| It was one of those evenings that featured Calgary’s blazing heat, when my friend and I stepped inside the modern coolness of Pulcinella’s luminous interior to experience the legend of authentic Napolitano pizza.
Bright white walls, white leather banquette seating and deep chocolate hardwood floors were punctuated with bursts of bright red and green in the wooden chairs. The volume was up, the atmosphere vibrant. Diners included children in highchairs along with couples and groups.
Native Italians take their love of food to the extreme. The country’s government regulates the quality of many key ingredients including balsamic vinegar, cold cuts and beef. To qualify for the Parmesan label, this type of cheese must come from cows raised in a certain area of Italy. They must be milked only once a day and be processed in a certain part of the country.
Luckily for Calgarians, we have an exacting, home-grown food-loving Italian restaurateur in our midst. When Domenic Tudda left for Italy in 2001 to become a master chef, he didn’t know he would one day use his family-owned space – previously occupied by the Stromboli Inn – to bring authentic artisan pizza to Calgary.
In order to even be considered for authenticity certification by the Associazione Pizzaioli Napolitani, Tudda had to train with the organization, provide restaurant blueprints and equipment lists and even fly its inspectors over to Canada to ensure he was delivering the quality rating awarded to only 20 restaurants outside of Italy. The elite rating offers diners a quality guarantee of sorts.
We watched the busy kitchen staff, visible in a circular work area surrounding the huge wood stove oven in the centre feeding pizzas steadily into the narrow opening. The $30,000 oven, made with stones from Mount Vesuvius, was brought over from Naples, as required by the APN. Tudda was forced to remove the back wall of the restaurant to accommodate its installation.
Pulcinella’s menu told us that all of its pizzas are topped with the restaurant’s own extra virgin olive oil and fresh basil. The topping list was fairly minimal, and stuck to traditional toppings like prosciutto and salamino for meats and a selection of fresh vegetables and herbs.
We started out with an order of fungi fritti ($11.95). The mushrooms were overshadowed by the heavy, deep-fried taste, but came in a divine Gorgonzola cream sauce. This particular appetizer would have been much better suited to accompany one of the four lighter salad entrées ($7.95 to $13.95) and we would have been better off to lead into our pizza meal with the steamed mussels ($10.95).
Our pizzas soon arrived with paper-thin crusts and large chunks of fresh ingredients resting on top. I preferred the Capricciosa ($15.95), topped with olives, prosciutto cotto ham, mushrooms, artichokes and balls of melted mozzarella. My companion favoured the Vegetali Grigliati ($14.95), with wide thin slices of zucchini, peppers, aubergine and more mozzarella. From both pizzas, you could inhale the aroma of fresh basil subtly enhancing the light tomato sauce.
Although Tudda admits some people find the rigour around quality to be somewhat gimmicky, he knows it is deeply rooted in the history of pizza. By following the quality control, we are able to enjoy the same pizza that’s been enjoyed in Italy for the last 300 years.
Pulcinella is located at 1147 Kensington Crescent N.W.; phone (403) 283-1166. |
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