Thoughts on Italy’s Best Pizza
My apartment in Gavirate is located right next to a pizza restaurant called Ristorante (Restaurant) Vecchio Ottocento — the view from my balcony is quite literally the garden terrace of the restaurant. When I first saw this, I was really excited, because I love pizza, so having a pizza place close by felt perfect for days I didn’t want to cook. I soon found out, though, that Vecchio Ottocento is not an ordinary pizza restaurant. According to my landlord, and multiple work colleagues, Vecchio Ottocento has the best pizza in Italy. The restaurant has won multiple national awards for its pizza, and the owner supposedly shares the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest pizza (I wasn’t able to verify this last claim).
So, when my parents came to visit, I reserved a table at Vecchio Ottocento for their first night, so we could try the best pizza in Italy. The restaurant’s atmosphere was really nice. We sat outside in the garden terrace you can see from my balcony, there were flowers lining the seating area, and it was lit by old-street-light-inspired lamps. The menu was extensive, and had every kind of pizza you could possibly imagine. It even included a cute little story on the origin of pizza. We ordered a seafood antipasti with a side of focaccia to share, three “lemon sodas,” and three pizzas: my father ordered a pizza with mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, and arugula; my mother ordered a pizza with olives, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, and anchovies; and I ordered a pizza with ham, mozzarella, and mushrooms.
The antipasti was amazing — my mother oohed and aahed after every bite, and all three of us definitely at some point begrudgingly said “you can have it if you really want.” The “lemon soda” was a kind of canned sparkling lemon water that reminded us of a drink we used to order at our favourite restaurant in Tanzania, so that was really nice. The focaccia was not what we had expected, but it was still really good and went really well with the antipasti. And finally, the pizzas were huge and filled with toppings, but when it came down to it, they didn’t actually taste that great. It was honestly quite disappointing. They were decent pizzas, but they weren’t special, and definitely not worthy of the title of “best pizza in Italy.”
The whole situation made me really curious about what makes a pizza “good.” After thinking about it some, I think there are four components of a good pizza: the crust, the cheese, the toppings, and the preparation. The crust is the base of the pizza, and is extremely important to the overall texture. The cheese is the most crucial ingredient, and a central part of what makes pizza pizza. The toppings provide the additional flavour that makes pizza so great. The spread and amount of the toppings is also important for the experience. Lastly, the way pizza is prepared has a large impact of the taste and texture of the pizza. A wood fire oven is the most traditional form of cooking, but there are a variety of baking methods that melt the cheese, bake the crust, and cook the toppings differently.
The pizzas we had at Vecchio Ottocento had a medium thickness crust with medium dough density. I personally prefer fluffier dough, but I assume that the middle ground for both thickness and dough density is key to being a crowd-pleaser. The cheese they used was mozzarella, which is supposedly the best cheese for pizzas. So far so good. The problem for us came with the toppings and preparation. Some of the toppings on the pizzas we ordered weren’t fresh, which really affected the overall taste. The edges of the pizza were also a little too burnt, which made the pizza a little hard. All that being said, the amount of toppings was really good, so I can imagine how (if you pick the pizza with fresh toppings) the toppings may actually be a plus for the overall pizza. Some people also like slightly burnt pizza.
Overall, I think we weren’t in awe of the pizza at Vecchio Ottocento because it didn’t meet our expectations or preferences for two (and a half — the half is for the dough density) of the four components of a good pizza. Going in, thinking we were going to eat the best pizza of our lives, probably didn’t help with setting realistic expectations, so that probably also contributing to our experience. Nonetheless, we had a really great night and meal. We even went back the next evening for dinner again, though none of us ordered pizza that time. Maybe one day I’ll find a pizza restaurant that meets all my pizza preferences and exceeds expectation. Until then, I’ll stick with Vecchio Ottocento for their gnocchi, “lemon soda,” and seafood antipasti.
