Beautiful pizza pies at Tufino Pizzeria Napoletana in Astoria

Ah, pizza!

Recently, we joined some of our fellow Queens food bloggers for a pizza feast at Tufino Pizzeria Napoletana as guests of the restaurant. Yes, we’ve been there before but we couldn’t resist enjoying pizza and pals on a pleasant Thursday night. Joining us were Bradley from Amuse * Bouche, Anne from City Spoonful (and Forgotten Foods of NYC), Sue from Tastoria Queens, Joe (and his photographer) from Chopsticks + Marrow, and Laura from 89th and Broke.

Along with the pizzas we tried some fried treats – a fried calzone, arancini (rice balls), panzarotti (oblong fried potato croquette stuffed with fontina & prosciutto di parma), and mozzarella fritto (a big ball of mozzarella stuffed with soppressata picante and porcini mushroom) but sadly, we didn’t get pictures of them or the lovely farro salad that came before it.

We are told that for their pizzas it can take anywhere from 60-90 seconds to cook the pizzas. Yes, it’s that quick. They crank the pizza oven to 1,000 degrees, and then it falls back down to somewhere in the 800s. Adam Kuban, creator of Slice, the awesome pizza blog that is run by the Serious Eats people, says this about the Neapolitan pizzas at Tufino, “The Neapolitan-style pizza is more doughy. It tends to be softer and puffier.”

So now, on to the pizzas!

Patatine, made with sliced yukon gold potatoes, provolone, leeks,smoked pancetta, parmagiano, and extra virgin olive oil

Bufala, made with organic italian tomatoes, mozzarella di bufala,parmigiano, basil, and extra virgin olive oil

Quattro Formaggi, made with fior di latte, fontinella, creamy provolone,fresh ricotta, garlic, black pepper, basil, and extra virgin olive oil

Il Greco, made with fior di latte, fontina, kalamata olives, oregano, freshly squeezed lemon juice (right before serving), and extra virgin olive oil – this was probably our favorite of the evening

Pistachianco, made with fior di latte, roasted pistachios, red onion, ricotta, parmagiano, and extra virgin olive oil

San Gennaro, made with organic italian tomatoes, fior di latte, local italian sausage, wood roasted peppers and onions, parmagiano, and honey piccante

We also were served the Nonna, which wrote about earlier.

The pizzas were extremely well-received and demolished soon after being served.

Tufino Pizzeria Napoletana, 36-08 Ditmars Blvd., Astoria, NY 11105; (718) 278-4800; tufinopizzeria.com GMAP