Rescuing an Italian classic
Nonsolo pizzaul. Grójecka 20cTel. 824 1273Hours: Monday-Friday, noon-10 p.m.Saturday-Sundays:2 p.m.-10 p.m.
Pizza doesn't travel well.
While it might be known around the world as the ultimate fast food (Americans consume 100 acres of pizza each day), the moment pizza went mobile, everything went horribly wrong.
First there was the 2,000-kilometer migration pizza made from its birthplace in Naples, Italy, to Warsaw, Poland. Whereas the Italian variety has a thin and crispy base, with few toppings, good-quality tomato sauce and just a spartan sprinkling of mozzarella (or often no cheese at all), the Varsovian pizza appears to have transmogrified into an entirely new species.
More akin to its deep-dish American cousin, the Polish pizza is typically greasy and chewy, topped with bottled blood-red tomato sauce, cubed bits of Kiełbasa and various other mystery meats. This mountain of indigestion is then strangled to death in melted cheese.
An equally disastrous experience for this ancient Italian dish has been the evolution of home delivery. Getting a Super Supreme with extra anchovies delivered to your door may be convenient but the 10-minute car trip ensures that by the time it arrives the pizza you ordered is simply a shadow of its former self. A limp and tepid thing, certainly not the crispy hot delight it should be. The base, which moments earlier was breathing steam and flavor, takes on all the characteristics of the cardboard box: tough and chewy, with the cheese providing rubbery resistance.
Fortunately, Warsaw's pizza lovers can rejoice again as help is finally at hand. In a small glass-fronted shop on ulica Grójecka is Nonsolo Pizza, the capital's only wood-fired pizza shop. How this restaurant has remained a secret for so long is beyond me. It opened in May 2000 and since then has found its niche with the city's younger crowds. But where are the rest of Warsaw's pizza connoisseurs?
On a recent freezing night, six of us popped into Nonsolo Pizza for dinner. We left satisfied and promising to return for more.
Nonsolo has all the ingredients of a pizza restaurant more akin to something you find on a Roman street than in Warsaw's Ochota district. First there is the bell-shaped brick oven that dominates the restaurant. A small glowing pile of hot wood coals keeps it firing. The restaurant's pizzaioli presses the dough out by hand on the floured bench, scatters on a small amount of topping, a smattering of mozzarella and then pushes it to the back of the oven to cook on its hot stone base.
According to Nonsolo's owner, Bożena Busalacchi, who lived in Italy for 25 years and spent six months at pizza school in Genoa, the perfect wood-fired pizza takes only three minutes to cook to perfection. She's right.
"It's just like the pizzas they serve in Italy," said Kasia as she munched on her zł. 21 "ortolana" pizza with mushrooms, garlic and Parmesan cheese. She was also taken with the prices, a bargain for her native Łódź, let alone a thriving metropolis like Warsaw.
David No. 1. was just as smitten with his Hawaiian pizza, while David No. 2. inhaled his vegetarian pizza with extra ham and a bite of chili with sheer delight. My capricciosa was an equally scrumptious mix of ham, mushrooms, capsicum and olives. Best of all was the pizza base: Light and crisp, with a soft-centered crust that had bubbled up in the oven. Nonsolo also does home delivery but fresh is clearly always best.
The only disappointment of the night were Jim's gnocchi formaggi. Nonsolo has a respectable selection of pastas, but the gnocchi were mushy and the cheese sauce was overpowered with garlic.
Also available (but not listed on the menu) are starters such as bruschetta and desserts including tiramisu; the baked cream dessert, panna cotta; and canolo Siciliano, crisp pastry cones filled with sweetened ricotta cheese mixed with nuts, raisins and dried fruits. So if you've got a sweet tooth, make sure you ask for some dessert! Draft and bottled beers are available, plus a small selection of rather robust wines.
The good news is that, as Bożena's Italian husband is missing his Genoan breakfast of cappuccino and sandwiches, an extension to Nonsolo's opening hours to include breakfast is in the cards; so watch this space ...
While Nonsolo won't win any awards in the interior design department - unless you think a white-tiled floor, a few potted plants and basic tables with metal chairs have become so dated they're chic again - its pizza win hands down!
Dinner for six, not including drinks, came to the bargain price of zł. 81 ($20).
Celia Barnes
