so simple so
she would just take a small can of
tomatoes take an onion cut it in half
five tablespoons of salted butter and
put it on medium heat 45 minutes
and it's done and i taste it i couldn't
believe how delicious and how simple it
was
hence the name the big ragu granted
there's no meat in the sauce
it's the big sauce it's all about the
sauce the sauce is the boss
we use a more of a new york style pizza
cheese for this pizza it's sliced on a
slicing machine it's sliced a little bit
thicker than the way you would get it in
a deli you know we just cover the entire
top of the pizza with the pizza cheese
the mozzarella and when we put it back
in the oven we don't cook it well done
we cook it where it's just melted all
the way through but it's not
crispy or burnt at all we cook the pies
in an 800 degree oven that actually
rotates and it cooks over a heating
element so you actually get heat from
the bottom
so
in milan they have to use the embers
from the wood to crisp the bottom of the
pie because in a neapolitan oven you get
mostly top heat not bottom here our oven
was designed to get hot on the bottom
because it gets hit with the flame from
underneath what you're trying to achieve
is
you know a consistency that's cooked and
it's not raw but it's doughy it's not
like a sicilian slice where it's crispy
all the way through when you cut it into
it man you pull it out of the pan and
the cheese just stretches and everything
it's just
it's so awesome
me and sal are first cousins and we've
been you know best friends since we've
been literally babies little kids i'm
born in brooklyn but i grew up in staten
island you know a lot of people don't
know about staten island it's still the
forgotten borough but in the pizza world
lately i mean it's emerged as this
beacon of like hey the best pizza's in
staten island and you know something
they're right there's a lot of great
pizza in staten island and we were a big
part of that you know we had a pizzeria
restaurant in staten island forever the
facilities restaurant forest avenue
that's where it all started i could say
that finding somebody that you can be in
business with is a big challenge finding
somebody that you can be in business
with and like
to spend time with that's like you know
the best thing in the world you know so
you know me and my cousin we started out
as of course first cousins and best
friends and then became partners and
it's you know it's great it's it's a
dream come true we're very lucky