Piazza Castello is a wonderful place. As I sit writing this, facing via Garibaldi, the castello is to my right and I am surrounded by 4 lovely fountains.
The Italian sun is out and I have a warm feeling all over. The antica foccceria Ligure makes one of the best pizzas that I have ever had. And while the sun warms up the outside, the two ‘pizza al taglio’ work within. My Italian experience has been filled with a million memories – the walk down via Garibaldi taking in the life around. At every 20 steps there is a gelateria, quaint coffee houses with umbrellas and chairs laid out on the street. You can sit, enjoy your café and be a part of the whole scene. Towards the end of via Garibaldi, on the left you will find via Perrone where the Antica foccceria is located. You get greeted by a pretty girl and a young boy, clad in white eparons standing behind a beautiful display of pizzas. For me the larger the choice, the harder the decision – at least here!
If you chance to look up you’ll see the list of pizzas hand painted on the wall. There is also a corner with Asterix and Obelix feeling energized after having some of the pizzas. This is definitely my kind of place! There is not much to say about the décor which is ok by me. There is also no wine list – just a cheap fridge with iced tea and the regular fizzy cans – which is also fine; because when you get to bite into the pizza –you instantly transpose to another world.
I ordered me one with wurstel and then followed it up with pizza con salami – this was on my first visit.
Obviously that wasn’t enough and so I went there again another day and ordered the speciality of the house ‘recco’ which is a thin pizza stuffed with stracchino cheese.nothing much to it – just plain simple flimsy pieces of bread sandwiching a thin layer of cheese. One bite and you see the goddess of purity waltz on your tongue. Each flavour is easily identifiable, the flour, the cheese, the sublte salt and the sweetness that comes through when you chew. Whenever simple jobs are done in their true simple manner – you get extraordinary class. The pizza bread is wafer thin but not wafer crisp, it is soft and chewy. The ‘Recco’ was delightful but I was hungry for more like I always am in this place. I ordered another slice with zucchini, tomato and aubergine. This one was a lot ‘breadier’ but there was a light airy ness to the bread. You go through the top of the vegetables, soft bread and as your teeth bite through you get a soft crunch at the bottom. It tells you what a fine art ‘focacceria’ is. Two simple textures in one piece of pizza, top airy and fluffy, bottom soft and crunchy – mind you its not crisp and crackling – the base doesn’t snap in your mouth – it crunches!!
I could go on endlessly on the bread but I would miss the vegetables completely.
I was happy to see that the vegetables were not chunky but thin sliced and all held together with a formidable amount of cheese. The cheese again is not ‘heavy’ – its soft, creamy, milky, dreamy mozzarella. It’s the kind of cheese that triggers a chain of sensations. The taste buds sense it as one of the best mozzarellas, they gleefully relay the message to the brain and the brain is an unprecedented way releases hormones that trigger thoughts like ‘I must thank the cows for doing such a wonderful job with the milk’
And while all these senses are busy babbling in animated conversation, I happen to bite into a piece of the tomato; a pleasant sourness is released in the mouth which increases saliva flow to 3X! Now my brain turns into a fishmarket of thoughts – Flour flour! texture texture! Crunch! Soft! Cheesy mozzarella! Cows! Tomatoes! They are screaming their lungs out its called ‘acidita’(pronounced Aa-Chee-Dee-Ta) in Italian. Now I know what Gianni, our somellier, was talking in wine class – acidita = 3X saliva= 3 times juice in the mouth = 3 times flavour perception = flavour high! These wily Italians sure know a thing or two about a tease.
Lets breath here a moment and look around. Piazza Castello is till as wonderful as it was when I started to write this. Now along with the fountains I am surrounded by three to four couples who are sharing the bench on top of each other. They are on a different trip, a different elevation. But what do they know? They haven’t tried the pizza experience around the corner – they probably don’t know what 'trip' really is and I am not telling. I’m taking back the tomatoes to
