In lust with pizza
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Oh. My. God. I used those words a lot yesterday, for various reasons, the last of which was pizza.
Nearly ten years ago, I visited Naples. Clearly, I had to eat pizza. What I ate was the Platonic ideal of pizza, the essence of pizza, a pizza so perfect I thought I would never be able to eat regular, mortal, layman’s pizza again.
Over time, of course, I got over my feelings about the Neapolitan pizza, and managed to bring myself to have its non-Italian sibling – and even enjoy it. But I never quite believed I would fall in love with pizza again – not the way I had the first time…
That is, until I went to La Perla. With its large wood-fired brick oven, Jordanian Little-Italy location and genuine-article Mozzarella di Bufala Campana made by the Chiari family (yep, that’s right – they know exactly who made it) in the Naples area, La Perla looked more than promising. I ordered the pizza carciofo, and impatiently awaited the bubbling bread oozing with tomatoes and mozzarella, scattered with artichokes, capers and olives.
Pizza Carciofo
It came. And then I did. The mozzarella is making me weep just thinking about it. La Perla’s website (porn for foodies) tells me that the tomatoes were imported from Italy too, which explains their sweet-yet-fleshy appeal. The artichokes were still firm and bite-y, not like their jar-preserved counterparts. The capers and olives were salty and smoky and grown up.
My pizza cost me precisely €11.50, which is possibly the best spent tenner-and-a-bit that I’ve shelled out this year.
And now I have to stop writing. Forget mouth watering. This is all getting a little intense.
Pizza Puttanesca ('whore's pizza' - nice...)
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oh woah..
ok, so I usually agree with you on food but when I went to La Perla I didn’t get this feeling. Moreover, I thought I liked Da Portare Via more. Maybe, I am now thinking, it had to do with the fact that I had been real busy the whole day and it was really late, it was one week for my final exams and we had to take the pizza somewhere, which made it a little cold-ish as well. Or maybe I need to go to Naples first and then have an opinion
Which leaves me with the conclusion that I should try La Perla again on a non-stressful-don’t-have-to-carry-it day, and trust the master!
Anyway, great post!