Brazilian Pizza in Union, NJ
Catupiry, calabresa, hearts of palm and the sweet pies, made on Stuyvesant Ave.
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Brazilian pizza uses a different set of toppings from the Italian-American kind. Catupiry cheese where you would expect ricotta, calabresa sausage where you would expect pepperoni, hearts of palm, sweet corn, egg on top of the Portuguesa, and a whole course of sweet pizzas eaten for dessert.
We make nine Brazilian-style pizzas, on the same counter and in the same oven as the Brooklyn-style pies. Below is what each one actually is, and what it costs. Every price here is the printed price.
Calabresa Pizza
Calabresa is a cured pork sausage, coarser and smokier than pepperoni and cut thin so the edges cup and darken in the oven. It goes on with raw onion, which loses its bite in the heat but keeps its edge. If you are trying one Brazilian pizza, start with this one.
Calabresa sausage, onions, mozzarella & tomato sauce
Slice $4.75 · M $20.95 · L $22.95 · XL $26.95
Portuguese Pizza, the Portuguesa
The Portuguesa is the one with egg on it. Ham, onion, tomato, green pepper and oregano go under the mozzarella, then eggs are cracked over the top before it bakes. The yolk sets soft and runs into the cheese when the pie is cut. Nothing else on our menu eats like it.
Ham, onions, eggs, tomato, oregano, green peppers, mozzarella & tomato sauce
Slice $4.75 · M $21.95 · L $24.95 · XL $27.95
Chicken Catupiry Pizza
Catupiry is a soft Brazilian cream cheese, and it is the ingredient that most defines this half of the menu. It behaves more like a thick spread than like mozzarella: it does not pull into strings, it melts into pools and stays creamy. Here it sits under grilled chicken. This is the gentlest way in if catupiry is new to you.
Grilled chicken, mozzarella, catupiry & tomato sauce
Slice $4.50 · M $21.45 · L $22.45 · XL $30.95
Tropicalia Pizza
Hearts of palm are the inner core of a palm stem, sliced into rounds. Firm, faintly sweet, closer to artichoke than to anything else you will find on an American menu. The Tropicalia puts them with chicken, bacon and sweet corn. It is the busiest pie on this list and the fastest way to understand the section.
Onions, green peppers, corn, chicken, tomato, bacon, mozzarella, tomato sauce & hearts of palm
Slice $4.75 · M $21.95 · L $24.95 · XL $27.95
Chef Pizza
The loaded one. Smoked turkey and mushrooms with two Brazilian signatures on the same pie, hearts of palm and catupiry, and egg over the top. Order it when you cannot decide.
Mushrooms, smoked turkey, hearts of palm, catupiry cheese, bacon, oregano, eggs, mozzarella & tomato sauce
Slice $4.95 · M $21.45 · L $25.45 · XL $30.95
5 Cheese
Four cheeses you already know and one you may not. Mozzarella, parmesan, provolone and ricotta, with catupiry as the fifth. The catupiry is what keeps it from reading as an ordinary four-cheese pie.
Tomato sauce, mozzarella, parmesan, provolone, ricotta & catupiry
Slice $4.50 · M $20.95 · L $24.50 · XL $29.95
Corn Bacon Pizza
Sweet corn on a pizza reads as strange in New Jersey and as completely ordinary in Brazil. Whole kernels with bacon over tomato sauce and mozzarella. It is the cheapest pie in this section and the one most likely to surprise you.
Sweet corn topped with bacon, tomato sauce & mozzarella
Slice $3.95 · M $17.95 · L $21.95 · XL $24.95
Dessert pizza is a course in Brazil rather than a novelty. A table orders savory pies, the plates come away, and a sweet one arrives cut the same way and meant to be shared. We keep three, in the same four sizes as everything else.
Romeo & Juliet Pizza, Romeu e Julieta
Mozzarella and guava, and nothing else. The pairing is called Romeu e Julieta in Brazil, named for the contrast between the salty cheese and the sweet fruit paste. If you have never had a sweet pizza, order this one.
Mozzarella & guava
Small $15.99 · M $19.95 · L $22.95 · XL $26.95
Banana Pizza
Sliced banana with cinnamon, white chocolate and catupiry over mozzarella. The banana softens in the oven and colors at the edges, and the catupiry keeps the whole thing from tipping into pure sugar.
Banana, cinnamon, white chocolate, catupiry & mozzarella
Small $15.99 · M $19.95 · L $22.95 · XL $26.95
Nutella Pizza
Nutella with strawberry on top. The other two are specifically Brazilian. This is the international version of the same idea, and it is the one children tend to point at.
Nutella topped with strawberry
Small $15.99 · M $19.95 · L $22.95 · XL $26.95
What makes Brazilian pizza different
Four things, and all four are visible on the menu rather than matters of opinion.
Catupiry is a base, not a garnish. It is on five of these pies: the Chicken Catupiry, the Chef, the 5 Cheese, the Banana and as a topping in its own right. An Italian-American kitchen would reach for ricotta in most of those places.
Hearts of palm and sweet corn are pizza toppings here. On most menus in this county they are salad ingredients. On the Tropicalia and the Chef they are the point of the pie.
Egg belongs on a pizza. The Portuguesa and the Chef both carry it, baked on rather than added after.
Dessert pizza is its own category with its own four sizes, not a single item filed under desserts.
The same ingredients are available on anything else we make. Calabresa sausage, hearts of palm and catupiry cheese all sit in the $5 special topping tier, so a Brooklyn-style pie, a calzone or a stromboli can be half Brazilian if you want it that way.
Guaraná and the rest
Guaraná is Brazil's own soft drink, made from an Amazonian berry. Sweeter than cola and far less sharp, and the thing most people reach for alongside a calabresa pie. We keep it cold by the can and by the two liter bottle. Drink prices are not printed, so ask when you order.
The full list, with every size and every topping, is on the menu page. We deliver these pies the same as any other, to Union and out to Springfield, Kenilworth and Hillside.