Brewers fans might not be eager to seek out links between Milwaukee and St. Louis, but, perhaps fitting – from both sides – the link is cheese (Wisconsin's bread and butter) and pizza (St. Louis has a vibrant Italian-American history).
To be more specific, the link is something called Provel, which according to one packaged version is "pasteurized process Cheddar, Swiss and provolone cheese."
In St. Louis Today, Joe Bonwich wrote that trademark research shows that Provel was invented in the 1940s, specifically for use on pizzas in St. Louis, by Tony Costa, of the the Costa Grocery in St. Louis' The Hill Italian neighborhood, and Wisconsin's Hoffman Dairy, which was bought out by Kraft. (A Kraft subsidiary currently owns the Provel trademark.)
Theories abound about the name, which may be a mix of the words provolone and mozzarella, though some say that in its infancy, it was originally called provole.
Not wanting to visit St. Louis yet again without trying its famed Provel-topped pizza, we stopped at one of the many Imo's locations, which are outgrowths of the original Imo's location on The Hill.
We had shredded Provel on a salad. In that setting it had a smoky flavor not unlike the aged and oft-smoked scamorza, and the kids gobbled it up. Its somewhat mushy texture offers a hint to why it's perfect for pizza.
Provel has a very low melting point and because St. Louis pizza has an improbably thin crust, it cooks super fast, which makes a quick-melting cheese a plus.
We ordered a 16-inch pie with plain cheese on half and black olives on half. On the plain cheese side, the Provel melted so thoroughly that it blended into the sauce and if you look at the photo above, you can't distinguish where one ends and other begins. (You can also see the cracker-thin crust – think Zaffiro's.)
Thanks, presumably, to the olives, the cheese and sauce remained a little more distinct on that half of the pizza.
As a family, we were all a little lukewarm on the Provel. I suspect the goopiness of the integrated cheese and sauce is something you have to grow up with to truly love.
Originally, part of the allure of Provel on pizza was its "clean bite," and, indeed, the cheese doesn't possess the stringiness that sometimes makes it challenging to eat pizza without getting more mozzarella on your chin than you bargained for.
We also tried an appetizer of toasted ravioli, another St. Louis specialty invented on The Hill (birthplace of Yogi Berra and Joe Garagiola). Best enjoyed hot, these crispy ravioli were stuffed with a slightly spicy beef filling that was a hit with everyone at the table.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
