how to make the famous Lucali pizza at home

with some help from the chef and owner, Mark Iacono.

This should be interesting.

Mark Iacono: Yes.

[things falling]

Where'd you go?

Hi, guys. I'm Herrine,

and I'm a video producer at Insider.

One of the perks of my job is getting to eat

at a bunch of restaurants all around the world.

One of the best things I've ever eaten in my life

was the pizza at Lucali in Brooklyn, New York.

So good.

It tastes simple,

but just, like, the perfect version of a pizza.

The restaurant is so popular

that people normally wait two or more hours

just to put their names down to eat that day.

[Skype ringtone]

Mark: Hi.

Herrine: Hi, how are you?

Mark: How's quarantine going?

[crickets chirping]

Herrine: I'm trying to entertain myself.

Mark: Where are you?

Herrine: I'm in Massachusetts now,

so I don't think you can really do delivery.

I'm gonna be here for a while now,

so I was hoping that you could teach me

how to make the best home version of your famous pizza.

Mark: I knew there was something up.

[laughing]

Herrine: I had an ulterior motive.

Is it possible to get anything

close to your pizza at home?

Mark: I would definitely say yes.

Let's go margherita, and especially for your first one.

You know, you kind of gotta, like, you know,

crawl before you walk.

Herrine: I mean, OK.

Based off of

how you taught me at the restaurant last time,

do you think I'll do OK?

Mark: I think you'll be fine.

I've seen a lot of people do pizza at home,

and they just overthink it, you know.

I'll teach you not to do that,

and I think you'll be fine.

First, we're going to make the dough.

Herrine: Do you know the, like,

measurements that I should be putting in?

Mark: I'm gonna have to get back to you on that one.

I just do it by hand and by eye,

but I'm gonna have to do it

to give you the precise measurements.

Herrine: So, I got all my ingredients,

and I got Mark's recipe.

Everything seems pretty straightforward.

The only thing is that Mark's recipe

makes eight pizza doughs

and calls for three and a half pounds of flour.

So what I'm gonna do

is I'm going to take Mark's measurements

and divide them by four,

and hopefully things will turn out OK.

It's just really a leap of faith here

and, like, trusting that my math

and eyeballing skills

will come in for the rescue.

Initially, I thought this was a little too dry,

but it's coming together. It's a little sticky.

So, I'm just supposed to knead this for 10 minutes.

I'm gonna take it out of the bowl now.

Mark: You're looking for, like, a more,

almost a very soft Play-Doh.

Herrine: This feels like soft Play-Doh.

I went a little rogue,

because after reading the recipe you sent me,

it called for three and a half pounds of flour,

and this is, like, sacred to me right now.

It looks like this.

Mark: It looks great.

I guess I forgot to tell you to...

but it's OK, it's fine.

Herrine: What did you forget to tell me?

Mark: You gotta kind of, like, knead it a little,

into a ball.

You want me to show you how to do it?

So, you kind of want to fold it in half, right?

Now turn it the other way and fold it in half again.

Like that, yeah.

Perfect.

Now grab a little less.

Grab it close to the edges and fold it under.

All right? And then you want to turn it upside down.

After you do that about four, five times,

and just, like, with your hand,

I don't know if you can see this,

trying to fold and close it up on the bottom.

Herrine: So, because I eyeballed it, like,

is the texture right?

Mark: Yeah, it looks like you nailed it.

Now, what you want to do to prevent it from drying out

is you want to baste this in oil.

And then just lightly place

some Saran Wrap around it,

and then just, like, give it some room to expand, you know.

Herrine: You said six hours in the recipe,

but, like, can I just leave this overnight?

Mark: Absolutely. I prefer a longer proof.

The temperature in the refrigerator will

slow down the rising process.

Look, done. That's it.

Done.

Put it in the fridge.

Why are you stressing?

Herrine: I'm not stressing.

Mark: You made the dough fantastic.

Herrine: I will call you tomorrow

when I'm ready to roll out the pizza

and do final assembly.

Mark: OK.

Herrine: It's a new day, and let's see if they rose.

I really don't think that they rose too much.

I'm just gonna let them chill here

while I make the sauce.

How am I going to make a sauce

with canned tomato sauce to taste anything like yours?

So, that's the sauce that I need?

Mark: Del Monte tomato sauce, yes.

You're going to need about

45 minutes, you know, cook time.

Herrine: So, I don't have Del Monte.

I got Hunt's.

Mark: We're gonna bring it to a boil.

We're gonna put garlic, a little bit of onion,

salt, pepper, basil, oregano, and a little sugar.

Herrine: And do I dump all of that in

all at once and then let it cook?

Mark: Yeah. Again, it's that easy.

And then bring it to a boil.

Let it cool.

Bring it to a second boil,

and just let it sit for, like, 15, 20 minutes.

Herrine: Is there a reason why you double boil it?

Mark: Yeah. I try not to overcook it.

Herrine: If there's one thing that I nail on this pizza,

it's gonna be the sauce, because, from my memory,

this tastes almost exactly

like the sauce at his restaurant.

Mark: Supermarket cheese, huh.

You're gonna need a low-moisture, low-fat cheese.

Believe it or not,

you know what works great? Polly-O.

If you can, get buffalo mozzarella.

I like to use the buffalo because of its moisture content,

which is a little higher,

and when cooking at home, you know,

you want to use something, you know,

you want to add moisture to the pizza.

I mean, if you have access to it.

If not, we'll just go with the Polly-O.

Parmesan cheese.

Herrine: Mm-hmm. Fresh Parmesan cheese?

Mark: Fresh Parm.

Herrine: This was what I got.

Mark: Fantastic.

Herrine: And because they didn't have buffalo mozzarella,

I just got fresh mozzarella.

Mark: Perfect.

Herrine: That'll do?

Mark: That'll do.

What do you think are, like, the biggest mistakes

that people do making pizza at home?

Mark: Everything needs to be prepared.

Herrine: Am I shredding all the cheeses?

Mark: You can shred.

I like to just slice it.

Herrine: That seems thin enough.

Mark: We're gonna break up some buffalo.

Herrine: So, I'm just gonna hand-tear this.

Mark: You can grate some Parmesan cheese

and have it ready for when the pizza comes out,

and we're just gonna sprinkle it on top.

Herrine: Mark said that I need a full wine bottle

to roll out the dough.

Mark: You're gonna need to use a wine bottle, probably,

because the dough is very hard, because it's so cold.

Herrine: The bad news is I forgot

and drank the bottle I was gonna use.

So I need to go buy a new one.

I got the wine bottle,

and now I'm ready to roll my pizza.

Everything so far has gone surprisingly well.

The tomato sauce that I made,

it tastes very similar to yours.

Mark: Good, good. That's what we were hoping for.

Herrine: I have my oven on 500.

I have my baking pan.

Mark: Wait, what's that for?

Herrine: You said to cook it on the baking pan.

Mark: Yeah, but that baking pan needs to be in the oven.

It needs to be hot.

Don't burn yourself!

[oven clattering]

Herrine: Quick question. Does it matter, like,

what rack it's on in the oven?

Mark: I think you said your heat source was from the top,

so we want to go low.

Herrine: Oh, OK, so the very lowest rack?

Mark: Yeah.

Herrine: So, I took the dough out of the fridge.

Looks like this.

Mark: Looks good.

Except for that little hole you put in there yesterday.

You got bubbles on it?

You just pressed on something.

Herrine: I don't really see any bubbles.

Mark: OK, good.

Herrine: Is that a good thing?

Mark: Yeah.

Herrine: Oh, OK.

Yeah. Mark: Ready to rock.

Herrine: Yes.

Mark: We're ready to roll.

Herrine: We're ready to roll.

Mark: You got your wine bottle?

Or your rolling pin?

Herrine: Yes.

Mark: Perfect, all right.

Dip the dough in the flour.

Flour it up.

Both sides, get it all floured, the whole thing.

Throw some flour on the counter.

You're going to roll the dough now.

Kind of place the bottle in the center.

Right now - I mean, grab the bottle like, you know....

Herrine: Oh, like this?

Mark: I'm trying to figure out what your left...

your watch is on your left?

Herrine: This is my left. This is my right.

Mark: OK, so hold onto the neck of the bottle

with your left hand,

and kinda grab, but stick your finger -

is it a hollowed-out bottle?

Herrine: Yes.

Mark: Yeah, just, like, stick a few fingers in there

and put, you know, this part of your hand

on top of the bottle.

There you go.

Press and roll out. Herrine: Like this?

OK.

Mark: Move away from you.

Right, good.

Now pick up,

go back to the center,

and pull it towards you.

But you got to go all the way off the edge of the dough.

All right, so now you kind of got, like, a square.

Herrine: Mm-hmm.

Mark: Now turn it, like, on a 45.

Kinda. And roll out that way.