The Great Baltimore Pizza Pursuit 2013: Verde Pizza Napoletana

The rules of The Great Baltimore Pizza Pursuit are simple.  Each category is worth 2 points (allowing for half points). The only pizza I'm considering is the basic slice of cheese. At the end of the year, the highest score wins the coveted Baltimore Bistros and Beer's Great Baltimore Pizza Pursuit title. This week's entry is Verde Pizza Napoletana . Click here to see how the last entrant fared

Droop Factor -  Verde pizza passes the droop test with ease. I should have made this clear in my earlier posts that the way I eat my pizza is always folded in half. It's the civilized thing to do, and if done this way, Verde's pizza shows rigor mortis what stiffness is all about (in a good way). 

Score = 2

Greaseifcation - The grease was minimal here (if it even exists at all). As you can see in the picture above, the fresh mozzarella was distributed with care, thus, reducing the risk of over greaseification.

Score = 2

Aroma - Verde's Margherita Pizza smells outstanding. You get a little bit of wood from the brick oven pizza,  herb from the basil, and the crust just smells wonderful and bready (how else is cooked dough supposed to smell).

Score = 1.5

Cheese - It's a fresh mozzarella. Do I need to say anything else? It's creamy, slightly salty, and it's placed on the pie in perfect amounts allowing the dough and sauce their time to shine.

Score = 1.5

Sauce - Verde has a great sauce if you like an authentic tomato forward sauce (and I do). But, the sauce here seems to get lost in the shuffle. That may be by design so that the other elements of the pie have an equal shot to light up the stage, but I was looking for the sauce to grab my attention just a touch more. In my opinion, the acidic tomato sauce could have used a bit more sweetness.

Score = 1

Crust - This, my friends, is what Verde pizza is all about. Good god, this crust is good. It's nice and crunchy on the outside from the brick oven, but it's still a bit chewy on the inside. And it only gets better as you eat. You're hit with a little smoke and the browned bits of bread are little bites of nirvana. Two is the highest score I give for a category, but this Crust far exceeds any rating I can give it and needs to be experienced to do justice.

Score = 2

Overall Score -  10 out of 12

It's still early in the game, but Verde has jumped out to an early lead in The Great Baltimore Pizza Pursuit. Regardless if there is a better pizza out there (and I'm going to have fun looking) this is definitely a Baltimore pizza you need to try. Go and get you some!