Fiamme Pizza Napoletana: Authentic Neapolitan Pizza on Wheels

When chefs and business partners Luke Smith and Scott Volpe decided to go into business, they knew right away that they wanted to bring authentic Neapolitan pizza to Tucson.

Longtime friends, native Tucsonans, and big fans of authentic Italian pizza, Smith and Volpe met through their involvement in high school athletics and cut their culinary teeth working in various kitchens during that time. After graduating, the two put their heads together and set a course for culinary perfection. That is, as far as making the perfect pizza is concerned.

For Volpe, this meant first apprenticing with a third generation Neapolitan pizza master born and raised in Naples, Italy and becoming VPN and APN compliant. Unfortunately, an official certification from Verace Pizza Napoletana (VPN) or Associazione Pizzaiuoli Napoletani (APN) requires a brick and mortar location, but Fiamme’s pie is no less authentic without the badge.

“We are certified with a new pizza school my teacher created. We help him train and gain new customers looking to learn Neapolitan Pizza making skills,” said Volpe. “The pizza school is located in Los Angeles at Rosito Bisani Imports called Authentic Pizzaiouli Italiani (API). It’s a school my teacher Vito has created himself and is brand new in the industry.”

With limited means, Smith and Volpe handmade a signature mobile wood fire oven. Using recycled materials and bricks carved and shaped through industrious trial and error, Smith and Volpe developed a fully functioning roaming pizza oven reaching temperatures close to 800º and delivering a savory and rustic pizza in about three minutes.

“Eventually we’d like to be a brick and mortar,” says Luke as he prepares a pizza for a lucky and hungry patron. “But we’re pretty satisfied with what we are doing now.”

And rightly so. Fiamme dishes up an extraordinary and truly authentic Neapolitan pie using Five Stagioni flour imported from Italy and a 100 year old mother yeast from their teacher.

“We are using an old Neapolitan tradition of a mother yeast,” said Volpe. “We have a naturally occurring mother yeast that we feed regularly and place inside our pizza dough in place of man made yeast. The texture and flavor is light and soft when placed inside a type 00 flour. Type 00 is the most refined type of flour you can use and is ideal for making pizza Napoletana.”

Volpe says the flavor is noticeably different and not quite as filling. In addition, Fiamme uses handmade cow’s milk mozzarella and sauce made from San Marzano tomatoes.

As is standard with any Neapolitan pizza joint – mobile or stationary – it all starts with the Margherita. Fiamme’s features vine ripened tomatoes, aromatic basil picked fresh in the morning, mozzarella, and olive oil.

“It’s the house specialty and my favorite,” says Smith. “It is so good.”

Fiamme also features a Carciofi e Fungi, which is traditionally a pasta dish, featuring market fresh mushrooms and a homemade basil garlic pesto.

In addition to the two signature pizzas, Fiamme features a rotating list of pies that change on a whim and with the seasons. Additional varieties and items include (limited availability):

• Marinara – sauce, bail, oregano, garlic
• Caprese – heirloom tomato, pesto, mozzarella
• Sole Bianco – sauce, salame, oregano, ricotta, mozzarella
• Calzone – tomato, ricotta, salame, mozzarella
• Pizze con Nutella – Nutella, seasonal fruit

With no brick and mortar location, Fiamme are always on the move.

“We know that if we keep doing what we are doing we will eventually build a name and be able to have a successful restaurant,” said Smith. For now, he says, they are both content being slightly nomadic.

Fiamme Pizza Napoletana can be found on Saturdays at the Oro Valley farmers market at 10901 N. Oracle Road and Sundays at the Rillito Park farmers market at 4502 N. First Avenue, and occasionally in front of Dragoon Brewing, Tap & Bottle, and St. Joseph’s Hospital.

Keep up with Fiamme Pizza Napoletana on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.