Chorizo was the last topping Joe Carlucci decided to add to “The Godfather,” a marvelous, meat-positive signature pie at his restaurant, Valentina’s Pizzeria & Wine Bar. The chorizo kisses your tongue edge as you chomp into a slice dotted with this spicy, Spanish sausage.

The Godfather is ripe with chunks and slivers of hearty proteins. Pepperoni, Italian sausage, ground beef, Soppressata cured sausage, bacon, and meatballs made from an evolved version of Carlucci’s grandmother Nanny’s old recipe.

“You have to make sure your flavor profile is blended right,” Carlucci says of making a meaty pizza without overkill. “You don’t overpower it with one or more toppings. They all have to come together.”

And come together they do on the surface of a Godfather, laid over whole-milk mozzarella and basil-punctuated red sauce made fresh from a blend of Californian and Italian tomatoes.

The bedrock? Valentina’s nuanced crust. They make their dough from flour that comes from Naples, Italy. It takes about six minutes for Valentina’s to cook a pizza in their gleaming silver Marra Forni electric oven.

“The undercarriage shouldn’t flop,” Carlucci says of the ideal pizza crust. The crust should display what’s known as “spiderweb,” he says. “It’s crispy but chewy at the same time. That’s what we shoot for.”

Valentina’s pizzas aren’t cheap. The Godfather is roughly the same price as a ticket to some music hall rock concerts in the Huntsville market. But this is one Ferrari of a pie. Every single component exudes handmade excellence.

New York-native Carlucci estimates Valentina’s serves a couple hundred Godfather pizzas a week. That tally is particularly notable when you consider Valentina’s, located at the Madison address of 25783 Huntsville Brownsferry Road, is only open 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays.

Valentina’s is named for Carlucci’s 10-year-old daughter. Some of their signature pizzas are named for nieces, nephews and even his daughter’s friends.

On a child’s pleasure spectrum, pizza is near the top. So for a young girl like Valentina, having not just a restaurant but a pizzeria titled in your honor is akin to having a Barbie or superhero named after you.

Carlucci says Valentina already is making future plans for her namesake eatery. “She wants to have multiple Valentina’s, and she wants to run them. She wants to jump in head-first.”

Away from work, Carlucci says he doesn’t really have any hobbies. On the weekends, he cooks at home with Valentina, teaching her how to make fresh pasta and meatballs, and spends time with his girlfriend, who resides in Long Island.

Otherwise, “I eat sleep and drink pizza,” he says.

Carlucci christened The Godfather in honor of his favorite all-time movie, Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 mob saga, which was adapted from Mario Puzo’s 1969 novel.

“And what’s the number one thing in The South people love — meat, right?” Carlucci adds. “So let me do a meat pizza and because it’d be the number-one pizza it’s called The Godfather.”

Carlucci was born in the Bronx and raised in Carmel, about 50 miles north of New York City. He learned about to make pizza from his brother-in-law Frankie. Carlucci says he got started in the restaurant business when he was about 14, doing dishes at a pizzeria called Redendo’s.

“I wasn’t even allowed to look at the sauce,” Carlucci recalls. “On the cans, they would rip the label off. They were old school Italian, right off the boat. So I was dishes first, then I was counter help, then delivery driver, and after all that I moved up to actually making a pizza.”

Much later on, Carlucci achieved international acclaim for his skills, including for world’s fastest pizza maker and for a pizza dough toss taller than the length of a large great white shark. Yet he’s quick to mention his first-ever pizza back in the day was “shaped like football.”

He attributes his growth as a pizza maker to repetition – “I have a lot more than 10,000″ referring to oft-cited hours needed to master a skill – and consistency.

Carlucci says his daughter Valentina, who’s half-Italian and half-Korean, is already “way ahead” of where he was when he started making pizzas. “She’s learning both trades, Italian and Korean. We could do some Italian-Korean pizzas, a mixture.”

A cheese pizza is both Carlucci’s favorite and his daughter’s. Of a bare-bones pie charms he says, “I think anybody taste-testing pizzas should do cheese. It will give it justice.”

About 23 years ago, Carlucci met and learned from Tony Gemignani, a renown California pizzaiolo and food-TV guest fave. “He taught me a lot of the fundamentals when I was in my mid-20s,” Carlucci says. “Kinda redirected me on some things.”

Growing up, Carlucci’s go-to pies came from joints likes Louie’s Brooklyn Pizza and John’s of Bleecker St. He says an underrated facet of making true New York style pizza is, “the old, old baking stones they’re working on. They’re so seasoned — they’ve made thousands of pizzas on there, think about that. Our stones are brand new, and they’re great, but the old-fashioned ones …”

Prior to moving to Alabama, Carlucci also paid pizza dues in Connecticut. Asked what originally brought him down to north Alabama, he makes a joke about the witness protection program.

Seriously, though, he says about 15 years ago he was brought in as a consultant along with Gemignani for the restaurant Tortora’s in Owens Cross Roads, just over Monte Sano mountain. After that, he launched his own venture here, called Joe’s World Famous Wood-Fired Mobile Pizza.

“I fell in love with The South,” Carlucci says. “I don’t miss New York, but I miss the family gatherings on Sunday.

After building up a following with his food truck, about three years ago Carlucci’s opened Valentina’s. The original location was in a snug space just down the road from the restaurant’s new location.

“You’re next to cornfields,” he says. “You’re in a little hole-in-the-wall next to a gas station. People thought I was crazy. I just put my head down, gave it to God and tried to become better every single day at every single aspect of running a restaurant, from delegating to the ingredients to the dough to the staff.”

The original Valentina’s space is currently closed. But the proprietor plans on rebooting it soon as a small plates and wine bar sister business to his mothership.

Valentina’s is situated in a misty geographical realm. Although both the original and new locations have Madison addresses and are in Limestone County, they’re also technically located in Huntsville.

Via email, Valentina’s general manager Camryn Suggs explains it this way: “Limestone County is dry, so they annexed into Huntsville City. Madison Postal is just how the lines are drawn.”

The original Valentina’s was vibey as hell. A warmly lit, living-room-sized dining area. Carlucci spinning pies in plain view in front of customers.

But that setting also made it difficult for Valentina’s to meet demand, hence the freshly built and much larger new locale.

“Even though we’re on a larger scale than the old place,” Carlucci says, “we still want that homey feel. And I believe that we can still create that with the food, the passion and my employees.”

The new spot’s interior includes repurposed “Raiders of the Lost Ark” set-looking wood doors from Egypt. A back wall is adorned with a large-scale painting of Carlucci’s daughter’s cute visage.

There are also framed photos of Carlucci with celebs like Snoop Dogg and 50 Cent, from his appearance on TV as Martha Stewart’s guest. “It was awesome,” he recalls of cooking for those famous rappers and Stewart. “They were the most amazing, humble people. Just ordinary people, really just chill.”

When it comes to sharing his accomplishments, Carlucci is about as shy as Freddie Mercury. Framed press pizza-hero clippings dot a couple of the new Valentina’s dining room walls. Still, Carlucci makes it a point to give props to his staff of around 25. And, refreshingly, he goes by “Joe” not “Chef Joe.”

“My employees made this happen, not me,” he says. “So I give them all the kudos. I give them all the respect. I’m gonna be right on the line with them. I’m going to be doing the dishes tonight, I’m gonna be jumping in making pizzas. Because I’m the owner doesn’t mean I’m better than you in any way, shape or form. We all work together. And we’re all here for the same purpose — have fun, make money.”

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