Pizza = salad?

Sorry for the almost month delay since the last post, but I hope to have two posts in quick succession over the next couple of days.

"Try to look really excited" Da Chicco di Grano on Via degli Zingari, 6.  This place has become our "go-to" place in Monti as it is relatively cheap, good and has a great location near us.  It is huge so there is always space even if you can't sit outside.  I decided to increase the healthiness (or decrease the unhealthiness) of my pizza's recently and to branch out a little more so I tried this salad pizza on focaccia bread.  The problem with focaccia bread is that it is often brittle (see next post) so when you bite into the pizza everything falls off.  It is just too dry and thin.  It needs to be a little chewier. It was still quite enjoyable and you will notice the freshly squeezed orange juice next to my pizza attesting to my healthiness.  Overall it was good, nice fresh greens and buffalo mozzarella is just amazing all the time.

Price ~9      7.5/10

Service 8

Taste 7.5

Overall 8 

Trattoria Pizzeria Il lago e la luna.  Pizza wife and I decided to visit Castel Gandolfo which is near a volcanic lake (Albano) about half an hour by train south of Rome.  It is a beautiful location and we spent the day exploring and swimming.  Really worth a look and easy to get to from the main train station in Rome.  I was continuing with the somewhat healthy and thin crust theme and had a pizza with cherry tomatoes and cheese on a very thin crust.  (I also split my pizza with pizza wife so had much of her even more healthy pizza) It was a huge pizza but because the crust was thin and the toppings (far too) thin, it wasn't actually that much food.  We had a train to catch so we were pretty quick with our food and were there just as it opened and were the first ones served.  Not the best food but a nice location and quick service but a gigantic who obviously does love the food.

Price 10    7/10

Service 8

Taste 6.5

Overall 7/10

Da Francesco Piazza del Fico, 29 with pizza squire Ben and the new pizza wife and friend!  This place was incredibly busy so we were lucky to be not Italian and thus wanted dinner before 10pm before the rest of Italy descended on the restaurant.  The pizzeria is set in a very trendy and busy piazza just west of Piazza Navonna.  There weren't many pizza options and I couldn't resist going to my tried and tested 4 cheese. The pizza was actually very good and had almost enough gorgonzola which is saying something - so be warned if you don't like very much.  It had a good mix of medium thickness crust that I enjoy.  Doesn't make too much of a meal but doesn't feel like pita chips as many of the thin crust pizzas do.  There could have been more cheese as it didn't really reach the edge of the pizza but it was still good.  Service was average (as they spent most of the time avoiding us or hitting on our dinner companions) and many of the items on the menu weren't available.  But the appetizers were very interesting.  Good finger food.

 Price ~9     8/10

Service 6.5

Taste 8.5

Overall 8

Guest post by Danielle, the latest and newly certified pizza wife!

Tettarello

Pizza Margarita con buffalaFirst bite: Amazing.Thin crust, hint of basilCrust was a little bit salty and the edges a little crisp, but perfect that way. A little like eating chips, but I'm ok with that, since it is baked not fried. Naturally low carb, BC it's so thin. I also love that the crust wasn't soggy in any way, so I could pick up the slices to eat them.Not too much sauce or cheese, just right. The cheese was a little sweet, and very high quality, and flavourfull.The odd bite where you got a lot of cheese and sauce in one bite was amazing. I ate the whole thing and didn't feel full. It was just the right amount of pizza.

8.5/10

Stay tuned for some pizza adventures in Africa soon!

Dr. Chopper or: How I learned to stop worrying about my waistline and love the pizza

Here is a belated post as it took a while to get this photo.  This picture is from Castiglione della Pescaia in Tuscany along the west coast of Italy.  We went to visit Pizza Wife #1's cousins and to celebrate her birthday.  The weather was really hot so it was great to get out of Rome and do some swimming and work on my German which mostly consists of putting the word "dudelsack" in front of English words and hoping that it works.  It worked once and that was good enough for me.  As a special treat we got pizza and wine on the beach for dinner which was pretty awesome for me.  It kinda felt like it should have been my birthday.  I could definitely get used to having more beach pizza.

Cheese pizza

Price 10/10

Service 10/10

Taste 7/10

+1 for being on a beach!

+1 for great company!

+1 for being served on the beach and for a birthday beach party!

Overall 10/10

Greetings to the quest for the perfect pizza blog readers. To you, I am known as pizza wife number 1; the original pizza wife, who cannot satisfy her husband's cravings for pizza and thus, has agreed to share him (at dinner times) with other wives, more up to this colossal challenge. Or, unlike the title of this blog post - I am not quite ready to stop worrying about my waistline just yet :)

Despite John's gross protests, I do in fact dine on pizza with him about once a week. I steer clear of quattro formaggi, as I like a little variety and colour on my pizza :) I hope to therefore bring a different and fresh perspective to this blog. You probably haven't realised this from reading John's posts, but Italian pizza is varied and interesting! You can get a whole array of different vegetables, cold meats, even seafood - and all arranged in the simple yet delicious method that only real Italians can master. Personally, I love pizzas with fresh arugula (rugetta in Roma) or rocket lettuce on top. Mixed with mushrooms (fungi), tomatoes (pomodoro) or salmon (salmone) and cheese, this is a perfect pizza! Below, I am eating the Primavera pizza at Chicco di Grano Pizzeria on Via Del Boschetto 115 (just around the corner from us!). This is a non-cooked pizza, so it's on a foccacia bread (warm, fresh from the oven!), drizzled with olive oil. They then put fresh ingredients on top, without cooking them. The ingredients on the Primavera include tomatoes, artichokes (not in oil, but fresh - so much tastier!), rugetta and black olives, with some fresh slices of Mozzarella cheese. Think of it like a salad (John's reaction is generally: ARGH - not a salad!!!) on a foccacia. I would rate the taste and freshness of this pizza highly, but the overall rating comes down, due to typical Italian service at the restaurant:

Price: 9 euros 9/10

Service: 6/10

Taste: 8.5/10

Overall: 8 

After a very long week at work hosting a conference on perennial crops (unfortunately not perennial pizza) I decided that I deserved pizza (because I always deserve pizza).  We decided to go back to Chicco di Grano Pizzeria on Via Del Boschetto 115 near our house as it's close by and was good the lst time. It did not disappoint and although it isn't the perfect pizza, it's still pretty great.  Service was pretty slow but we weren't in a huge rush so we didn't mind.

Price ~9  8/10

Service 6/10

Taste 8.5/10

Overall 8/10

+1 for being in Monti!  

Here was another favourite of mine and is currently in my list for the top 3 pizzas in Rome. Via Della Pace Pizzeria. After the conference finished some of us went out for food and exploring.  I showed some of the group Piazza Navona and the area surrounding it.  They wanted some good food and this place has that plus a great view.  It isn't very Roman styled pizza as the crust is very thick and not burnt at all but it is still great.  We only ordered 4 pizzas for 6 people which I knew wouldn't work once they tasted the pizza and fortunately we ordered an extra shortly after taking a few bites.  We topped the night off with some great gelato and I think all in all it was a great success!

Pear, Gorgonzola, Mozzarella and Walnuts.  So perfect.

Price 10  8/10

Service 8/10

Taste 9.5/10

Overall 9/10

I will be back.

The next blog post will see another guest post and potentially some African pizza!