When my parents lived in Naples in the 1990s, I remember ordering pizza from the side window of an ancient pizzeria. Rather than a slice, I was handed an entire pizza. But it was portable: folded into quarters and steaming inside a paper wrapper. Biting into the multiple layers at once melded together the familiar flavors and textures of milky mozzarella, silky tomato sauce and chewy, ash-scented crust, but in a new way.
This centuries-old Neapolitan specialty — the original street food version of pizza, in its centuries-old birthplace — is now sold in San Francisco at Sforno, a tiny pizzeria on a Hayes Valley side street. The restaurant specializes in pizza a portafoglio ($9), or wallet pizza — so named because the folded layers resemble the layers of a billfold. Open since late December, Sforno is likely the only place in the Bay Area to find portafoglio, according to owner Silvia Veronese.
“It’s very, very typical from Naples,” said Veronese, a native of Verona, Italy, who has lived in the Bay Area for 20 years, working in tech. “It’s not quite dinner; it’s more of a snack.”…