After hours on our feet and covering over 7 miles at The Vatican Museum and St. Peter's Basilica, we needed a rest. Not wanting to end up in a tourist trap across the street from St. Peter's, we walked through the Vatican walls and headed north for several blocks to Via Dei Gracchi and found Pizzeria Amalfi. It stood out because of it's large awning and double storefront width. The tables sitting along the sidewalk were full, but it was cooler inside, so we sat down with a sigh of relief. We had no expectations of eating, merely wanted cold drinks. After seeing pizza fly past, we adjusted our plans.
Since it was hot, it was easy to convince ourselves that prosciutto crudo and melone would be refreshing, and they were. It may not be easy to say one restaurant serves better prosciutto than another, but we were too tired to notice any perceptible difference, and would gladly order this again at Amalfi.
Being surrounded by pizzerie all over Rome, one thing that stands out is the look of the crust. Not all pizza are created equal and that is especially true of the crusts. Many of the crusts we had seen were flat and bore a resemblance to a cracker like flat bread. They appeared crisp, not chewy. Not so at Pizzeria Amalfi.
Once we saw the ingredients, we immediately needed to try the Zucchini flower pizza with mozzarella and anchovy. Until we bit into it, we had no idea that it had been made with fresh mozzarella. The creamy, milky taste was unmistakable and so much better than dried mozzarella. The flowers were sparse and dispersed throughout the pizza with an equally sparse number of anchovy, but they were just the right amount to allow the flavor of the cheese to dominate. The crust was chewy with a small inflated rim. We talked to the waiter about how we had been avoiding ordering a pizza in Rome, so he informed us that the reason the Amalfi pizza was different was that it was made in the Neapolitan tradition. Good to know. He was happy to tell us that it had also been made in a wood fired oven.
| Via dei Gracchi 5, 12 Rome, Italy |
| +39 06 397 33165 |
| email info@pizzeriaamalfi |
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