Making dough from scratch with Stephen Menna of Lupo Rosso

“No offense to anyone, but if you own a pizzeria and you're sourcing dough that's coming in frozen or from another place, I think you're in the wrong business,” says Stephen Menna.

Stephen is the owner of Lupo Rosso, a pizzeria in Long Island City known for its authentic Neapolitan-style pizza baked in a traditional wood-fired oven. With a focus on high-quality ingredients and time-honored techniques, Lupo Rosso has become a standout destination for pizza lovers in the area.

Check out Stephen’s full video interview or read the transcript below to gain his insights for both new and seasoned shop owners.

Sabrina D’Alessandro: 

I'm Sabrina. I'm here with Slice today at Pizza Con in Philly and I'm joined with…

Stephen Menna:

Stephen from Lupo Rosso Pizzeria. 

Sabrina: 

Amazing. And where is your pizza shop located?

Stephen:

We’re in Long Island City, Queens. 

Sabrina: 

Long Island city. So you took the Amtrak?

Stephen:

I live in Long Island, so I took the LIRR into Penn Station, and then we took an Amtrak down here to Philadelphia. And then an Uber over to this fine establishment. 

Sabrina: 

Oh my gosh. So you guys really put in the effort to come today. Ready to learn a lot, see your partners. 

Stephen:

We did for sure. Absolutely.

Sabrina:

We're going to talk today about dough styles. What type of dough do you make? And can you tell us about the process at a high level.

Stephen:

So we started out as a just strictly Neapolitan style, kind of evolved into our New York Neapolitan hybrid. And we're at about a 72% hydration. We're blending 2 or 3 different flours at times. Double fermentation process. Actually. We start with a Biga, which is a mother dough, for 12 hours, and then we get it into a bulk rise for another 12, and then a ball rise for 12 more after that.

So it's definitely a labor love. It's just, you know, 2 or 3 day process to get a pizza coming out. 

Sabrina: 

And you definitely wanted to make sure that you had the dough created in-house. You didn't want to source. 

Stephen:

Oh 1,000%. There's I mean, no offense to anyone, but if you own a pizzeria and you're sourcing dough that's coming in frozen or from another place, I think you're in the wrong business. Sorry.

Sabrina:

Definitely. And how did you choose this style of dough, particularly? 

Stephen:

I fell in love with Neapolitan pizza back in 2008. I took a trip to Italy. I have some family down in Naples, and I saw these big wood burning domed ovens for the first time, and I was like, wow, what is that? Because I grew up in New York City, I was accustomed to the New York slice, and I saw this raging fire inside of the oven, and I saw these pies coming out at a crazy pace, and it just opened my eyes to a real pizza. What I think real pizza should be. 

And I just became engulfed with it. And I read every book cover to cover it, watched every YouTube video, and just became obsessed with Neapolitan pizza. 

Sabrina:

That's the way to do it. Jump in, get right in there. Make that dough.

Stephen:

Get your hands dirty. 

Sabrina: 

That's awesome. And what was the biggest dough unlock for you? What really helped take your dough from good to great?

Stephen:

I think just experimenting with different techniques and different flours and different hydrations. There's so many different variables that go into making good pizza dough or good dough in general. Anyone that bakes will know that. So it's temperature in the room, it's humidity in the room. It's the temperature of the flour when it's being mixed, the amount of time it's being mixed. Different types of yeast and pre ferments. 

So there's so many different things and variables that keep me intrigued to this day. It’s been 13 years later, I'm still very excited about making pizza dough every day. 

Sabrina:

That's awesome. And if someone wants to start making their own dough from scratch, let's say that they are currently sourcing it from somewhere and they want to bring it in-house. Where do they start? 

Stephen:

I think you start with a simple recipe. It depends on the style, but something that's easy to work with as far as handling the dough, which could probably be a lower hydration, 50 or 60%. And, you can't go wrong with a low cold fermentation. So make your dough, boil your dough, put it in your box, leave it in the fridge for 48 hours or up to three days. Take it out, stretch it and use it. That's probably the best advice I can give as far as simplicity. And also, for the best quality. 

Sabrina:

Well Steve, thank you so much for your thank you for talking to Slice today, for helping educate pizza shop owners everywhere on how to make the best dough. 

Stephen:

My pleasure. Thank you.