Vicky Bhogal

Rosso Pomodoro, Notting Hill, London, W11
Little to grumble over for the price…

Having been recommended (by a Neapolitan) that it does the best and most authentic Italian-style pizza in London (wood and ingredients imported from Naples apparently), I had to try this place. Partly because it seems to impossible to easily find good pizza in the UK and also to see how it compared to the “fast food” pizza we are used to, both in terms of quality and speed.

So often the choice is between the inauthentic Americanised take-away version (e.g. Dominos/Pizza Hut) or the bland, corporate, “Italian” chain restaurant . Too often, the pizzas we eat are bland and greasy with a thick and leaden “dough” base topped with sugary red gloop and an all too heavy sprinkling of pre-grated, plastic "mozzarella" cheese. I'm certain that if the “real” mozzarellas were able to communicate with us humans (there’s something for the scientist to aspire to), they would form a syndicate to sue this cheese imposter for both falsely assuming an identity and GBH against foodstuffs. No doubt there are other grounds for litigation here, but I’ll need to consult my very expensive Cheese Lawyer to confirm.

Whilst we are on the subject of “convenience foods”, who is so damn lazy that they actually buy pre-grated cheese? If you have ever done so, then I suggest you seek repentance from your nearest place of worship. Sure, I can understand not making pastry, or bread, but pre-grated cheese? Back to Rosso Pomodoro. I visited the Notting Hill branch. Light and smartly decorated for the Pram brigade and wisely located adjacent to a nursery, with a wood-fired Pizza oven in prime position at the front of the unit. I ordered, perhaps ironically after that mini-cheese rant, a Neapolitan (or Napoli) which is simply a sourdough Pizza base with tomato sauce, garlic and oregano atop. I watched the cheery Italian, ipod in ears (can no activity be done without the ipod these days?) whip my pizza into shape and into the oven. The tomato sauce was liberally spooned over the base although, thankfully, not to the point of making it soggy. The base was not unnecessarily paper thin, but a solid sourdough base of medium thickness which required another minute in the oven, as it came out a little too floppy and chewy. The garlic added welcome punch to the rich, perhaps overly sweet, tomato sauce and herbaceous dried oregano mellowed it further. From walking in to leaving, the whole process took less than 8 minutes and cost less than £6 (no drinks). Overall, this is not a perfect pizza, but it was pretty damn good. I dream of the day where this sort of establishment is as omnipresent as Dominos.