Well, Happy Belated New Year! It started in an interesting fashion for me. I received an email from the rental car company in Italy. I received a ticket for speeding. I was clocked going 77kph vs 70 kph speed limit. WOW!
No “grace speed limit” in Italy, or was it “he’s a tourist…let’s get ’em”?
In any event, let’s speed into the next blog post contents:
Nebaletan Word of the Day – Passione
I’m passionate about being passionate. I’ve rarely done anything half-assed. It could be argued that my passion is also my enemy sometimes, but that’s a story for another time.
In my last post (here) I mentioned that it takes passion to make a Great Pizza. The converse of that is pizza made by a shoomaneed which is MEH (not good, but there’s no bad pizza).
The Nebaletan word for passion is Passione! As a Nebaletan (Neapolitan-American), I am proud that the English word mirrors the Neapolitan (Italian) and goes all the way back to the Latin word PASSIO (see here) – See Mr. Boyle, I was paying attention in Latin Class!
Why such Nebaletan pride? Most Nebaletan that I know are passionate people. For me, I feel passion is necessary to survive. Like a fish in water, my passions keep me breathing.
BTW – there’s an excellent movie (more of a documentary) by the Nebaletan, John Turturro, about Neapolitan Dancers and Dancing, that you can find on Prime – Passione (2010 film) – Wikipedia.
So, what is shoomaneed? Need to wait for the next blog post!
Pizza Review – Local Pizza, Sarasota/Osprey, FL
In one of my last posts in 2023, I said that I was done with lists. Well, I guess not!
The “most local” pizzeria to our FL home is Local Pizza in Osprey. There is another place to “buy” pizza that is close called Pizzeria Della Nonna, but it really no longer a pizzeria since Della Nonna is only take out now.
Local Pizza is listed on two Sarasota lists:
- https://www.sarasotamagazine.com/eat-and-drink/best-pizza-sarasota
- https://s-r-q.com/best-pizza-in-sarasota/#local-pizza
Neither list has much detail and leaves the impression that they didn’t even try the pizza as much as look at their website.
We had tried Local Pizza during Covid as take-out. It was good, but I said I wouldn’t go back. But, after some thought, I wanted to give Local Pizza another try. COVID wasn’t fair to businesses like Local Pizza and wanted to give them another chance to be great.
| Date | 1/3/24 |
| Pizzeria | Local Pizza |
| City/Neighborhood | Sarasota, FL / Osprey |
| Website | https://thelocal.pizza/ |
| About Us | https://thelocal.pizza/about-us Not much detail. Lots of marketing mumble jumble. |
| Ambiance | High Ceiling. Exposed utilities, not too high though. Music, pleasant and not too loud. Not a joint! Likely an old gas station or convenience store like a Lawsons or Convenient (for those of us from the 1960’s Cleveland area). Two large gas hearth ovens, a turn off for me, they seem only semi interested in pizza, looked like a big, big gas fired Ooni Koda. Given the space, they could’ve easily gone Wood Fired! Ordered 2 pizzas – a Margherita and Procuitt & Arugula along with a Lemon Ceasar salad (which was outstanding). Very slow service for a mainly empty place, and I was getting irritated. |
| Style | New York-ish. Although it seems that the were aspiring for a Neapolitan pizza, but because of the gas “low-and-slow” gas oven, this was more New York than anything else |
| Shape | Round |
| Dough/Crust | Tickness – thin (for both pizzas) Cook – Soft and somewhat chewy near the cornicione, not as chewy in the middle Flavor – not much, although the Prosuit and Arugula had some, slight crispiness, the Margherita had no char, but was brown yielding my opinion of a NY style Flavor Part 2 – we had a whole pizza left over between both. After chilling overnight in the fridge, the doughy, yeasty flavor was much more apparent and pronounced. Too bad at the time of purchase it was not pronounced. |
| Cornicione | Crispy, no/little bubble, chewy The flavor of the dough was more apparent in the cornicione. The flavor was not as yeasty as the following day, but it was more bread-like. It reminded me of Balkan Bakery from one I was a kid in Ashtabula. This inconsistency between the flavor profile of the dough versus the cornicione was concerning to me and led me to believe that either they didn’t know what they were doing, or did know, but used little passion! |
| Toppings | Prosciutt and Arugula – the prosciutt was dry (old?), and sucked must of the mosture out of the sauce and cheese. Margherita – cheese, tasted as if there was both moozedell and the salty taste of pecorino, it was good and tasty, and the basil on top was fresh and pungent. |
| Sauce | Procuitt and Arugula – thin, seemed to have less flavor than Margherita, not sure if it was due to the arugula Margherita – thin and salty, could’ve been due to the cheese |
| Cheese | Cheese Type – Moozedell and likely Parmagian or Pecorino Cheese Distribution – All over for the parmagian or pecorino, splotchy for the moozedell, very well distributed, and the way the splotches looked, the moozedell could’ve been fresh and torn by hand |
| Cheese to Sauce Ratio | Procuitt and Arugula – Sauce – A little, Cheese – A little, Balance – too little of each Margherita – Sauce – Medium, Cheese – Medium, Balance – Good |
| Value | Procuitt and Arugula – Good at $21 for a 14″ (that’s about $15.50 for a 12″, but as you can see, it’s not a true 14″ pizza, though a 12″ is rarely a 12″ either) Margherita – Great – $16.80 for a 14″ (that’s about $12.50 for a 12″ equivalent) |
| Overall Rating | Good – despite my protestations above, the Margherita was good! It was especially good as cold, day-old pizza! On top, you add the excellent value. Unfortunately, Local Pizza wants to more than pizza. I think they would do themselves and their customers a better service to focus on one thing and being great at that. |
| Would I Go Back? | No – I know that I said this before, so, I guess never say never! |
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