Pizza Rossa in the City

Pizza Rossa is the hot new pizza joint that’s set to feed our hungry city workers during their feverish lunch hour. Serving pizza al taglio (by the slice) it promises to be a healthy, delicious and easy option to combat the overpriced, ready-packaged alternatives that saturate the market and dominate our taste buds.

Pizza Rossa is the brainchild of London-based chartered engineer Corrado Accardi, who says: “Pizza is no longer regarded as junk food, but as a high quality option in the lunchtime grab-and-go market, because it provides a complete meal. Pizza Rossa proves just that.” The joint aims to serve premium quality, Italian-style takeaway pizza by the square slice, an aspect wholly supportive of the grab-and-go ease (none of those sloppy New York slices a lá Joey Tribbiani!). The dough itself is prepared in a unique (and secret) way, using low levels of gluten, yeast and salt to create a light, easily digestible meal. The effect is a texture not too different from pastry: crisp, airy, with a melt-in-your-mouth finish.

With the toppings the emphasis is on quality of the ingredients, from Italian-sourced tomatoes and mozzarella to fresh, chargrilled vegetables. Some of the options available will include a standard margherita with fior di latte cheese, buffalo mozzarella, goat’s cheese with walnut, speck and honey, and sliced, roasted aubergine. Parma ham, rocket and Tamia olive oil are optional extras. The buffalo mozzarella was soft, creamy, and yet quite acidic in its flavour, pitted against the sweet tang of the tomato base. I imagine the sweetness of the final result may not be everyone’s idea of pizza, but it hits the spot with its bold flavours and should certainly satisfy the taste buds for the afternoon.

Also on offer will be a couple of layered pasta dishes, again with the emphasis on simple, good quality flavours, such as plain tomato, and cheesy mushroom and aubergine. The lasagna sheets are comfortingly soft with a crispy topping from the oven, providing good textural diversity in the bite. Seasoned and satisfyingly cheesy, its pasta dishes confirm Pizza Rossa as a purveyor of strong Italian flavour.

An array of San Pallegrino soft drinks and Peroni accompany the sweet, beautifully textured pizza slices, with a small, in-store van also serving Kimbo coffee. For the sweet tooth, tiramisu will answer your prayers, as well as small shortcrust pastry slices covered in chocolate or jam. The chocolate slice was a bit on the dry, cloying side, but shared with a lunching pal could potentially satisfy hunger and office relations.

The particularly appealing quality is that Pizza Rossa does not pretend to be anything it is not, and nor does it overdo itself. Its sparse furniture of thickset wooden tables and red plastic stools contribute to its clean, simple premise – it merely wants to provide a cheap, tasty alternative to the standard £5 tub of bland rice (at £2.95 to £3.95 a slice). Such unadulterated honesty should be backed and supported, because Accardi’s got big plans to dominate lunchtime in the square mile.

Alex Finch

For further information about Pizza Rossa, 4-12 Whittington Avenue, EC3V 1AB visit here.