Man seeks woman, must be interested in film, pizza, breathing oxygen and converting protein intake into muscle energy.
Mark Corrigan, slight modification*
Don’t get me wrong almost everyone loves pizza, however hardly anyone seems to like ‘good’ pizza. You know what I mean, those gormless thoughts you have as you realise you want something quick to eat whilst in the chiller aisle. That aisle of glorious gourmet garbage ready within minutes, loaded with faux cheese and discs of meat. Which crust do I choose? Well you have either stodge or crunchy thin style to choose from. Either of which is almost certainly going to be topped with some overly sugared and salted ketchup sludgy concoction. Then you can choose how much of this drink-enabling disc you want, seemingly available any size you’d like up to around 2 foot across!
Pizza does deserve some of these features particularly when you look at the Americanised joyous creation that is Detroit Style Pizza. A pizza steeped in history from the 1940’s (and cheese grease, in the best way possible) which clearly influenced a lot of what we see now as common or takeaway pizza.
What makes a good Pizza?
I feel like I am opening Pandora’s box as I type this as it really is open to interpretation, perhaps the easiest way to answer this is whether it depends on what you want? Do you want a pizza that is heavy going, loaded with cheese and toppings? Or something a little lighter, more focused, ingredient orientated and made passionately? Well until recently I thought that pizza is just pizza and generally more toppings is better.
How travelling changed my appreciation of simple food
As I’ve aged, travelled and understood food my perception of what is actually good has changed. I will focus on pizza in this post as previously visiting Italy we stayed in Rome. And enjoyed a great deal food, but didn’t particularly seek a pizza fix (which actually is a daft thing to do – see Roman Pizza). However the next time we embraced Italy we flew to Bologna AKA ‘La Grassa’ meaning, literally, the fat! Not for one moment would I suggest that Bologna is precisely the pinnacle of perfect pizza. But I certainly enjoyed what we found not far from Stazione Centrale.
Those of you unsure of where to go but want to enjoy a fine cultured country such as Italy without worrying about your spondulicks, go to Bologna (there will be a post about this shortly!).
Those of you going to Bologna and want a good pizza, I mean a pizza that is actually like a proper pizza. Then you should, if not must, go to Pizza Export. Just north of Stazione Centrale on the corner next to the roundabout at the end of Via Franco Bolognese.
You may be asking what did this place do right? Well my friend its basically a case of doing things well. To do something well requires focus and reducing distraction. You can be jack of all trades, but you won’t be a master of anything (at all).
You see in Italy they protect the very things that matter to them, pizza is important and must be made with respect. They legislate in great detail about how it should be made and if your selling a Pizza Margherita you’d better be making it correctly (see this PDF). Upon visiting Pizza Export you can see immediately that your going get something quite amazing. The oven pretty much dominates the front of house, the smell of wood smoke in the air is intoxicating. The menu options are not limited, but focused. Not too many single ingredients are going on a pizza.
You see a simple Pizza Margherita is all about balance and the quality of its ingredients. The dough is tender in centre and the crust is chewy but definitely not stodge. The cheese has just about melted, no excess faux cheese grease here! The sauce is pretty much just Tomato, no herbs or garlic. It is simply dressed, prior to be being cooked, with some olive and basil only. Each ingredient must compliment the other.
