| rev:text
| - Right off the bat I can tell you that I am not a pizza elitist. I'm just a guy who absolutely loves pizza in all it's shapes, sizes, flavors and permutations from the absolute greasy of the greasiest, to a perfectly flat crusted, gourmet-topping-covered pie.
A welcomed addition to what some might say Toronto's burgeoning Neopolitan-style (read: http://bit.ly/pnrVnr) pizza craze is Pizza e Pazzi - loosely translated as "Pizza and Crazy" - in the increasingly popular Corso Italia neighbourhood of St. Clair West.
Planning a Friday dinner with my lovely mother, whom I had not had a standard dine-out night with in quite some time, I thought I'd give PeP a shot given the wonderful review posted on BlogTO (http://bit.ly/q9MuDJ). Although they accept reservations via a dedicated e-mail address and phone number, I was told that the place wouldn't be busy enough to warrant a 7:00 PM reso for this particular Friday night. Cool.
Upon entering, we were sat immediately. My first impressions, visually, were quite pleasing. A definitely casual environment, lots of seating with an open kitchen and the piece-de-resistance wood burning pizza oven in the back makes me feel comfortable and yet, hungry. No pretension here!
Checking out the menu, despite the requisite offerings of salads, pastas and mains, my eye is caught to a few important pieces of information that sets my mouth a-water. In addition to being a certified, authentic creator of Neapolitan pizza there are three important rules: "no pineapple * no half/half * no subsitutions [sic]". This is great because I abhor pineapple on my pizza and it means these people are SERIOUS.
We are first brought a wire-cone of freshly baked bread & pita triangles, which go very well with the easy to pour canisters of EVOO on every table and the delightful surprise of a trio of antipasto, including a couple green olives, marinated mushrooms and another tasty veg spread that we quickly devoured without even having ordered a thing!
Buoyed by hype from the BlogTO review, I don't hesitate to order us the Fried Risotto Balls with Fior-di-Latte mozzarella. They arrive minutes later with a Bruschetta garnish and we dig in. WOW. The rice is perfectly cooked, and the cheese is both gooey and adds a delightfully creamy texture. Coupled with a great crispy deep fried-ness, these tasty (albeit quite heavy) balls are a win.
Okay, now on to the star of the show. I take complete control of the meal here and order the standard Margherita, which all pizza-heads know is the standardized test of a purportedly authentic Neapolitan style pie. Our pizzas are served to us atop giant pizza style plates with the word "Pizza" strewn across in all sorts of kitchy fonts. Nice touch.
Upon my utensils hitting the pie, which meets my expectations at first glance with a smattering of melted buffalo mozzarella, risen and slightly blackened crust, light-red tomato sauce and delicately adorned basil leaves, I can already tell I'm in for a treat. I cut my first slice and realize immediately that a new contender for the Toronto pizza crown has arrived. The dough is soft and fluffy without being mushy, the tomato sauce is tangy, tasty and kind of addictive and the mozzarella is the slippery white gold that keeps me on a steady rhythm of intense pizza consumption.
Having devoured our pies, sopped up the remaining tomato sauce using the thick crust and paid our (reasonably priced, I might add) bill, we both agree that Pizza e Pazzi is absolutely deserving of it's namesake; Yes, they have pizza here. And yes, it is absolutely crazy if you don't take a date, loved one or perhaps a solo mission over to one of the best new authentic Neapolitan pizza places in Hogtown!
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)