I knew just what I needed. A pizza. From one of the top pizzarias in Campania, if not Italy. A pizza prepared by the team at Pepe in Grani - located in Caiazzo in the Caserta province. About an hour drive. I grabbed my jacket, car keys, and cellphone as I headed out the door.
Franco? ( Pepe - owner and pizzamaker ) Ciao, It's Karen. Are you in Caiazzo? I'm on my way....
On my way ...that familiar drive to Caiazzo. One in which during the last 15 minutes or so I make an attempt to decide which pizza I would like to order from Franco Pepe's menu. One that would be my choice to get me out of that Thursday funk that I had somehow gotten myself into.
I made my choice, or choices...but that didn't matter. Because on that particular evening, Franco Pepe turned my blah blah Thursday into a joyvedi to remember. How???
A chance to try one of his newest fried pizzas. One that I had tried a few weeks earlier...straight from the oven, Just for me....Sensazioni di Costeria - Sensations from the coast. A fried pizza with granulated garlic, red pepper flakes, anchovy cream. tomatoes, anchovies from Cetara, Italian parsley and lemon peel.
Then? Then, a pizza made up al momento...on the spot. Using ingredients that had arrived in pizzeria just a couple of hours earlier. Ingredients like mushrooms from Matese ( a nearby town)as well as fresh cheese similar to fior di latte. A touch of origano...And Pepe also had some confit tomatoes form Puglia and thought...'Let's make a pizza...' OMG!
Franco knows me well. He then asked, Karen, what pizza would you like????...One that would pick you up? ?
I thought back...thought back hard. Back on all the Franco Pepe pizzas that I had tried over the five or so years that have known Pepe.
Franco - The Nero Casertano...A margherita pizza made using the famous black pig from the Caserta province...
That is, was, and always will be one of my favorites....
Grazie, Franco!
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment