{"id":218563,"date":"2026-03-13T20:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T20:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/218563\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T20:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T20:16:12","slug":"dodici-pizza-brings-apulian-thin-crisp-pies-to-alkali-flats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/218563\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodici Pizza brings Apulian thin-crisp pies to Alkali Flats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Of all the many styles of pizza, thin-crust, wood-fired Neapolitan is arguably the most famous \u2014 and the original. Sicily has its thick, focaccia-like pizza. The area around Rome has pinsa, made with rice and soy flour to give it more lightness and chew. Lesser known is Apulian pizza, coming from the southeastern city of Bari.<\/p>\n

The Apulian style is ultra-thin and crisp. Unlike Neapolitan, which must be made with ultrafine 00 flour, this style is also made with type 1 flour, which also includes some of the bran, making it more rustic.<\/p>\n

Places that make Apulian pizza are rare in the states, with a peppering of spots in central Connecticut, northern New Jersey, Santa Monica \u2014 and now, Sacramento.<\/p>\n

A homecoming of sorts<\/p>\n

Dodici Pizza<\/a>, opened last month in Alkali Flats, is an offshoot of popular midtown Italian restaurant Adamo\u2019s Kitchen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Manager Manager Jackson Wells adds toppings to a pizza order at Dodici Pizza in Sacramento on March 6. JOS\u00c9 LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

Father-daughter team John and Chiara Adamo intended to open the restaurant before the onset of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents had just bought the building, and the space was vacant,\u201d Chiara Adamo said. \u201cI had been traveling for sports, and there had been this pizza place in Denver. And I just thought how cool the whole scene was, the vibe. And I thought it\u2019d be really cool if one day we could, like, open up and do a takeout window.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then she found out she was pregnant with twin girls. The Adamos decided to lease the space instead. Restaurateur Chris Jarosz of Broderick Roadhouse came in, opening Anonimo Pizza in early 2022.<\/p>\n

Jarosz was tragically killed in a traffic accident<\/a> the following year. Anonimo\u2019s general manager, Juanes Ramazzini, relaunched it as Luccas before ultimately relocating operations to sister restaurant Bambina\u2019s Pizza & Pasta early last year. This created an opportunity for the Adamos.<\/p>\n

Help from the homeland<\/p>\n

In order to deliver the most authentic experience, they decided to bring in outside help. They knew consultant Joe Ciardiello through a friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know how Italians are, a friend, a cousin, everyone\u2019s at some point, it all just becomes one big melting pot,\u201d Chiara Adamo said. \u201cWe wanted to do something different. And had something that he specialized in. It allowed us to use two different types of flour to kind of get the chew that we wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Co-owner Co-owner Chiara Adamo at Dodici Pizza in Sacramento on March 6. JOS\u00c9 LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

Ciardiello originally hails from Bari but works in Naples now. He\u2019s been making pizza since he was a child, and professionally since he was 18. He came to Sacramento to train the staff and to share his unique pizza recipe. With Ciardiello leaving in the next few weeks, manager Jackson Wells has taken up the mantle.<\/p>\n

The crust of the matter<\/p>\n

\u201cOur process is creating our dough and fermenting it for 48 hours. It creates a light, chewy crust that has a good crunch to it and a very solid, durable base,\u201d Wells said.<\/p>\n

In the kitchen, Wells grabs a round of dough resting in semolina flour. He deftly pats it out, pushing his knuckles around the perimeter to create a cornice. He turns the dough to keep it into a round. He then picks it up and flips it back and forth between his hands to stretch the dough further to a 13-inch diameter.<\/p>\n

\"Manager Manager Jackson Wells prepares pizza dough at Dodici Pizza in Sacramento on March 6. JOS\u00c9 LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

The pizza is then lightly topped, and a thin metal peel is swiftly swept under it to convey it to the ovens. At about 600 degrees for just shy of four minutes, the pizzas come out hot, fresh and crisp. The most popular option is the Margherita ($15).<\/p>\n

\u201cLots and lots of Margherita, plus the diavola ($17.50) and the rosemarino ($20.50) are probably our top three sellers,\u201d Wells said.<\/p>\n

On our visit, they were in the process of swapping out some menu items. The autunno ($23) \u2014 with pumpkin, porcini mushrooms and guanciale \u2014 is being replaced with a more summery estiva ($22). It features yellow tomato sauce, prosciutto, fig jam and almonds. The Norvegese ($21), a sort of bagel and lox on a pizza, is being subbed for a spicy Calabrese ($18), with San Marzano tomatoes, burrata, crumbled taralli (an Apulian cracker) and \u2018nduja, a spicy, spreadable kind of sausage from Calabria.<\/p>\n

Salads are also notable. The Campagnola ($10) utilizes an unexpected base of julienned zucchini combined with pomegranate seeds, mint and basil.<\/p>\n

For dessert, don\u2019t miss the cannoli ($9.50), a crisp, fried tube filled with sweetened whipped ricotta mascarpone. Though if you insist on sticking with pizza throughout, the Nutella-topped rosalia ($15) beckons.<\/p>\n

\"Lauren Lauren Titus, Lindsay Foletta, and Kathleen Gormley enjoy their lunch at Dodici Pizza on March 6. JOS\u00c9 LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

Dodici Pizza<\/p>\n

Address: 400 12th St., Alkali Flats<\/p>\n

Hours: Lunch service is 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesday-Friday. Dinner service is 5-9 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday and Sunday. Dinner service is 5-10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Closed Mondays.<\/p>\n

Phone: 916-754-2649<\/p>\n

Website: dodici-pizzeria.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Vegetarian options: Plenty<\/p>\n

Noise level: The restaurant is all hard surfaces, so it can get boisterous when busy.<\/p>\n

Loading\u2026<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Sean Timberlake<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Sean Timberlake is the food and dining reporter for The Sacramento Bee. He has been writing professionally for nearly 30 years, and about food for 20. A variety of well-known outlets have published his work, including Food Network, Cooking Channel, CNN, Sunset Magazine and SF Weekly.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Of all the many styles of pizza, thin-crust, wood-fired Neapolitan is arguably the most famous \u2014 and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[100150,100149,100151,100148,121,123,122],"class_list":["post-218563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-alkali-flats","tag-apulian-pizza","tag-bari-style-pizza","tag-dodici-pizza","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}