As if the pizza wasn’t enough, Caliente Pizza and Drafthouse is giving away an “I ate the Mee-Maw” T-shirt with any order of their award-winning pizza.
The “Mee-Maw” pizza was conceived by Caliente chef Eric Von Hansen, who named his creation in honor of his grandmother. Earlier this year, Von Hansen flew to Parma, Italy, and beat out 160 entries in the American division of the 2019 World Pizza Championships.
Von Hansen’s pan pizza entry was made with locally sourced porcheta, rapini and cheese. He began foraging for the ingredients in Rome, where he got the rapini. Then he went to San Gimignano and got truffle cheese and porchetta. Then it was on to Tuscany, where he went truffle foraging in the mountains. And finally to Parma and to the plant where they make Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.
He spread the greens flavored with crushed plum tomatoes, peppered bacon, salt, pepper and garlic on freshly made dough drizzled with olive oil and grated cheese.
Last May, Caliente made the Mee-Maw available at its locations in Aspinwall, Monroeville, Bloomfield, Hampton and Mt. Lebanon. The 12-cut pan pizza is $29.99.
A total of 1,000 “I ate the Mee-Maw” T-shirts are being made available — 200 at each Caliente’s location.
