In Portland OR, this pizza-obsessed town, how do you take the doughy, cheesy staple to the next level? Just ask Trifone Walter Ferrante—he goes by Walter—who serves a Southern Italian street food rarely seen stateside called panzerotti out of a Foster-Powell food cart.
In its essence, panzerotti is essentially like a fried pizza or calzone. Fresh dough gets rolled out by hand and filled to order with tomatoes, cheese, and options including anchovy-caper (Ferrante’s favorite), soft spicy Southern ’nduja sausage, or our pick, the carciofi (artichoke). Then, it’s lovingly deep-fried until golden brown, where the dough puffs up and becomes crispy while somehow not absorbing too much grease.
