A fresh pizza pie. Credit: Sven Rehder/Getty Images Confession: I’ve never been a pizza fan. (I know, I know.) But even as a kid I’d fake a smile during Pizza Fridays or when I won a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut through the Book It! (IYKYK). Maybe it was growing up in California, but even after moving to New York City, I’d only grab the occasional obligatory slice. I had spots I liked, of course. Lil' Frankie's in the East Village became a favorite—though more for its arugula and burrata than the pies themselves. When New Jersey’s pizza scene began stealing the spotlight, takeout from RazzaandBread and Salt carried me through the pandemic. Later, when I couldn’t get a table at Lucali—yes, the date spot of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce—I stumbled into Table 87 in Gowanus and was pleasantly surprised. Still, pizza was never something I craved … until I spent a week in New Haven, Connecticut, in the summer of 2023 while attending the Yale Writers’ Workshop.…