Your first visit to Lakdi: what to expect
How to order, how fast it arrives, how to eat it and what to do if you have a large group.
Charred or burnt? The dark spots on our crust
Those black blisters on the rim are a sign of a hot oven and a well-fermented dough, not a mistake.
Now and then a guest sends a pizza back because the crust has black spots. We always offer to bake another, but we also explain what the spots are, because most people who understand them come to love them.
In Naples, these spots are called leopard spotting. When a well-risen dough meets a stone floor and an air temperature of about 450 °C, the bubbles in the rim swell quickly. The thin skin on top of each bubble chars in a few seconds, while the dough beneath stays soft and white. The result is a pattern of small black blisters scattered across a golden rim, each one crisp and slightly smoky.
The spots depend on fermentation. Our dough rests for 48 hours in the cold, so it has plenty of gas and well-developed sugars by the time it is stretched. Those sugars brown fast. A young dough, made the same morning, would rise less and colour evenly, with no spots, but it would also taste flatter and sit heavier.
There is a difference between leopard spots and a burnt pizza. Spots are small and separate, and the dough underneath is pale and tender. A burnt pizza has large black patches that run together, a bitter smell and a hard, dry base. That happens when the pizza is left too long or the fire is too close, and if it ever reaches your table, please send it back. We would rather bake you a new one than serve you a burnt one.
