Browsing by Category: Pizza

Campofilone’s tagliolini with white truffles at Roscioli.

My friend Şemsa, chef and owner of Kantin in Istanbul made her first trip to Rome this week. When I found out she was coming for five days, I immediately began making a list of the essential places any chef, cook, food writer, or gastronome should visit while in Rome. It was (more…)

Lasagna pizza at La Gatta Mangiona.

Naples may be Italy’s pizza capital, but Rome has greater variety to offer. There’s the classic Roman pie (round, flat and thin with a crispy crust), the ever popular and usually quadrilateral pizza al taglio (pizza by the slice), and now there are a growing number of boutique pizzerias (more…)

The Oxford Companion to Italian Food defines pizza as “a flattened lump of bread dough, usually round, flavored with whatever comes to hand–oil, cheese, herbs, or onion–and cooked in a hot wood-fired oven.” I’m with the author for the first third of (more…)

Wild nettle and pecorino pizza at Pizzaiolo in Oakland.

Without a geographic specification, the word pizza is completely generic. Of course, it conjures up the notion of sauce and melted cheese on dough. But there are exceptions that defy this definition and the texture of the crust, size and shape of the pie, cooking methods, and toppings can vary wildly from place to place. In Italy (more…)

Nectarine tart with rose ice cream.

Earlier this month I traveled to the Bay Area for my friend Erin’s wedding. Her husband Chris is a cook at Chez Panisse and he set me up with a stage in the kitchen, one of the most incredible places on the planet. There is a mixture of permanent staff and (more…)