Pizza face-off is a family holiday festivity

Mark Benvenuto (at the head of the table) competed with his uncle Richard Realmuto (at right, wearing glasses and holding piece of pizza) to see who could make the finest pie. (Essdras M Suarez/Globe Staff)

ARLINGTON - Mark Benvenuto is a 33-year-old manager at a pharmaceutical company. He lives with his wife in a condo here and roots for the Red Sox.

Richard Realmuto, Mark's uncle, teaches technology education at Stuyvesant High School in New York. He and his wife live in Queens. He's a Mets fan.

A few years ago, the two men started ribbing each other over who made the best pizza. An idea took hold - a competition the night after Thanksgiving. The Realmutos would drive to the Benvenutos' Arlington home. The rest of the family - Realmuto's wife and his three adult daughters; one daughter's boyfriend; Benvenuto's wife, sister, and mother (who is Realmuto's sister); and Realmuto's mother (who is Benvenuto's grandmother) - would serve as judges. They named their teams the New York Pepperonis and the Boston Red Sauce.

They took different approaches. Benvenuto cruised the Internet for a pizza-making book. Realmuto merely tried to recall the taste of the pies his Sicilian grandmother made in her basement kitchen.

"When I was a kid, my whole family would get together at my grandmother's house in Flatbush, Brooklyn," he says. "She and my uncle would parade out of the kitchen with pan after pan of Sicilian pizza. It was the best pizza you've ever tasted: just a cheese pie with a thick chewy crust."

It was a recipe he learned to make in his youth - and kept making after he went legally blind in 1990, and even after he lost all but some light perception four years ago. "It's a lot of fun and I still enjoy it," he says.

The New Yorker and his nephew square off in the small kitchen. The Benvenutos have only one oven; their next-door neighbor offered the use of hers, in exchange for a piece of the winning pie.

Realmuto's wife of three decades, Carol, makes the sauce. "We drove up from New York this morning with a freshly made pot of sauce and all our own ingredients," he explains, slathering olive oil onto a pan of dough. "We even brought a jar of New York City tap water to use in the crust."

Benvenuto is more scientific. "There are only four major ingredients in pizza dough, so it's important to find the right ratio of these ingredients and couple that with the right fermentation time and temperature," he says. "Most people add too much yeast to their dough, which eats up the sugars. I use a minimal amount of yeast and let the dough ferment in the fridge at least overnight."

Benvenuto's culinary passion is grilling, and normally he grills his pizza, but not today. "I realized you couldn't really put up a caramelized onion, prosciutto, and arugula grilled pizza against a Sicilian pie. So for the contest, we're both using just sauce and cheese for the first round. We'll keep it simple and use very traditional ingredients. The second round is the heavy hitters: sausage and pepperoni."

Realmuto checks his watch, worried he may overcook his pies. Again, Benvenuto falls back on science. "My theory is that the hotter the oven, the faster it will cook and the less water you lose in the cooking process."

Once both pizzas are baked, the men brandish pizza wheels. Realmuto carries his in the pocket of an apron his wife has ordered specially for the occasion. In the Benvenutos's dining room, the judges are waiting for samples.

After toasts and tastes, the group proclaims Benvenuto's the best. His crust has a sprinkling of herbs that lend flavor; his thinly sliced mozzarella is baked almost to a crisp. Red onion lends texture to his red sauce.

But there are also raves for Realmuto's thick, chewy crust, redolent with olive oil and a blanket of smooth, creamy mozzarella over a thin layer of Carol's sauce. "That's why I married her, because she makes such good sauce," Realmuto says. "I can definitely taste the New York tap water," his daughter Bridget announces.

But one person at the table has more voting power than the others. Benvenuto's sister points out that it doesn't really matter what the majority thinks. The pronouncement should come from Grandma. All eyes turn to Mary Realmuto. "This one is the best," she says with certainty. "Who made this one?" Her grandson, she is told. Then she takes a bite of her son's slice. "But I really like this one too. This one has the best crust."

Now no one is sure who really won - nor does anyone care. (Though Realmuto later adds that even with his diminished sight, "Yeah, I still won.") At the dinner, Benvenuto returns to the kitchen and reappears with a white portobello mushroom pizza ("the palate cleanser," he says). That's quickly followed by each chef's sausage and pepperoni pie.

"Just wait until next year," Benvenuto announces. "I'm challenging Uncle Rich to a barbeque contest."