On an island where most ingredients must be imported, bakers in Puerto Rico are finding innovative ways to make chewy, bubbly, and absolutely delicious pizza.
In late 2020, my husband and I began to see seemingly endless posts on Instagram of a food truck turning out wood-fired pizzas in Santurce, a neighborhood in San Juan, Puerto Rico near where we live. There was a classic Margherita pie with fresh mozzarella on it, another with a cacio e pepe sauce, and a special topped with burrata that oozed out over the crust when cut into. One was dotted with little cups of pepperoni.
What Fidela has done, though, is initiate a shift in the landscape, where pizza is the central focus and acts as a canvas for new ingredients and flavors. Since I was first introduced to Fidela, I’ve eaten pizza topped with chorizo-spiced potatoes from La Santurcina, and a pie from Panoteca San Miguel served with merguez sausage and parsley yogurt. Puerto Rico, being car-centric in its transportation, does not have a by-the-slice pizza culture.
Being limber about what “can” or “should” go on a pizza means that as long as there’s dough, there will always be great pizza in Puerto Rico. Despite San Juan being a small city, where the cost of goods is much higher than in the U.S., there is proof of a deep appetite for really good pizza here. These four pizza-makers are up to meeting the challenge.A selection of pies at La Santurcina.
Pepperoni, Margherita, pomodoro, cacio e pepe, and burrata are all staple pizzas at Fidela, which is open just three days a week. Pies have to be ordered by phone first thing on Friday or Saturday morning, in order to reserve before they sell out for the weekend. These pies are taken to go or eaten at small tables set out on the sidewalk. Rosario achieves a bubbly charred crust that’s a perfect complement to the gentle acidity of tomato and richness of fresh mozzarella.
Siete Santos, Gabriel Brujas’ pizza venture, which opened in July 2022, operates out of a truck in Guaynabo, behind a gas station. Picnic tables are set up for those who wish to eat their pie while it’s hot, and though Brujas offers traditional options like a now-standard honey pepperoni, he’s also collaborated with his friends at seafood-focused restaurant Celeste on clam pies and a fall offering with a pumpkin sauce.
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