Rick Carvalho is the owner of OakCraft Pizza (2 Cellu Drive, Suite 111, Nashua, 521-8452, oakcraftpizza.com), a fast-casual eatery specializing in fresh wood-fired pizzas that opened in Nashua’s Amherst Street Village Center last September. A Hollis native, Carvalho said pizza-making started out as a passion project for him a few years ago. In the spring of 2019 he enrolled in an intensive course in Staten Island, New York, where he learned how to make and serve pizzas in a restaurant setting. OakCraft Pizza offers completely customizable options on an assembly line before your pie reaches the end. It’s then ready to be cooked in a wood-fired oven, which came overseas from Italy. There are multiple specialty pizza offerings, or you can choose to build your own — other menu items include cheesy garlic bread, salads, meatballs with red sauce, and hand-filled whoopie pies. Prior to opening OakCraft, Carvalho and his family formerly owned franchises for four Dunkin’ Donuts stores across Nashua.
What is your must-have kitchen item?
Definitely a dough scraper, or a baker’s third hand, as people will call it. … It’s just such a great utility tool that makes my life so much easier.
What would you have for your last meal?
Probably a really nice steak, cooked medium, with mashed potatoes … and then I’d finish it off with creme brulee.
What is your favorite local restaurant?
My wife and I got married at LaBelle Winery in Amherst six years ago. We love going there for brunch.
What celebrity would you like to see eating in your restaurant?
I’d probably go with either Matthew McConaughey, because he seems like a cool guy, or Justin Bieber, because I want him to be my target audience as a business. … If Justin Bieber comes into your restaurant and he throws one Instagram post up there about it, I mean, you’re going to retire.
What is your favorite thing on your menu?
The Vodka Pie. It has a house-made vodka sauce and fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, mushrooms and just a splash of peas … and then we finish it off with grated imported Parmesan and fresh basil. It’s an ode to a traditional Italian penne alla vodka … so it just kind of brings in a little bit of culture, and it’s something you can’t get anywhere else around here that I know of.
What is the biggest food trend in New Hampshire right now?
Definitely vegan options … and then also just a higher-end experience. I think people are starting to finally get that around here, and I think it was a huge push in why we opened and with what we’re doing.
What is your favorite thing to cook at home?
I used to cook a lot at home, actually. … The thing I’ve cooked the most at home would be chicken Parm with just like a simple pasta.
Homemade chicken Parm
From the kitchen of Rick Carvalho of OakCraft Pizza
3 large chicken breasts, halved
1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 eggs
1 cup bread crumbs
1 cup marinara sauce
1 cup fresh mozzarella cheese
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees, with the rack in the middle of the oven. Heat a pan to medium-high heat on the stove and coat with olive oil. Dip chicken breasts in egg, then coat in bread crumbs. Place chicken on the pan to brown each side. Remove chicken from the pan and place in an oven-safe baking dish. Layer chicken and marinara sauce throughout the baking dish. Cover with aluminum foil and bake the chicken at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and place fresh mozzarella slices on the chicken. FInish cooking until the internal chicken temperature reaches 165 degrees. Enjoy over your choice of pasta.
Featured photo: Rick Carvalho of OakCraft Pizza Courtesy photo.