In search of the perfect pie

The Globe took Ed Levine to these pizza places:

Cambridge 1
27 Church St., Harvard Square, Cambridge
617-576-1111
Small pizzas $7-$13; large $13-$24.
The verdict: ‘‘This one [the simplest pizza] is really good, but otherwise . . . there’s not a lot of love in this pizza.’’

Picco
513 Tremont St., South End
617-927-0066
www.piccoboston.com
Small pizzas $7-$10; large $14-$17.
The verdict: ‘‘See the flakiness, see the hole structure? . . . That’s what I’m talking about.’’

Ernesto’s Pizzeria
69 Salem St., North End
617-523-1373
www.ernestosnorthend.com
Slices $2.75-$3.50; pizzas $11-$15.
The verdict: ‘‘It’s churlish to compare this to [Picco]. But this slice is very nice.’’

Santarpio’s
11 Chelsea St., East Boston
617-567-9871
Pizzas $8.50-$17.
The verdict: ‘‘Not bad. Cooked all the way through. And nice bubbles. It’s too much cheese for me, but you will never go broke putting a lot of cheese on Americans’ pizza.’’

Here are the four places Levine included in ‘‘Pizza: A Slice of Heaven’’:

Campo De Fiori
1350 Massachusetts Ave. (Holyoke Center Arcade), Cambridge
617-354-3805
www.campode.ori.org
Slices $3.50-$6.
The verdict: ‘‘They were all delicious: fresh-tasting, yeasty, obviously made with good ingredients. The crust was thicker than what I found in Rome or New York, but it had terri.c hole structure.’’

Emma’s
40 Hampshire St., Cambridge
617-864-8534
www.emmaspizza.com
Small pizza $8-$15; large $11-$20.
The verdict: ‘‘The crust . . . was basically a homemade lavash cracker. . . . The cheese . . . blanketed the whole pie in overwhelming fashion. . . . This couldn’t be the best pizza Boston has to offer.’’

Pizza Oggi
8 Perkins St., Jamaica Plain
617-971-9797
www.pizzaoggi.com
Small pizzas $12-$16; large $14-$18.
The verdict: ‘‘The crust had a quarter-inch layer of spongy, gooey, unbaked dough. The sauce tasted as if it had been cooked, a pizza no-no. If this was the best traditional pizza to be found in Boston, I found myself asking just what tradition it was trying to adhere to.’’

Pizzeria Regina
11.5 Thatcher St., North End
617-227-0765
www.pizzeriaregina.com
Small pizzas $7.50-$10; large $12-$17. The verdict: ‘‘The crust had bubbled up beautifully. It was indeed crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. The mozzarella was, as advertised, decent-quality aged mozzarella, but what made the pie . . . was the Romano cheese generously sprinkled on the top.’’