Pizza Forum

I went to Naples just after New Years this year and made a troubling discover there. I like Neapolitan pizza better than Roman. Roman pizza has a thin crust, the thinner it is the more Roman it is, whereas Neapolitan has a thick crust. Truly good Neapolitan pizza has that thick crust but is light at the same time, not an easy feat to accomplish. After months of searching and trying restaurants in Rome that claimed to make pizza just like they do in Naples, I finally met a guy from Naples who said he knew what I was looking for. Skeptical at first, I agreed to give it another shot.

We met with a few other friends near the Colosseum and as we were rounding the building I asked if the place was far, to which my new Neapolitan friend, Guido, simply pointed up ahead. I was again skeptical as I have a general rule that anything within two blocks of a monument is going to pretty bad. We walked into the restaurant which is very large and commercial looking, again, skeptical.

Guido ordered a round of appetizers for the table and when the food arrived some of my fears were put to rest, although the real test was yet to come. We had a pizzele, which reminded me of fried dough like you would get at a county fair cover in confectioner sugar, but these had tomato sauce on them, very tasty. Accompanying those were balls of fried mozzarella, also tasty, and a personal favorite, fiori di zucca, zucchini blossoms, although these were empty rather than stuffed with mozzarella and anchovies like the Roman version. After this round I was impressed, and then the pizza came.

As my roommate Domenico pointed out you can tell immediately if the dough is good by pushing down a bit with your thumb and watching it return to its original form quickly. So even before the first bit we liked where things were going. Once we all dug in everyone agreed the pizza was as good as Guido had said. It brought me right back to the place I went to in Naples where I waited an hour just be seated but felt it was entirely worth the wait, this however, is just on the other side of town.

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