Dearfolk,
According to the guys at Little Italy (see above response) here in Athens, Georgia, the major criterion for making good pizza is not the availability of ingredients nor the skills involved (although these both are factors)… it’s the water for making the crust.
New Haven water, like New York City water, Philadelphia water, Washington, D. C. water, Atlanta water, and surely like Athens water, is from a soft, granitic source. Limestone water might be usable for pizza dough, but the hands that worked that dough would have to get used to changing some methods to be successful… if knead be.
Athens water comes in at 35 parts of dissolved solids per million; Atlanta is 48. The softest I’ve ever found from a municipal source is Gainesville, Georgia with 8.3… gad, you’d have to ADD salts to that to brew a righteous Pilsener! If water hardness alone related to pizza dough hardness, Gainesville dough would resemble nothing closer than phyllo dough! Not to be phyllosophical, but somehow I don’t think those two wonderful old fellows in San Francisco who fashion the stuff by hand would ever think of making pizza from their creation!
When I ate pizza on my trip to Torrington, Connecticut, I noted the dough similarity to that of Little Italy and guesswork did the rest. Folks, I may be wrong, but I really think it’s the water.
Neither Sliced Nor Cutted Tonight, Ort. Carlton in Lovely, Crunchy Athens, Georgia.