In 2004 owner, Lino Scidone and executive chef, Arbel El Sharafy, traveled to Rome to  discover the secrets of the Roman style pizza. They joined Agusto, the head pizzaiolo at Casamortaro (an unusual name for a restaurant), in Ponte Milvio, Rome. It’s our first cousin’s favourite pizza place in Rome and he was able to organise a meeting with the La camera team.

For two weeks and exhausting 12 hour days (so they say), they kneaded there way through many kilos of  dough until they perfected the art.  When they arrived back in Melbourne, Arbel tweaked the recipe just a touch to give the base a unique texture. Our secret that was given away earlier this year at one of our cooking classes. Subsequently our pizza has two major points of difference to many of the Neapolitan pizzas you see in Melbourne: the base is crispier with a very unique, rustic texture.

It’s also important to note that the dough is stored at least for 24 hours in the fridge which  slows down the activity of the yeast. At cool fridge temperatures, yeast behaves differently and produces are more desirable effect eg. better stretching of dough, improved texture etc.

Hardly a day goes buy when at least one customer says: ” It’s the best pizza we have ever tasted “, but what really impresses us is when we get the thumbs up from Italians from overseas! eg.The Ferrari Mechanics

A couple of recommendations…always good to start off with our garlic pizza with cheese and a few antipasti.

Most popular choice is the “Gustosa”. Ingredients: Fior Di Latte mozzarella, tomato base, Calabrese Salami (hot), Italian sauasge, caramelised onion and fresh basil.

My favourite is the Finochiona. Ingredients: Mozzarella, Finochiona salami, artichoke, cherry tomato and fresh rocket (pictured on bottom left).

Watch the making of the Pizza Patata

Click here to see our dine in pizza menu or if you would prefer we offer a selection of our pizza take away or home delivered to the Southgate and Southbank area.

See you soon!